The topic of last week's HomeTrend Forecast was social networks.  This week, I'll be discussing social networking's younger sibling, Twitter. 

Although it has been around since 2006, Twitter is still very much in its infancy.  According to research done by Pew Internet, as of December 2008, 11% of online American adults were using a service like Twitter or another service that allowed them to share updates about themselves or see the updates of others.   

A more recent study conducted by the Online Harris Poll revealed that only 5% of Americans (whether they are Internet users or not) are currently using Twitter.  

On the other hand, Twitter is being embraced by HomeTrend Influentials.  In an online survey I conducted with my proprietary HomeTrend Influentials Panel in early May, 30% of the respondents reported that they have joined Twitter.  A third joined Twitter because they were curious or thought it looked fun and interesting.  A quarter of them joined Twitter because a friend asked them to or because all of their friends are on it.   A handful joined because they are following a specific person (for example, one HIPster is a huge fan of Zappos shoes so she follows the CEO of Zappos) or a specific cause or because they want to stay on top of breaking news.

So far, most of the HIPsters who have joined Twitter are not "tweeting" on a regular basis.  Several of them joined recently and are still trying to figure out how it works.  Several "tweet" at least once a day.  The majority, however, use Twitter rarely, if ever.  (In contrast, the majority of the HIPsters who regularly visit a social networking web site like Facebook or MySpace log on at least once a day.) 

It could be that the reason most of the HIPsters who have joined Twitter are not using it very often is because they are just not in the habit yet or it could be that Twitter is turning out to be too much of a hassle.  That is what an account executive at an ad agency here in Phoenix discovered when she tried to make Twitter part of her daily routine. Here is what she wrote in her April 24 blog: "I'm never on Twitter long enough to really follow anyone, and when I did "tweet," none of my followers tweeted back. It seemed as though one constantly has to be online with Twitter to really keep up, and since I'm working most of the day, I don't know how that's possible."

Only time will tell whether Twitter will be widely embraced - and more importantly, used - by the HIPsters and the mainstream population.