Today 110 million Americans, or 60% of the online population, use social networks, and that number is fairly conservative, according to a new study by Anderson Analytics. It’s conservative because instead of counting unique users or everyone who has an account, as many estimates do, the Anderson study counted only people who have used a social network at least once in the past month.
Users tend to spend a lot of time on social networks. The average social networker goes to social sites five days a week and checks in about four times a day for a total of an hour each day. A super-connected 9% stay logged in all day and are “constantly checking out what’s new.”
Social networkers’ feelings about brands online in general are more positive than the researchers thought they would be. Some 52% of social networkers had friended or become a fan of at least one brand. When asked if seeing a brand on a social network makes them feel positive or negative about that brand, an almost-equal 17% said positive and 19% said negative. The other 64% were neutral or didn’t care… a sign that most recognize that this is just another inevitable “marketing platform” for companies.
With the help of Tom Anderson, founder and managing partner at Anderson Analytics, Ad Age dug into the reams of stats to create the mini profiles of four different social-networking groups below.
FACEBOOKERS: 40% married / 80% white / 6% retired. There are 77 million Facebook users, according to the study, and Facebook users were almost completely average in their level of interest in most areas when compared with users of Twitter, MySpace and LinkedIn. Out of 45 categories, only national news, sports, exercise, travel, and home and garden skewed even slightly higher than average, and then only by one or two percentage points. Facebookers have the second-highest average income, at $61,000, and an average of 121 connections. Facebook users also skew a bit older and are more likely to be late adopters of social media. They are extremely loyal: 75% say Facebook is their favorite site, and another 59% say they have increased their site usage in the past 6 months.
TWITTERERS: 31% buy coffee online / 16% work part-time / 43% could live without it. This is the super-user groupTwitterers are ore interested than the others in many subjects but skew particularly high in all news categories, restaurants, sports, politics, personal finance and religion. They also especially like pop culture, with music, movies, TV and reading ranking higher than average. And, their buying habits mirror that… they’re more likely to buy books, movies, shoes and cosmetics online than the other groups. Twitterers are also entrepreneurial. They are more likely than others to use the service to promote their blogs or businesses. With an average income of $58,000 and an anverage of 28 followers and 32 other Twitterers they are following, most Twitterers aren’t particularly attached to the site with 43% saying they could live without it. (This factoid is rathering surprising to us here at Wendistry!)
MYSPACERS: 60% single / 23% students. They are the young, the fun and the fleeing. While MySpace users skew much younger, they also said they’d used the site much less in the past six months. The 67 million who are still there are into having a good time. They’re more likely to have joined my MySpace for fun and more likely to be interested in entertaining friends, humor and comedy, and video games. They’re less into exercise than any other social group but seek out parenting information more than any other (huh???? this factoid is kinda disturbing to Wendistry!) MySpacers’ average income is the lowest at $44,000, and they have an average of 131 connections. MySpace users are most likely to be black (9%) or Hispanic (7%) than users of the other social sites.
LINKEDINS: 57% male / 12% seek info on gambling. It’s probably no surprise these guys (and most are guys) are all about business. LinkedIns have the highest average income at $89,000, and are more likely to have joined the site for business or work. Citing keeping in touch with business networks, job searching, business development and recruiting as the top reasons for signing up, LinkedIns interests reflect the fact that they like all kinds of news, employment information, sports and politics. They also are more likely to be into the gym, spas, yoga, golf and tennis. Excluding video game systems, LinkedIns own more electronic gadgets than the other social networkers, including digital cameras, high-definition TVs, DVRs and Blu-ray players. Two surprising things they’re more interestd in than the others: gambling and soap operas. (needing some more drama in their lives, perhaps?)
Excerpts taken from Beth Snyder Bulik’s article in July 13, 2009 issue of Advertising Age.
