Who Uses Social Networks?
AUGUST 5, 2009Big gains among older users
Everyone knows that social networking sites are growing in popularity. Millions of individuals visit daily—or even more often.
According to the “Consumer Internet Barometer” report from TNS and The Conference Board, 43% of US Internet users visited social networking sites in Q2 2009.
That figure was up 16 percentage points from the previous year.
Nearly one-half of females visited social networking sites, compared with 37.6% of men.
More than 70% of Internet users under age 35 browsed social networks.
That percentage decreased as users got older, with only 43.1% of those ages 35 to 54 and 18.9% of users ages 55 and older visiting social networks. Still, those represented huge climbs from usage in Q2 2008.
Most users visited social network sites more than once per day.
Respondents were most likely to visit social networks in a family area at home, followed by in a private area at home, at work and through mobile devices.
The most popular social networking sites came as no surprise: Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and Twitter, in that order.
