What Were Consumers Doing for 121 Billion Minutes This Past July?

This is an article from marketing pilgrim.

According to stats-meister Nielsen, in July 2012, US consumers spent 121 billion minutes navigating the shark-infested waters of social media. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and the rest — up 37% from July 2011 and that’s quite a feat."

The majority of the time was spent using a traditional computer, but look at mobile. The larger square represents Apps, the smaller, cell phone looking icon represents browser use through a mobile device. Together, they show a 63% increase over last year.

Breaking the numbers down, Nielsen found that women were responsible for most of the social media usage both on the PCA and through mobile. Ages 18-24 ate up the most minutes on the PC but Ages 25-34 snuck ahead on the mobile site, but not by much. Ethnically, speaking Hispanics were way out in front on mobile usage with PC usage being fairly evenly divided.

Social Media Site-ings

Facebook was, by far, the most time consuming social media network on the list but they actually lost ground over last year. That’s due largely to the growth in social media options.

In terms of growth, Pinterest is insane. Up 1,047%! Even Google+ doesn’t look so bad with 80% growth. Wonder where they’ll be on this chart next year.

Looking at mobile, Facebook is still on top but Twitter comes in second with better growth (134% on the app over 88% for the Facebook app.) The wild card in mobile is Foursquare – they come in third on the mobile app chart.

Selling on Social Media

There’s good and bad on the advertising side, according to Nielsen. 33% of people said ads on social network sites were more annoying than any other online ads. On the other hand, 26% said they’re be more likely to pay attention to an ad that was posted by an online friend.

Asian consumers were voted most likely to engage. 31% said they purchased a product after seeing a social ad (14% is the average). 26% shared ads (15% is the average.) 28% picked up an online coupon (18% average.)

Most social media denizens spend their time listening to the experiences of others. 53% actually use it to compliment a brand but an almost equal number, 50% use it to complain about a brand.

Lastly, a bit of whimsy from the folks at Nielsen.