Social media claims nearly a fifth of US internet use

Fri Sep 25 2009, 12:36 PM

Social networking and blogging sites accounted for 17% of the total time Americans spent online in August, an increase of 11% year-on-year, according to Nielsen.

“This growth suggests a wholesale change in the way the internet is used,” suggests Jon Gibs, VP of media and agency insights. Social networks, particularly Twitter and Facebook, have experienced a dramatic rise in user numbers over the past year, with Facebook now claiming to have more than 250m users worldwide.

In response to this, Nielsen estimates that ad spending on such sites has grown 110% year-on-year to around USD108m per month, meaning that social networks now account for 15% of all online ad spending.

Marketers have typically been wary of advertising on social networks, finding it a difficult arena in which to measure their return on investment and believing that users tend to ignore traditional ads on user-generated content sites. Earlier this week, Nielsen announced a partnership with Facebook to improve the effectiveness of marketing campaigns on the social web.