Just Released: Full Text: 2011 Social Media Consumer Trend Report

Made available online (free, registration required) today by Experian/Simmons. The report is full of color charts.
From an E-Mail Summary:

• Fully 91% of online adults today, or 129 million individuals, access social media in a typical month.

• 98% of online 18-to 24 year-olds already use social media each month.

• The greatest growth sector is among older Americans. In fact, the share of those in the 65-plus cohort who use social media grew a relative 49 percent in the past two years alone. Today, nearly 3-in-4 online seniors use social media in a typical month as do 82% of those ages 55 to 64.

• Experian Simmons reports that while 46% of all online adults today say they use social media to communicate with their friends (up from 32% in 2009), 27% of those with a brother or sister say they communicate with their sibling via social media, up from 15% in 2009.

• Parents and children are also connecting with one another at an increasingly high rate. In 2009, only 6% of parents said they communicated with their children via social sites, but today fully 18% of parents communicate with their kids through social media.

• Likewise, 14% of adult children also say they communicate with their parents over social media today, up from just 5% in 2009.

• Experian Simmons reports that nearly a third of Hispanic consumers who use social media today (30%) say they follow their favorite brands and companies on social sharing sites.

•  By comparison, 18% of non-Hispanic users of social media say they follow brands. Moreover, 19% of Hispanic adult users of social sharing sites say they are more likely to buy products advertised on social sharing sites compared with 8% of non-Hispanics who say the same.

•  The higher than average use of Twitter among Hispanic consumers (18% of Twitter.com visitors are Hispanic versus 14% of the adult population overall)

• Heavy Facebook users, defined as those online adults who visit Facebook.com more than 15 times per month, are found in heaviest concentrations in America’s college towns.

Register and Download Full Text: 2011 Social Media Consumer Trend Report (16 pages; PDF)

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