SOCIAL MEDIA

TGI provides insights into social media and the online habits of social networkers:

• There are 3.7 million adult internet users on the island of Ireland, 1 in 3 of whom (1.2 million) regularly use social networks.

• Two-thirds of these internet users aged between 15 and 24 regularly use social networking sites. They are 85% more likely to do so than the average adult.

• While internet users in the fledglings TGI lifestyle category are the most likely to use social media, “playschool parents”* account for almost one in five social media users.

• Growth in social networking has outsprinted that of email among 15 to 24 year old internet users with regular social networking use rising by 170% since 2008 compared to a rise in email use of just 50%.

• The use of mobile internet by regular social networkers has rocketed in the last two years, increasing by 300% and now accounting for over 350,000 internet users.

• Almost 700,000 social networkers log-on at least once a day – equivalent to 15% of the entire population of the island of Ireland.

• Aside from the internet, regular social media users are particularly likely to be among the heaviest 20% (or in media neutral quintile 1) of cinema and outdoor media relative to the average adult.

• Social media users are also considerably more likely to use the internet to access other media: two-thirds of those that watch TV online regularly check their Facebook accounts, as do 50% of online radio listeners.

• A strong proportion of social media users also have a thirst to participate in online communities with almost 80,000 regularly creating or managing a blog.

• One in four regular social media users, make an online purchase at least once a month with the most popular items being clothing and jewellery. However, only 7% of this group are willing to pay for newspaper or magazine content online.

Base: All adults 15+
Source: Republic of Ireland TGI & Northern Ireland TGI 2010 (combined dataset)

* Playschool parents live with their son or daughter and their youngest child is between 0 and 4 years old.