Social Media consumes our lives

Nielsen’s 2010 Social Media Report has been digging deep inside the minds of Australian internet users and consumers and finding out how aligned they are with social media.

They discovered two important statistics about our online habits:

• To source opinions and information about products, services and brands, 86% of internet users rely on social media.
• Nearly two in five are interacting with companies via social media.
• 14% of consumers followed companies/organisations via Twitter – up from 5% in 2008.

Considering that social media is still in its infancy, this is quite a result. With Twitter’s audience alone growing by more than 400% in 2009, expect big things to happen in this space.
I wonder however how many of these are switched on baby boomers?

Mobile social networking is the domain of the young, with 66% under the age of 35 leading the way. And it’s Facebook the winner with 92% of visits, YouTube and Twittter at 18% and not so MySpace at 9%.

Anyway, what does all this mean for mainstream consumers and the companies who sell to them? It suggests that there are big opportunities for brands and companies to engage consumers online.

Does this suggest many Australian need to get a life? Facebook continues to dominate in the world of social networking – 83% of users have it as their main social networking platform. And guess what – they spend an average of more than eight hours each month on the site! Good for online marketers!



Tony Heywood is an international branding consultant and founder of Heywood Innovation in Sydney Australia with affiliates in Melbourne, Gold Coast, London, Singapore and Mumbai.

View some of Heywood’s work on www.heywood.com.au

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