The end of the year is the time we traditionally look back, reflect and start to plan for the next. One of the problems with online and social media marketing is everything moves so fast it is hard to keep up and know what is useful information. One of my main sources for trends and useful information is Nielsen.com with their frequent studies and reports. Their State of the Media: The Social Media Report 2012 is no exception. The study not only gives a great snapshot of the past year but shows the way for future trends. For example while access to social media via PCs remains strong it has flattened out a bit and access via mobile web (smartphones) has shot up 82% and the use of mobile apps has shot up 85%. My takeaway on that is not to abandon my website but to make it more accessible to mobile phones and to find ways to engage people using mobile sites.

There is a lot of information there and I would encourage you to download the report and glean what you can. In the meantime here are some fun statistics from the report that are ready made to be tweeted and shared.

1. Mobile Web users went up 82% while PC web users went down 4%  (TWEET THIS STAT)
    
2. Mobile App users went up 85% to 101.8 million (TWEET THIS STAT)
    
3. 17% of consumers’ PC time is spent on Facebook (TWEET THIS STAT)
    
4. Total time spent on internet went up 21% (TWEET THIS STAT)
    
5. Total time spent on mobile apps went up 120% (TWEET THIS STAT)
    
6. PC users spent 20% of their time on social networks (TWEET THIS STAT)
    
7. Mobile users spent 30% of their time on social networks (TWEET THIS STAT)
    
8. 171.8M in U.S. on social networks (TWEET THIS STAT)
    
9. 81.1M in U.S. access social networks using mobile web (TWEET THIS STAT)
    
10. 85.8M in U.S. access social networks using mobile apps (TWEET THIS STAT)
     
11. Time spent on social media increased 37% (TWEET THIS STAT)
     
12. Women spend 44% more time on mobile social media than men (TWEET THIS STAT)
     
13. U.S. Hispanics spend 44% more time on mobile social media (TWEET THIS STAT)
     
14. Facebook is the most popular US Social Network with over 152M users (TWEET THIS STAT)
     
15. Overall Facebook users in US went down 4% (TWEET THIS STAT)
     
16. Overall Google+ users in US went up 80% (TWEET THIS STAT)
     
17. Pinterest users grew 1,047% (TWEET THIS STAT)
     
18. Facebook mobile app audience grew 88% (TWEET THIS STAT)
     
19. Twitter mobile app audience grew 134% (TWEET THIS STAT)
     
20. Foursquare mobile app audience grew 118% (TWEET THIS STAT)
     
21. Pinterest mobile app audience grew 1,698% (TWEET THIS STAT)
     
22. More time spent on Facebook than any other social media network (TWEET THIS STAT)
     
23. Pinterest is fastest growing social network in 2012 (TWEET THIS STAT)
     
24. US spent 2,096,684,000 minutes on Pinterest last year (TWEET THIS STAT)
     
25. 76% of users feel positive about social media networks (TWEET THIS STAT)
     
26. 63% connect with others on social media because they know them (TWEET THIS STAT)
     
27. 94% of social media users still connect via their PC (TWEET THIS STAT)
     
28. 46% of social media users now connect via a mobile phone (TWEET THIS STAT)
     
29. 32% of 18-24 year olds use social media in the bathroom! (TWEET THIS STAT)
     
30. 51% of 25- 34 year olds use social media in the office (TWEET THIS STAT)
     
31. 41% of tablet users watch TV with their tablet (TWEET THIS STAT)
     
32. 38% of smartphone users watch TV with their phone (TWEET THIS STAT)
     
33. 45% of tablet users shop while watching TV (TWEET THIS STAT)
     
34. 25% of tablet users look for coupons advertised on TV (TWEET THIS STAT)
     
35. 33% of Twitter users tweet about TV shows they are watching (TWEET THIS STAT)
     
36. 25% of 18-34 year olds use social media to comment on TV shows they are watching (TWEET THIS STAT)
     
37. 35-44 year olds most likely to discuss TV shows on social networks (TWEET THIS STAT)
     
38. 38% of smartphone users visited social media site while watching TV (TWEET THIS STAT)
     
39. 47% of social media users contact customer service via social media sites (TWEET THIS STAT)
     
40. 30% prefer contacting customer service via social media rather than by phone (TWEET THIS STAT)
     
41. 33% agree ads on social media sites are annoying (TWEET THIS STAT)
     
42. 26% are more likely to notice an ad posted by a friend on social media (TWEET THIS STAT)
     
43. 26% of users “Liked” an ad after seeing it on social network (TWEET THIS STAT)
     
44. 14% purchased a product after seeing an ad on social networks (TWEET THIS STAT)
     
45. U.S. Asian consumers most engaged with social ads (TWEET THIS STAT)
     
46. 53% compliment brands on social media networks (TWEET THIS STAT)
     
47. 50% complain about brands on social media networks (TWEET THIS STAT)
     
48. Worldwide Asia-Pacific users most likely to use social media via mobile phone (TWEET THIS STAT)
     
49. 63% of Middle East-African social media users interact while watching TV (TWEET THIS STAT)
     
50. Asia-Pacific consumers most likely to purchase based on social media website (TWEET THIS STAT)

What was the most interesting fact you found in the report? How do you interpret the trends? Let me know below. If you are struggling with social media marketing or would like to know how it can work with your business and would like to learn more contact us for a free social media marketing evaluation.  

Images from Nielson Wire's State of the Media: The Social Media Report 2012