According to a new study released Thursday, the number of people who check their social media pages more than once a day has more than doubled in the last year. The data for The Social Habit, a joint national survey conducted by Edison Research and Arbitron, comes from more than 1,700 people who were interviewed over the phone in February.
The study revealed some very interesting trends.
- Three in ten people surveyed stated they check their profile “several times a day”, classifying them as frequent social media users.
- Almost 90 percent of social media users have a Facebook page. Second is MySpace (54 percent), followed by Twitter (19 percent) and LinkedIn (17 percent).
- Women make up 57 percent of frequent social network users.
- Almost half of frequent social media users are in the 18-34 demographic.
- A quarter of frequent social network users are likely to follow a company or brand online.
- Frequent social network users spend an hour more online than they do watching TV.
- Two-thirds of frequent social network users access YouTube.
- Half of frequent social network users check their profiles on a mobile device.
We’re starting to get a clearer picture about who uses social media, and how. An estimated 39 million people check social media more than once a day. These are big numbers that can yield endless business opportunities.
The numbers for MySpace users may be a little misleading. According to a Neilson survey released in May, MySpace’s usage has declined by almost 25 percent in the last year while Facebook and Twitter have enjoyed huge increases.
As the trend shows, the number of people who use social media heavily is going to continue to rise over the next year. With products such as the iPad (which was introduced after the data was collected) flying off the shelves, the number of people who check social media on a mobile device is going to increase dramatically.
As these numbers continue to increase, you can take full advantage of a growing media. Are you going to tweak your social media marketing plan? What will be different?
