Social Media Report 2012

Nielsen's 2012 Social Media Report is out this month chock full of growth statistics (compare to last year's report, 2011 Social Media Report, Q3 2011). It will come as no surprise that mobile platforms and app usage are huge drivers in all of this and that trend shows no sign of slowing. The report ranks top social networks with Pinterest, Google+, Tumblr and Wikia vaulting up  the list of "regulars" (Facebook, Blogger, Twitter). While there is some demographic data  provided for sex, age and race in the report, it's spotty--for instance, you can get a real demographic profile of Pinterest but not the same for Tumblr or Twitter. Nielsen only gives us samples of data in these free reports but we'll take what we can get. The report also tracks simultaneous usage of mobile platforms with television viewing and finally, takes a global view of usage. Definitely worth checking out if you work in this area and the data fact you need is there for you.

From Nielsen Wire:
Social media and social networking are no longer in their infancy. Social media continues to grow rapidly, offering global consumers new and meaningful ways to engage with the people, events and brands that matter to them. According to Nielsen and NM Incite’s latest Report, consumers continue to spend more time on social networks than on any other category of sites—roughly 20 percent of their total time online via personal computer (PC), and 30 percent of total time online via mobile.  Additionally, total time spent on social media in the U.S. across PCs and mobile devices increased 37 percent to 121 billion minutes in July 2012, compared to 88 billion in July 2011. The recent proliferation of mobile devices and connectivity helped fuel the continued growth of social media. While the computer remains as the predominant device for social media access, consumers’ time spent with social media on mobile apps and the mobile web has increased 63 percent in 2012, compared to the same period last year.