Nielsen Report Provides Statistical Evidence for Social Media Engagement

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The Nielsen Company, traditionally a key resource for information and statistics on television and online ratings, recently published a report that offers a fresh new look at social media. The report details the state of social media for Q3 and reveals a number of interesting insights on the audiences using social media, in addition to highlighting the growing influence it has on consumers, brands and businesses.

This report confirms what we all know to be true: social networks and blogs take up a majority of Internet users’ time, accounting for 23 percent of the time Americans spend online. Across the report’s snapshot of 10 major global markets, social networks and blogs reach more than three-quarters of active Internet users. For brands, this is further evidence of the importance of identifying where your audience specifically is spending time online and what networks in particular are most-used.

In terms of the demographics of these social network users, females make up the majority of visitors to social networks and blogs, and people aged 18-34 have the highest concentration of visitors among all age groups. However, social media isn’t just for the younger generation: Americans aged 35 to 49 are also avid visitors, taking up 27 percent of the traffic on social media sites and blogs.

Another remarkable finding from the study is blog posts and social network messages reach nearly 80 percent of online Americans; such sites take up nearly a quarter of their time online, with Facebook, not surprisingly, drawing in more visitors than any other website. These results illustrate the significant opportunity PR professionals have to amplify clients’ messages and help audiences connect with brands through the right social media channels.

Among the growing social media channels gaining significant influence, Tumblr has nearly tripled its audience from a year ago. In fact, according to recent reports, Tumblr brings in more pageviews per month than Wikipedia. Combining elements of blogging and Twitter by letting users post and personalize their own content, Tumblr is now the eighth largest site in Nielsen’s “U.S. Social Networks and Blogs” category. Because you can use Tumblr to “re-blog” posts from those you follow, Tumblr can be a powerful tool for PR professionals to create, share and redistribute content.

This year, mobile joins Facebook and Tumblr on the social media center stage, with more than one-third of the social media audience accessing networks through their mobile devices. Even more interesting is that more than twice as many people 55 and older are visiting social networking sites on their mobile phones than last year.

As social media’s influence continues to grow and consumers are driven to emerging social media channels, it’s vital for us to understand how different consumer segments use and share content, and to recognize the significant role that social media has in connecting key audiences with businesses and brands. It’s more important than ever to research your existing communities and audiences; the most successful brands provide these highly-engaged users with useful, shareable content via the appropriate social channels.