So the data's out, it's been analysed and I'm not surprised to note that not only are more Australians taking the leap to hop online to create a Facebook profile as a continuum, we are spending more time in the site than ever before!

Australian’s were ahead of the global pack in December 2009 – spending more time on average in social media than our counterparts in the United States, Japan, Brazil, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Spain, Italy and Switzerland!

Australian consumers in 1st place for their time spent in social media sites – we spent an estimated 7 hours in our favourite social media sites in December 2009 which is 1.5 hours above the global average and for those of us that want to know – an increase of 4 hours as the global average from December 2008! We are doing some serious social media engagement!

2009 turned out to be a big year for social media as expected. Consumers spent more time dining with their favourite social media networks and tools than ever. In December 2009 global consumers spent approximately 5.5 hours in social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, an estimated increase 82%, up from 3 hours in December 2008!

Facebook took out 1st place for the social networking site division with 206.9 million users (unique) and 67% of social media users engaging with the network over the month of December 2009, whilst the average global social media user spent approximately 6 hours onsite!

So the paradigm shift that is social media continues to flaunt an upward trajectory and our brands are looking at ways to leverage the curve so that they can engage with savvy social media network users in ways that will catalyse two way conversations, positive branding engagements and interactions with targeted consumers for branding awareness, acquisition, retention and education akin. Please see our previous articles for Facebook brand benefits.

Leveraging Facebook for marketing is key and if your brand does not have a Facebook dedicated branded business page – why not?!

So what about Facebook versus Twitter, or is it Twitter versus Facebook? I’ve lost count as too how many times I’ve been asked Twitter or Facebook, or both? Watch this space for more in this regard....

All this social media talk is making me hungry for more [logs into Facebook]

Heidi von Creytz

allaboutcheddar.com

Source: The Nielsen Company