Artemis's Blog

Nielsen has recently published its “State of Media: The Social Media Report – Q3 2011” with some very, very interesting findings on how consumers are using social media and how their behavior is affected by their social media interaction when it comes to purchasing decisions. The  report focuses overall on “the current social media landscape and audiences in the US and other major markets“. Even though this report focuses mainly on the US, it gives us a very good idea of what’s to follow in the next few years in the rest of the world in terms of social media use and influence. Here are some key findings:

Overall social media interaction:

• Americans spend more time on facebook than they do on any other U.S. website.
• In the US, social networks and blogs reach nearly 80% of active US internet users and represent the majority of Americans’ time online.
• Tumblr is an emerging player in social media, nearly tripling its audience from a year ago.
• Social networks and blogs are by far the top destination of internet users at 22.5%, with online games following at nearly 10% and e-mail being 3rd at 7.6%
• Although a larger number of women view online video on social networks and blogs, men are the heaviest online video users overall streaming more videos and watching them longer.
• Men are more likely to visit LinkedIn and Wikia.
• Females 18-34 years old are the most active social networkers.

Brands, products & services interaction:

• 70% of active online adult social networkers shop online, 12% more likely than the average adult internet user.
• 47% of  active adult social networkers when compared to the average adult internet user, are more likely to be heavy spenders on clothing, shoes and accessories.
• 60% of people who use 3 or more digital means of research for a product purchase, learned about a specific brand or retailer from a social networking site. 48% of these consumers responded to a retailer’s offer posted on facebook or twitter.
• 53% of active adult social networkers follow a brand, while 32% follow a celebrity.
• 60% of social media users create reviews of products and services. Consumer-created content is the preferred source for information about product/service value, price and product quality.

Mobile:

• Close to 40% of social media users access social media content from their mobile phone.
• Mobile social media use is on the rise, with 2 in 5 users accessing social media via their mobile phones.
• Social networking apps are the 3rd most-used among U.S. smartphone owners.
• Internet users over the age of 55 are driving the growth of social networking through the Mobile Internet.
• Over twice as many people aged 55+ visit social networking sites on their mobile phone than last year.

So for brands that are still refusing to enter the social media world, thinking that they are not to be taken seriously, do you still think that this is just a fad?

To view or download the full report, click here.