Temkin Group Report: The Social Media Audience is Changing

The way social media sites are being accessed and by whom is changing, according to a report from the Temkin Group.

Social Media: Always Changing

The report, Data Snapshot: Social Media Benchmark, 2013, was compiled from surveys conducted in January 2013 of 10,000 U.S consumers. This information was then compared to data from 2012 to identify changes in how people in different age groups were using social media sites, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and third party rating sites, such as Yelp.

Facebook: Experiencing a Decline

While Facebook is still considered a key communication tool for many users, how it's being used and how often is changing. The study reports a decrease of 9.8 percent from 2012 to 2013 in the 18 to 24 year old group that use Facebook daily, with drops also seen in the 25 to 34, 35 to 44 and 45 to 55 age ranges, but growth in the older age groups, especially in the 75 and over group with a 5.3 percent increase.

In terms of overall daily activity Facebook is still leading Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+, whereas for mobile users, more iPhone users tend to choose Facebook and Twitter over the other sites, compared with Blackberry users. Those who access Facebook via a mobile device was at 10 percent.

Twitter: Moving Up in the Social Media World

Unlike Facebook, use of the micro-blogging network has improved. In addition to its overall weekly usage being up two percent in those surveyed, both Twitter and LinkedIn are being used more often across all age groups. Those who check Twitter once a day via a mobile device has gone up five percent compared with six percent who do so from a desktop computer. At the moment, Twitter is most popular for 18 to 24 and 25 to 34 year olds at 93 and 90 percent, with usage decreasing below 50 percent for users that are 65 or older.

LinkedIn: Making a Small Impact

The business social network has six percent of the overall mobile usage from the report and is often used by more Blackberry users that iPhone users. Compared with the 2012 results, LinkedIn appears to me most popular in the middle age groups. Also, compared with 2012, those who use LinkedIn daily went up in the 35 to 44 year old range by 1.1 percent. This was followed with small increases in all of the other age categories, except 75 or older which saw a decrease of 0.1 percent.

Google+: The Middle Ground

Google+ which has eight percent of the daily usage has seen an uptick in adoption in the past year, including a relatively strong use rate for 75 years or older at 11 percent. As for individual usage, most users tend to only update their Google+ page via their mobile device or desktop once or twice a year, while on both types of devices Google+ pages are only updated or visited daily by four percent of those surveyed.

And Everything Else

The report also made notes on how people prefer to communicate, how they use third party sites such as Yelp or Tripadvisor and differences in social media access according to phone type. Interested in reading more? You can access the report here.

 

 

Source : cmswire[dot]com