Nielsen Company reports 82 percent increase in time spent on social networks

Consumer and digital information company The Nielsen Company announced today a set of impressive new social media statistics. According to the company’s blog, in December 2009 consumers spent 82 percent more time on social networking sites compared to the same period a year ago.
The average global consumer now spends more than five and half hours on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, up from 3 hours in December 2008. In correlation, the overall traffic to social networking sites by unique visitors increased as well.
The majority of time spent online by consumers was dedicated to social networks and blogs, with online games and instant messaging close behind. The statistics looked at global consumers, but they refer to only a select group of countries, including U.S., U.K., Australia, Brazil, Japan, Switzerland, Germany, France, Spain and Italy.
The U.S. saw tremendous growth percentages. Minutes spent on social networks and blogs increased 210 percent, while the average time per person increased 143 percent. The growth is attributed to two main social networking sites, Facebook and Twitter, which increased 200 percent and 36 percent in December 2009. Other social networking sites Myspace, LinkedIn and Classmates all saw decreases in site visitors.
The increased time spent on social networking sites is good news for the host of companies looking to help marketers manage and optimize social media campaigns targeted at these users. Companies like HootSuite and Sway offer marketers platforms to target, track and interact with social users. And, according to a recent MIT and Microsoft Research report, more than 50 percent of them asks for recommendations and opinions from their networks. While the respondents were mainly Microsoft employees, one might conclude that if more consumers are spending time on social networks looking for recommendations and opinions, this could be an optimal time for companies to have a presence and affect buying habits.