Take Advantage of Increased Time Spent on Social Networking

The small business I currently work for has started using social media marketing and all I have to say is that it's about time! A new Nielsen study titled "What Americans Do Online" shows that Americans spend a growing percentage of their time online visiting social networking sites. Businesses need to be aware of trends like this in order to focus marketing efforts where the target audience spends its time.

Social networking and other next-generation Web tools and services are changing the face of the Internet. Sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are growing exponentially - Facebook just passed 500 million users, and Twitter just sent it's 20 billionth tweet. Companies need to grasp how to take advantage of these platforms to effectively communicate with customers.

The Nielsen study tracked the online activity of 200,000 uses -comparing to June 2010 against June 2009. What Nielsen found is that the portion of online time invested on social networking sites grew nearly 50 percent, from 16 percent to 23 percent, and that social gaming surpassed 3-mail to take the number two position.

Bloomberg Businessweek reports that the Nielsen study also revealed that the use of Web portals is on the decline - dropping from 5.5 percent to 4.4 percent of online time. Ironically, Yahoo beat out both Google and Microsoft to be the captain of that sinking ship, as well as the leader in both e-mail and instant messaging.

It is also worth noting that the social network audience is getting more mature, and culturally diverse as well. Nielsen found that twice as many uses over the age of 50 are using social networks than uses under age 18. For businesses looking to use social networks as a marketing platform, these types of demographic details are important.

The only other area that saw growth from 2009 to 2010 was the viewing of online video such as YouTube. It is a different type of platform than Facebook or Twitter, but still social in nature. Just look at how Old Spice managed to combine YouTube videos with social network messaging to create an Internet marketing sensation overnight.

Companies still spend lots of dollars paying for placement in the Yellow Pages. (You know - it's that giant stack of paper that a random stranger litters your porch with, until you eventually throw it in the recycling bin?)

If your customers are spending more time online, and most of the time is spent on social networks, then that is where the marketing and advertising budget should be spent.