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Study: 43% of Online Americans Addicted to Social Networking
Young Urban ProfessionalExperian Simmons is out with a new package of stats that document the incredible growth of social networking in the US. (Experian is an Edelman client.) Here are some of the notable highlights...
First, some 66% of online Americans use social networking sites today, up from just 20% in 2007. This has been covered a lot before. However, what's notable is that it's an increasingly additive activity - 43% visit multiple times each day.
Second, social networking is largely synonymous with Facebook. This doesn't bode well for others that are positioning themselves as a social network since it could confuse consumers. (Since it does not require mutual friending, Twitter to me really isn't a social network but a continuous public communications channel.)
Third, social networking is largely viewed as a way to connect with friends, not co-workers or business partners. This may show that people are splitting up their personal/professional networks. This was something LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner and I recently discussed and it flies in the face of edge cases like me who have co-mingled the two. (LinkedIn is an Edelman client.)
Last but not least, social networking appears to be more predominant in the western and mountain states, even more than in the east.
Reader Comments (19)
This is a good piece of information! Interesting Post. Now,people mostly use social networking to connect with friends. In a few years, it's going to play a crucial role in shaping consumer perception and buying process. Even today social media influence consumer perception and buying process but the reach may be limited, in the future this will take place in a large scale.
Great summary of trending data.Graphics are easy to consume and simple to understand.Thanks for compiling and for your POV on the data.Keep up the good work!
I was astonished when I read the headline, but looking into the data, I think this makes sense. Not sure "visiting multiple times a day" qualifies as "addicted," though. After all, if you post two tweets a day, you are definitely a light Twitter user, and certainly by no means are you addicted to Twitter.
Great analysis, Steve. The last graphic was truly surprising. Do you have a slightly higher-res version (some for the data is too pixelated to read)?
Bill, if you hit the site there's a PDF download.
excellent post. Could it also follow that those red geo areas display a wider range of addictive behavioral attributes?
Word-of-mouth has always been and still is the best form of PR and marketing. Social media plays into this model perfectly. Whether you like something or not you share your viewpoint with your friends. I mix business and personal on some social networks and not on others and have found it to be a great way to interact with friends, family, clients and complete strangers. By the way, your description of Twitter as a "continuous public communications channel" is spot on!
Can we please stop mislabeling everything an addiction? http://bit.ly/cuXAZl
I'm actually surpised at the 43% I thought the number would be much higher. Custom social networks are exploding on the internet and I honestly believe that getting information through social networks is going to be the primary use of the internet before long,
In the workplace, it is still unclear whether social networking tools are distractions or they help boost productivity. Researchers at the University of Maryland are conducting a national survey on workplace social networking. The survey is here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/SocNet
Hey Chris, I thought of you when I saw this article on musicians and social networking: http://techcrunch.com/2010/06/27/facebook-musicians-page/
Interestingly enough, as a B2B company, we get a lot of good leads from Twitter and Facebook.
addiction word got my attention, but I think it has a different meaning here. I'm addicted to eating and drinking water too I suppose. Great visuals. Thanks for the information.
Great article Steve! Though your argument is sound I can't help but think you're missing a series of factors when truly deciding and stating that we are "addicted" to social networking. I would say it's far from addiction. Rather it's one of the biggest paradigm shifts modern society will experience. The "Social Media/Networking Revolution" goes beyond the "uses" stated above.Whether we like it or not, the integration of the real world and online world is occurring. It seems that one addiction is transfered to the next whenever we deal with some form of emerging technology from one generation to the next. Many of us do other things multiple times a day but that would not be considered addicted to those activities. Social networking in itself has become a means to go about things. Simply because I use it "multiple times a day" does in no way suggest I will go through social withdrawal if I was away from my BlackBerry or laptop for a day or two.As an perceived "addict" and a Millennial, an age demographic would be extremely interesting to how the story changes. The vast majority of the Millennial generation are social users. Though this use might be perceived as addictive behavior, I would have to contest and argue that their is no addiction here. And that this perceived addiction is a misrepresentation of one of the biggest paradigm shifts in our history. Life will be lived by us both online and offline. I can't necessarily speak for generations before us. But for everyone else growing up after us, our use "multiple times a day" will not only grow but that addictive behavior will become a way of life. It's like anything else we do. Nothing problematic about that. I look forward to your and everyone else's response.
I find that social media will change the way we view and interact forever. TO say it is addiction is fair. However, it is becoming more of an ingrained "natural;l" part of our lives. The purpose of engaging in social media varies for every individual and can not be defined by "staying in touch with friends". If not already, people are embracing social media for business and politics.
More people use SNS to communicate with significant others than with colleagues? Dear God, something's gone completely off-track in the way we manage our families.
Great Post- very informative. I was surprised to learn where the social media "hotbeds" are located in the U.S.A. Who knew?
I am sure these numbers will spike up very soon...-Shankhttp://www.socialcreeper.com
Fascinating Steve. Found this post doing Google searches -- I'm amazed to see that NY, LA or the big metro hubs aren't larger. Utah seems to be central to the SM universe in the United States.