Nielson Social Media Report 2011: Snapshot of Social Media Landscape and Audience

Today, social media is not just limited to socializing; it connects people with just about anything. A recent report by Nielson (Social Media Report: Q3 2011) reveals some interesting facts about the landscape and audience of social media. The total usage of all social networking sites, especially Facebook has grown dramatically in all age segments globally. Another interesting fact is that, today out of five active internet users, nearly four of them are using internet to visit social networking sites and blogs.
The following figures from the report shows that Facebook is the largest social networking site in terms of visitors, time spent on the site, and unique mobile users followed by Blogger and Twitter (May 2011 statistics).

1. Facebook: 140.336 million
2. Blogger: 50.055 million
3. Twitter: 23.617 million
4. WordPress: 22.417 million
5. MySpace: 19.25 million
6. LinkedIn: 17.786 million
7. Tumblr: 11.87 million
8. Six Apart Typepad: 8.578 million
9. Yahoo Pulse: 8.397 million
10. Wikia: 7.601 million

Key Finding of the Report:

1. Social networks and blogs continue to dominate Americans’ time online, now accounting for nearly a quarter of total time spent on the Internet.
2. Social media has grown rapidly – today nearly 4 in 5 active Internet users visit social networks and blogs.
3. Americans spend more time on Facebook than they do on any other U.S. website.
4. Close to 40 percent of social media users access social media content from their mobile phone.
5. Social networking apps are the third most-used among U.S. smartphone owners.
6. Internet users over the age of 55 are driving the growth of social networking through the Mobile Internet.
7. 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.
8. 70 percent of active online adult social networkers shop online, 12 percent more likely than the average adult Internet user.
9. 53 percent of active adult social networkers follow a brand, while 32 percent follow a celebrity.
10. Across a snapshot of 10 major global markets, social networks and blogs reach over three-quarters of active Internet users.
11. Tumblr is an emerging player in social media, nearly tripling its audience from a year ago.

Nielsen’s Social Media Report – Q3 2011” presents a snapshot of the current social media landscape and audiences in the U.S. and other major markets. Visit here for details. (via)