More than half of Americans age 12 and up are on Facebook. That’s according to Arbitron and Edison Research in their upcoming 2011 Infinite Dial Report.
The study, conducted in January, indicates that 51% of all teens, men and women have a profile on the site. The findings come from a survey of about 2,000 participants. The companies shared tidbits from the study in their PPM client call with customers on Thursday.
Edison VP Research Tom Webster said they’ve tracked the growth of Facebook since 2008 and have watched it grow from 8% usage just three years ago to 51% today, becoming the dominant player in social networking, with more users than MySpace, LinkedIn and Twitter.
“Facebook is a mainstream platform now. It’s changed the way people communicate” and will change the way you run your station, Webster said.
Another finding: in 2001, 98% of those surveyed used television and 96% used radio; in 2011, while television use remained the same, local AM/FM radio use dropped to 96%.
While not giving away the rest of the results, Arbitron SVP of Marketing Bill Rose ticked off a list of communication platform and devices besides Facebook, like YouTube and podcasts, DVRs and iPods that “weren’t around a decade ago.” They intend to discuss the uptake of social networking on mobile phones in an April 5 webinar.
Related:
“Tell Me Something I Didn’t Know,” Promo Power
