By Chris Lee

Highly respected Internet analyst firm Nielsen has released its latest social media report for the third quarter of 2011, and it raises some interesting questions for marketers.

According to Nielsen, social networks and blogs occupy almost a quarter of the time Internet users spend online, with nearly 40 per cent of users accessing social media content from their mobile phones. Interestingly, users over 55 years of age are driving the growth of social media mobile content usage.

Overwhelmingly, computers remain the most likely entry point for social media (97 per cent), mobile phones (37 per cent) second, with iPads and gaming consoles (three per cent), Internet-ready TV and ereaders (two per cent) also being used.

Follow the leaders

Nielsen found that 53 per cent of active social network users follow a brand and a third (32 per cent) follow a celebrity. According to Nielsen, active social media users are also influential offline.

“Consumers frequently trust the recommendations of their peers, making social media an ideal platform for influencers to spread their ideas and purchasing power,” Nielsen states. “Offline, active adult social networkers are more likely than the average adult Internet user to be found at political rallies, professional sporting events and working out at the gym.”

Active adult social media users are more likely to purchase music (75 per cent), buy clothing (47 per cent) and go on dates (45 per cent), according to Nielsen.

Social animals

Nielsen found that women continue to be more active on social networks than men. Females aged between 18-24 years of age are the most active social media users. More women than men consume videos on social media sites, but men watch video for nine per cent longer, Nielsen found. Men are more interested in business social networking site LinkedIn and Wikia.

Blogging site Tumblr has also continued its rapid rise, tripling its user base within a year. It is proving most popular with teenage girls. The UK is the tenth-highest user of social networking sites in the world, with Australia, Brazil and France leading the way. The US was ranked ninth.

Market objective

For Roger Warner, managing director of digital marketing agency Content and Motion, the pervasiveness of mobile as the entry platform for social media was the most significant statistic from Nielsen’s latest report.

“40 per cent of people access social via phone. Other stats suggest half of all Facebook status updates are via phone.  I find this interesting because we are no longer thinking about a mobile strategy per se, as a standalone activity,” he told NMK. “We are just thinking about campaigns, assets, ideas and platform.  The fact that it's Facebook is more critical to the planning process than the fact that it's mobile.”

Warner added that this was a good thing as it should prevent marketers from taking the “there’s an app for that” approach.

“If we can think campaign and campaign platform first, then I'm sure that our communications work will be of higher value and have greater reach because we are thinking in the realms of joined up and integrated,” he concluded. “So, think idea first, campaign second, Facebook third, and mobile sometime after that.”