The average monthly total time spent on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter grew by 82% between December 2008 and December 2009, according to a new report.
The findings of the Nielson company indicate that across the globe, the average time, per person, spent on social media in a single month was more than 5 hours 35 minutes.
The UK average is 6 hours 7 minutes per person per month – a total of 1.2m hours every day.
They also show that the global audience for social media isn’t just increasing, but it is accelerating, with an average monthly total of more than 300m.
In the UK, this relates to an audience of just over 29m per month.
Although more attention is being paid to the marketing power of social media by marketing agencies, a large proportion of companies, public sector organisations and politicians have yet to embrace it.
And on that last point – today, David Cameron hired part of the Obama 2008 team to help the Conservatives with their campaign in the last few weeks before the General Election. The web played a critical part in getting Obama into the White House. So will the same tactics be employed in Britain? All eyes will be on CCHQ.