Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Americans Use Social Networking More than Other Countries

Americans are most likely to use online social networks, according to a new study from the Pew Global Attitudes Project. Among the 22 publics surveyed, Americans most often say they use websites like Facebook and MySpace: 46% use such sites, 36% use the Internet, but do not access these sites, and 18% say they never go online.
The survey finds three countries close behind the US in social network usage. In Poland (43%), Britain (43%) and South Korea (40%), at least four in 10 adults say they use such sites. And at least a third engage in social networking in France (36%), Spain (34%), Russia (33%) and Brazil (33%).
 
Germany and Japan Have High Internet Usage; Low Social Networking Use
Germans and the Japanese stand out among highly connected countries for their comparatively low levels of participation in social networking. While 31% of Germans use these types of sites, 49% go online at least occasionally but choose not to use them. In Japan, 24% are engaged in social networking, while 44% have Internet access but are not engaged.
Among the 22 countries polled, social networking is least prevalent in Indonesia (6%) and Pakistan (3%). In both nations, more than 90% of the population does not use the Internet.
 
Younger Online Users are Most Active on Social Networks
In every nation surveyed, there is a notable age gap relating to social networking. Social networking is extremely popular among people younger than age 30; in 12 of the countries polled, a majority of this age group uses social networking type websites. There are only three countries, Britain, Poland and the US where most 30 to 49 year-olds are involved in social networking.  There is no country where even 1/4 of ages 50 and older are involved.
In 10 countries, a gap of at least 50 percentage points separates the percentage of 18 to 29 year-olds who use social networking sites and the percentage of those ages 50 and older who do so. This includes the US, where the gap is 54 percentage points (77% of 18 to 29 year-olds and 23% of those 50 and older).
The age gap is largest in Germany, where 86% of people younger than age 30 take part in social networking, compared with 36% of 30 to 49 year-olds and just 8% of those ages 50 and older (78 percentage point difference).
While it is true that the young are more likely to go online, these age gaps are not driven solely by Internet usage. Even among Internet users, young people are more likely to participate in social networking.

Women More Likely to Use Social Networking than Men in the United States
There are relatively few gender gaps across the countries surveyed. For the most part, men and women tend to engage in social networking at roughly the same rates. The US is the only country in which women are significantly more likely than men to use social networking. While 52% of American women engage in social networking, just 41% of men do so. This gap is not driven by a difference in access; similar percentages of women (18%) and men (17%) say they do not access the Internet.
Meanwhile, in Turkey, about one-third of men (34%) use social networking, compared with only 19% of women. Similarly, in Japan, 30% of men report that they are involved in social networking, while just 19% of women say the same.

Harris Interactive Study Confirms Younger Americans Favors Social Networking & Facebook
Results from the recent Harris Interactive “YouthPulse 2010″ shows three quarters of 8 to 24 year-olds use a social networking site and about two-thirds (68%) spend time on a social networking site daily. Facebook is the most popular social networking site in this demographic, with 86% of 18 to 24 year-olds using Facebook and 71% of 13 to 17 year-olds doing so. More than one-quarter of 8 to 12 year-olds (28%) use Facebook.
 
Social Media Marketing and the use of Social Networking for business has become the norm for reaching more customers and online brand management today.  Contact Internet Builder Consulting and our Social Marketing Builders today to have a BETTER website or Social Media Marketing campaign setup for your business or product.
 
Robert 'Dot Com' Jackson
Internet & Technology Expert
Internet Builder Consulting - Building BETTER Websites and Online Marketing since 1995
Social Marketing Builders - Building Effective Social Network Marketing for Business
816-842-7774 Office

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