Twitter and Facebook dominate Spanish social media

As an avid time-waster user of social media, I was very excited to be delivered of a brand new iphone yesterday (4 - they're giving them away, literally, now the 4S is out; mine was free). I already spend far too long faffing about on Twitter and Facebook ("essential for journalists" and "keeping in touch with friends back home" being the excuses), and now that I can see it all much more quickly - my aged laptop is s-l-o-w - and for an all-inclusive price (and RSI in my pinkie), I will be whiling away even more hours. Yes, I know finding out what your friends are up to, and keeping them informed of your movements/thoughts/ likes/dislikes while out and about is normal for most people, but I've been too mean to get a snazzy smartphone with an unlimited-internet-use tariff till now. It seems I'm late to the party - a new report by Nielsen has some interesting data about Social Media in Spain - who uses it, how, when, and for how long. The answer? Lots of people, for lots of hours, with Twitter seeing the biggest gains, and Facebook most hours. But I bet you can't guess just how many use SM. Depending on your view, and usage, of Twitter etc, you may or may not be surprised to hear than 82% of Spanish use social media - networks such as Facebook and Tuenti, Twitter, and blogs. The biggest age group is 18-34, unsurprisingly, although 35-49 is close behind. In terms of occupation, 25 to 34-year-old unemployed people (ie about 25% of the this age band in Spain) favour Facebook and Blogger, while students are big on Tuenti, and Twitter is most used by middle-aged executives. Linked-In is popular with executives in the next age group, the over-50s. The most hours are spent on Facebook - double the amount of time on any other network. In terms of how people access social media, 37% of people use their smart phone to see what they're friends are up to (in the US, this figure is 60%), mostly in the 25-44 age bracket. We're behind, but we're catching up. Looking at the individual social media, over the past year, Twitter's users in Spain have gone up by nearly 170% (from under two million to more than three million), while the time spent tweeting, and reading tweets, has increased by almost 140%, from around 18 minutes to around 25 (figures for August 2010/2011). Interestingly, Twitter's usage among the 35-49 group has decreased since last year, while the 18-34s are using it more. Are us oldies getting tweet-fatigue? And young españoles are spending longer than ever keeping up with their mates: while Spanish internet users spend more total hours on Facebook, they spend longer per person on Tuenti - over four and a half hours. What on earth did we all do with our time before social media changed our lives? Watch TV? Call each other by phone? Send text messages? Have face-to-face conversations?
Blog published on 3 November 2011