Gmail users tweet twice as much

A recent study by RapLeaf shows that Twitter and LinkedIn are at least twice as popular amongst Gmail users as they are with Hotmail, Yahoo and AOL users.

RapLeaf looked at social network memberships of 120,000 users of AOL, Gmail, Hotmail, and Yahoo accounts to gauge where they spend time online and found that AOL and Gmail users tend to favor Facebook, while Hotmail and Yahoo users tend to use Facebook and MySpace equally. The study also showed that within that user-base, Twitter is the third-most popular social network, followed by LinkedIn.

Social networks versus email users breakdown

Results

• Over 29% of AOL and Gmail’s user base have Facebook memberships, but only around 13% have MySpace memberships
• Around 20% of Hotmail and Yahoo users are on Facebook and MySpace
• On a percentage basis, Twitter and LinkedIn are more than twice as popular with Gmail users as they are with AOL, Hotmail, and Yahoo users

MySpace, Twitter, and LinkedIn versus Facebook

Results

• Twitter is around 4-5x less popular than Facebook with AOL, Hotmail, and Yahoo users
• Hotmail and Yahoo users tend to have similar social network preferences
• The substantially low user-base of LinkedIn can be attributed to high probability that LinkedIn users register with their business emails instead.

Are Hotmail and Yahoo users a little behind? Is MySpace’s known connection to music the reason why Yahoo users favor it? Are Gmail users more hip and tech-savvy? Although this study cannot answer all our questions, it has certainly provided a somehow clearer insight. We’d love to read your thoughts on this.