According to a Nielsen survey conducted last month, the average American now spends 68 hours per month (combined home/work usage) online.  Excuse me, what?  Unless I’m more of a Web addict than I thought, that strikes me as shockingly low.  I want to know who, exactly, was polled here to achieve such a paltry statistic.  Amish toddlers?  Tibetan monks?  Miley Cyrus, now that she has denounced Twitter?!

Between staying current on celebrity gossip, paying bills, virtual shopping and Facebook alone, I’m definitely spending more than a mere 2.26 hours online per day — and that’s not even factoring in work-related usage time.

What about you?  How much time do you typically spend online in any given month?

-Jessica

Yesterday, PR Week and MS&L announced the results of their first annual Social Media Survey. The overarching finding wasn’t too surprising…

“Despite the perceived prevalence of the use of social media in the marketing world, there are many companies that are still cautiously entering the space.”

I think most of us in the communications industry are aware that much of corporate America still thinks “the Twitter” and “the Facebook” are for teenyboppers and (if at all) are very cautiously considering the ever-diminishing MySpace (I don’t even remember my login details for MySpace!) for their debut in the social mediasphere. It’s sad because many of them could have improved their brand identities a long time ago, had they been ahead of the curve. Exhibit A: Wisconsin Tourism Federation (WTF?)

Here (in a nutshell) are some of the survey’s interesting findings:

• 37% of the 271 marketers surveyed reported that their company does not include any social media tools
• 49% of companies do not have a specific approach regarding the use of social media on behalf of the company
• 10% discourage employees to use social media to communicate on behalf of the company
• 22% allow only marketing and communications employees to use social media on behalf of the organization
• 20% of companies encourage all employees to use social media channels to share messages on behalf of the company or its brands
• Of the companies that do leverage social media…
  • 47% manage and monitor customer feedback
  • 40% reach key influencers
  • 39% use it to understand the consumer and competitive landscape
  • 32% use social media to create brand communities and fan pages
  • 31% use it for media relations
  • 28% for product launches
  • 19% for product reviews
  • 6% to monitor conversations

-Andréa S.

“People just love to look at pictures…That’s the killer app of all online social networks.”

Above are the words of Mikolaj Jan Piskorski, an associate professor at Harvard Business School, who has spent years studying the behavior of people on online social networks. His research is full of information on how the separate genders spend their time online, the seduction of Twitter, and the futility of MySpace, but aside from the aforementioned quotation, my favorite insight was the following, for its simplicity: “Online social networks are most useful when they address real failures in the operation of offline networks.”

-Elise

A new study found that Facebook click-through rates during the week decrease dramatically after Wednesday. Probably because on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, Facebook users are out partying…and taking photos to post on Facebook during the beginning of the week, of course.

—Alyssa

While we’ve always been told not to talk to strangers, apparently we’re definitely listening to and influenced by them according to “Conversations Among Consumers,” a new report from Ripple6 and The E-tailing Group.  The study found that when it comes to whose opinions influence shoppers (online and in person), strangers have as much, if not more, impact than friends.

-Josh

Despite a Wall Street Journal article last week stating that younger demographics are not hugely active on Twitter, new data from comScore (via Mashable) suggests that younger users (specifically, ages 12-24) are now Twitter’s fastest-growing audience segment.  What are we supposed to believe?!

Mashable makes a great point, stating that unlike other social media sites, Twitter is actually “aging in reverse.”

-Maria

Nielsen’s recent study on the ages of Twitter users was big news last week (in fact, I believe “teens don’t tweet” was even on Twitter’s trending topic leaderboard at some point). The study found that the majority (64%) of Twitter users are between the ages of 25 and 54, which corresponds to anecdotal evidence. In fact, only 16% of Twitterers are under age 25 (including me!), contrary to popular belief. This information is important to keep in mind when evaluating whether a brand should establish a Twitter presence — is its target demographic even on Twitter?

—Alyssa

When you see something online that you want to share with a friend, do you e-mail it to them, or just post it on their Facebook wall? Apparently, most people do the latter these days. Unless it’s something extremely personal, odds are your friend isn’t the only person who’d enjoy the little web tidbit. So why not share it publicly and spread the love?

—Alyssa

Mobile Internet Is Just Like Your ‘94 Dial-Up

According to a study by the Nielsen Norman Group, researchers have found that the mobile web is about as speedy and efficient as the internet in 1994.  MediaPost reports that the study, which asked people to complete a variety of simple tasks using the mobile internet, found the success rates for these various tasks to only be around 59%.

This seems terribly unacceptable considering the technology out there.  If I can call distant countries from virtually anywhere, maintain my musical library on my phone and have apps that perform tasks I was perfectly capable of doing on my own (picking my drink, hanging a level shelf, blowing my nose, doing the laundry…) then I should at least be able to connect to the internet successfully and at a relative clip.

As we pioneer marketing strategies and plans for the mobile market, I think that it is vital to take heed of such studies and findings.  The most well-designed mobile campaign could falter if, for example, mobile users have to struggle with obstacles logging on to any internet components.

-Andrea