Report: 105m Americans make social media contributions

A new study has revealed that 105 million Americans currently contribute to the social media space, with the amount of time spent communicating online also on the rise.

According to the Media Shifts to Social report from Netpop Research, US consumers now spend 18 per cent more time communicating with others on the web compared to 2006, with the amount of time spent on entertainment down by 29 per cent.

The use of social networking websites has soared by 93 per cent in the last few years, while seven million Americans can be defined as heavy social media contributors.

Netpop concluded that the findings suggest website owners should focus more on user-generated content to meet consumer demand and that marketing, customer service and consumer intelligence functions should work together to properly address the issue of social media.

"New ways of engaging consumers must be developed that enable companies to listen to and promote their brands through information sharing based on mutual respect and transparent communication," it added.

MySpace, Wikipedia and Facebook were among the top ten websites visited by Americans in January, according to comScore.

This news story was brought to you by Bluhalo, a leading UK digital agency.