According to an August research report from The Nielsen Company, Americans are spending nearly a quarter of their online time on social networking sites and blogs, a 43 percent increase over a year ago.

Said Nielsen analyst Dave Martin, “Despite the almost unlimited nature of what you can do on the web, 40 percent of U.S. online time is spent on just three activities – social networking, playing games and emailing, leaving a whole lot of other sectors fighting for a declining share of the online pie.”

The top sectors by Share of U.S. Internet Time were:
• Social networks – 22.7%, a 43% increase
• Online games – 10.2%, a 10% increase
• Email – 8.3%, a drop of 28% in share of time
• Portals – 4.4%, a drop of 19% in share of time
• Instant messaging – 4.0%, a drop of 15% in share of time
• Videos/movies – 3.9%, a 12% increase
• Search – 3.5%, a 1% increase
• Software manufacturers – 3.3%, no change
• Multi-category entertainment – 2.8%, a drop of 7% in share of time
• Classifieds/auctions – 2.7%, a drop of 2% in share of time

At Scott Public Relations we have seen a growing interest from our clients in our social media expertise, which reinforces The Nielsen findings. In fact, I think this is just the beginning and that as more social media sites come online, and users/companies become more social media savvy in the use of the various technologies and solutions, we’ll see even an even bigger uptick in the social media numbers.

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