Researchers have used data from Tweets from the 48 continental United States (but oddly, not Alaska or Hawaii) to determine what Americans are drinking by region.
The study was revealed in a chapter of the book The Geography of Beer. Researchers looked at data from over a million geotagged tweets and used that data to figure out what beers were most popular and where.
Only cheap light beers and lagers were included, but they also looked at tweets to see which kind of alcohol is most popular. On the east coast of the United States, Bud Light reigned supreme, while the west coast preferred Coors Light.
Wine was more popular on the coasts, while beer drinkers predominantly made up the middle of the country. The data doesn’t necessarily show conclusively what the most popular drinks were in an area, only what the most popular drink amongst people likely to post about their drinking habits on social media sites.
As mentioned, the drinkers in Alaska and Hawaii were not included in the study, I’m not sure why, because I would love to know what a crab fisherman drinks and tweets about.
Still, it does show the potential for market research using social media. It isn’t just our alcoholic adventures advertisers are interested in. With more than half a billion tweets posted a day, there is a lot of potential data for companies to mine there.
Of course, most studies won’t be as gardner as much attention as what is arguably humanity’s longest running vices.
[Photo Credit: Scott Beale]
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