It’s easy to get caught up in the social media hype presented by industry publications and the national media. FACEBOOK HAS OVER 845 MILLION USERS. A BUSY DAY ON TWITTER MEANS 175 MILLION TWEETS. FOUR BILLION VIDEOS ARE WATCHED ON YOUTUBE EVERY DAY. Well that’s all fine and dandy, but for local businesses and organizations, such information can at times feel out of touch. It can also feel downright misguided for those tasked to consider, develop, or implement a local social media strategy. So we wanted to know, how do social media users in Louisville actually USE social media? Surprisingly, we couldn’t find the answer. Instead of hoping for this information to come to us, we sought it out. Here are the results:
If you’re wondering how this compares to other cities and the nation, here’s the scoop. Comparable city data is largely unavailable and we couldn’t unearth recent national data to make exact comparisons. If you’re wondering, we encourage you to seek it out. There could be new data. If you find or know of it, please leave a comment below.
Methodology:
The objective of this study was to accurately measure social media usage among the Louisville metro population. To accomplish this objective, Current360 designed and hosted an online survey asking respondents about their social media behaviors and opinions. To qualify for the study, respondents had to live in the Louisville metro and use at least one social network. The survey was launched on September 13, 2012, and closed on October 2, 2012. 417 responses were gathered with 387 qualified respondents. Respondents were recruited virally by Current360 employees through word of mouth and social media networks. To encourage recruitment, respondents were given the opportunity to enter their e-mail address to be entered into a drawing for one $50 gift card. Potential biases include using social media networks to promote recruitment as well as hosting the survey online. Since aim of this study was to measure behavior of those actually using social media, Current360 maintains that the results are reliable and valid. With a sample of 387 in a universe of 1,305,290, Current360 is 95% confident with a 5% margin of error that these results are representative of the Louisville metro population.
Insights (Gender):
- Use of Google+ (m=46.2%,f=33.1%), LinkedIn (m=65.9%, f=50.2%), Youtube (m=76.5%, f=65.3%), Twitter (m=81.8%, f=76.5%), Flickr (m=16.7%, f=15.5%), Foursquare (m=33.3%, f=25.1%) and Blogs (m=40.9%, f=31.9%) tended to skew towards males.
- Use of Facebook (f=94.8%, m=90.9%), Pinterest (f=76.9%, m=25.0%), Instagram (f=57.0%, m=43.2%) and Yelp (f=13.9, m=13.6%) tended to skew toward female audiences.
- Women were more likely than men to cite Facebook (f=56.2%, m=48.5%) as the network they use most. Men, however, were more likely to say Twitter (m=42.4%, f=33.1%) is the network they use most.
- Men were more likely to say they use Google+ (m=22.7%) the least of their social networks, while women cite Google+ and LinkedIn (f=17.9%) equally as the networks they use the least.
- Both men (m=30.0%) and women (f=30.8%) spend about 1-2 hours on social networks each day. Men (m=13.1%) are more likely than women (f=6.4%) to spend 5 or more hours on a social network each day.
- The majority of men (m=50.8%) and women (f=46.1%) say the post several times each day to social networks.
- Men (m=70.8%) were more likely than women (f=56.4%) to use social networks for business purposes.
- Women (f=47.6%) are more likely than men (m=39.8%) to frequently use social media to obtain information about products or services.
- Women (f=74%) are slightly more likely to have purchased a product based on a social media post than men (m=72.7%).
Insights (Age):
- Facebook was the most popular social media network among nearly every age group.
- For those 22-25 (98%), 34-37 (94.3%), or 54-57 (86.7%), Twitter was the most commonly used social media network.
- Facebook was the social network most used the most by users in every age group except those 22-25 (45.1%), 38-41 (50.0%) who said they used Twitter the most of any social network.
- Although Google+ was the network used the least by users, those over the age of 54 (30.3%) said they used LinkedIn the least of all their social networks.
- Time spent on social media networks declines with age. Those under the age of 33 (31.1%) are likely to spend between 2-3 hours each day on social networks. Those 34-53 years of age (34.5%), however, are likely to spend only about 1-2 hours on social networks each day. Those 54 years or older (36.4%) will spend less than an hour on social media networks each day.
- Frequency of posting remains consistent over one’s lifetime. Those under 33 (46.5%), 34-47 (52.9%), and 54 or older (36.4%) post to their social media networks several times each day.
- Using social media to acquire information about products is consistently frequent across all age groups. Those under 33 (45.4%), 34-47 (44.9%), and 54 or older (42.4%) all say they frequently use social networks to obtain information about products and services.
- Propensity to purchase products based on social media information is strongest among those between the ages of 34 and 53 (77.1%) followed by 0-33 (73.6%) and 54 or older (60.6%). With every age group, the majority of respondents said they had purchased a product or service based on a social media post they saw.