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Miley Cyrus may have quit twitter, but time spent on social networks continues to grow
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The amount of time spent on social media sites nearly doubled in the year to June, according to new research from Nielsen.
Time spent on social media sites went from around 800,000 hours per month in August last year to 1.6 million hours per month in June.
The growth of social media out the category at second highest for time spent online, only marginally trailing entertainment which had just over 1.6 million hours per month.
The two major successes of the social media sites were Facebook and Twitter. Facebook surpassed a unique audience of eight million for the first time in August this year, while Twitter use was up 979% at 1.5 million users.
Nielsen said more ad and PR agencies are looking to track what consumers are saying online about brands by signing up for its BuzzMetrics service, which provides information on what consumers are saying to each other about brands, products, services and topics.
Companies that have signed up for BuzzMetrics include Amnesia, Mediacom, Mindshare, Universal McCann, JWT, Mitchell Communications, Toyota and Coles Group.
Mark Higginson, director of analytics at Nielsen, said: “We have seen a growing focus by agencies on measuring and understanding what consumers are saying online about their clients, particularly as digital advertising budgets continue to increase.
“Previously, most social media monitoring was undertaken only in the case of a crisis or to monitor specific campaigns, however, as the power of social media continues to increase, agencies as well as brand managers are seeing the value in gaining an ongoing barometer of what consumers are saying to each other online.”
