Research released by comScore yesterday finds that more than half the European online population now uses social networking sites.
The UK has the highest usage in Europe, with almost 80% of the online populations using social networking sites and the average user racking up more than 800 page views a month.
ComScore’s key findings include:
- The European social networking community stood at 127.3 million unique visitors in August – reaching 56 percent of the European online population
- European users average 3.0 hours per month on Social Networking Sites and made 15.8 visits in the course of the month, viewing 523 pages
- U.K. Social Networking Site Usage is the highest in Europe with 24.9 million unique visitors in August 2007
- 78% of the total U.K. online population now belongs to the country’s social networking community, compared to 62% in Spain, 50% in France, 49% in Italy and 47% in Germany
- U.K. Users Average 5.8 Hours per Month on Social Networking Sites and made 23.3 visits in the course of the month, viewing 839 pages
- Heavy social network site users spend 22 hours per month on their favourite sites, visiting 71 times and viewing over 3,000 pages
The data about these heavy social network site users are a great example of why it is important to beware of averages when looking at any form of research data. Their intense usage effectively lifts the average point, masking the lower engagement of the bulk of lighter users who account for 50% of users.
The comScore research finds that these light users (defined as being the least active 50 percent of the social networking community) spent significantly less time engaged with social networking sites’ content, making just 4.6 visits per person and consuming only 47 pages of social networking content over the course of the month.
Its an example of the 80/20 rule again rearing its head. As Bob Ivins, EVP of International Markets at comScore, explains:
“about eighty percent of all online activity at Social Networking sites can be attributed to only 20 percent of visitors.”
Clearly that has to have significance to tourism businesses advertising to and otherwise engaging with customers within the online social network space.
It will be a significant challenge to ensure that your message gets beyond the 20% of heavy users and into the bulk of the online population who are far less heavily engaged.
Related Tracking Tourism posts
How social media like Flickr and YouTube has become an influence on destination selection
To read Highland Business Research’s free Introduction to Online Social Networks, download the PDF here
This entry was posted on Thursday, October 11th, 2007 at 9:38 am and is filed under Internet usage statistics, Social media measurement, Web analytics and web measurement. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.