Nielsen: Social Media Report 2012

Nielsen has recently made their Social Media Report 2012 public.  It has some interesting trends and shows how social media is taking deeper roots among the American people.

Source: http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/social/2012/

Source: http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/social/2012/

Source: http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/social/2012/

My observations are

1. More than 80% of Americans with internet access are on Facebook.  

This is 60% of 252 million who are over the age of 13 according to Wikipedia.  If you put that in perspective with those who have the internet access (about 182 million over the age of 15 in 2010), the actual percentage of American people on Facebook is somewhere around 80% of the internet users.

2. YouTube is not considered as social network.

YouTube is a media giant that is missing from the report (800 million unique user visits per month). Although YouTube has been recreating itself as social media platform, even research firms are not considering them as social media.  They are more often categorized as media company.

3. Network fragmentation continues.

It took less than 1 year for Pinterest to make the top 10 social network of 2012.  There is still room for new network, but it has to be catered to specific user base.  Guess who Pinterest caters to.  If you don't know the answer, ask your girlfriend or mom.

4. PC is losing its place to mobile.

People are connecting to social media from everywhere where using PC to connect was once unimaginable.  But they are also using the second and third device to multitask.  In front of their PC, while watching TV, at their work desk.  PC will lose its place as primary device for internet connectivity in the next 2-3 years.

5. People use social media to connect with friends and family.

Although social networking sites would have you expand your circle to thousands of people, the reality is that  users get on social media to keep up with friends and family.  This will be the biggest challenge and opportunity for marketers to understand in cracking social media marketing code.