Who is using social media tools?
by Matthew Hodgson
Typically, we think of young, technology literate Gen-Ys when we talk about social media — websites like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, etc. A recent Nielsen [1] report, however, challenges this perception.
The Nielsen report shows that 670 million out of 1 billion people online use social media and that its adoption is growing at three times the rate of general internet growth. In fact, adoption is so prolific that use of social media now ahead of email use and accounts for 38% of people’s time spent communicating online. Importantly, the report shows that:
- The biggest increase in use of social media sites in 2009 comes from the 35-49 year old age group — an increase in 11.3 million people.
- Men and women aged 65 and above moving to social media websites grew by 7 per cent
- The 17-and-under category dropped by 9 per cent
For those looking for a business case as to why to begin to look at use of social media for professional networking and information sharing, the argument that these websites are just for the young and therefore not a serious business communication tool like email, is no longer a valid one.
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1. The Nielsen Company, 2009. Social networks & blogs now 4th most popular online activity, ahead of personal email, News Release. New York, NY. 9 March.
