Social networking among US broadband users has grown an impressive 93% since 2006, and has increased the amount of time people spend communicating online 18%, to 32% of total online time, according to a new report from Netpop Research.
The report also reveals that at the same time as online communications has increased, the time spent on traditional forms of online entertainment has declined 29%, and is now down to 19% of total online time.
Netpop said that although many types of social media are used by less than 10% of broadband users, seven million users are ‘heavy’ social media contributors, who do at least six activities – such as blogging, microblogging, social networking and photo/video sharing – and connect with 248 people on a one-to-many basis in a typical week.
Additional research findings:
- Email is the most popular mode of communication, designed for one-to-one interactions.
- Instant messaging, texting and social networking are dramatically higher among teens than in the overall broadband population.
- Photos are the most common type of information shared online, while podcasts are the least common.
- Blogs are more likely to be shared with co-workers and the public than other forms of shared content.
- Heavy contributors are likely to be younger and are just as likely to be women as men; they are more likely to contribute content that reflects their interests and opinions.
- 54% of micro-bloggers post or ‘tweet’ daily and 72% of micro-bloggers under age 18 post or ‘tweet’ daily
Towards the end of March, eMarketer predicted that global spending on social media advertising would grow 17.3% this year (see Global adspend on social media predicted to rise 17.3% in 2009).
In a separate report published in February, eMarketer revealed that the social networking audience was growing rapidly, up 11% year on year in 2008 (see Social networking users soar).
