I was asked a very interesting question earlier today – A colleague asked me how many twitter accounts there are in Devon? To which my reply was (slightly paraphrased):
“Hmmmm, I’m not sure to be honest…however we could provide a crude figure for the number of facebook users or potential reach using the advertising feature….we could then, again this is crude but use the worldwide ratio of twitter to facebook users and apply that to our figures and this would give us a best guess figure, at least it is sort of logical…”
“That sounds like it could be a useful starting point, let me know what you find out.”
So I did exactly what i suggested and the result of which I include below…It is crude I know but very interesting, even if we take a very conservative position on the figures they are actually still very significant.
More than 800 million users worldwide – more than 350 million active users currently access Facebook through their mobile devices.
Facebook Estimated reach in Devon – 488,820 people
- Who live within 40 kilometres/25 Miles of Exeter, Barnstaple, Tiverton, Sidmouth, Tavistock, Bideford, Newton Abbot, Ivybridge, Dawlish, Teignmouth, Okehampton, Dartmouth, Kingsbridge, Salcombe, Exmouth, Lynton, Lynmouth, Bovey Tracey, Ashburton, Braunton, Cullompton, Honiton, Ilfracombe, Ottery Saint Mary or Totnes
- Figures are based on users who are aged 13 or over.
- The towns listed are those which I used and found and which i think represent a good coverage of Devon in terms of the 25 mile radius…
More than 380 Million users worldwide – Ratio of twitter to facebook therefore is just under 50%.
If we apply the crude formula to the facebook figures for Devon then we would expect to see approximately 240,000 twitter users.
For context – the population of Devon is just under 750,000 – using the County Council boundary – therefore excluding Plymouth and Torbay…although it is likely that some Plymouth and Torbay users will be included due to the geography. It shows that a significant proportion – around 65% of residents are allegedly on Facebook…and approximately 30%-35% are allegedly on Twitter.
I’ll say it again, it’s crude but it is very interesting…
Filed under: Local Government, Social Tagged: Devon, facebook, interesting, stats, twitter 
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