Email Usage Down and Social Networking Up in 2010

Here is some more information I found via the Darwin Enterprise Social Media Edition though a post on Best Social Media Stats, Facts and Marketing Research of 2010. 

The Nielsen Company provides research that indicates Americans spend a third their online time (36 percent) communicating and networking across social networks, blogs, personal email and instant messaging. However the channels of communications are shifting. The share of time for social networks use climbed to 22.7% in June 2010, up from 15.8% in June 2009.  This is gain of 43%. At the same time the share of time for email dropped from 11.5% in June 2009 to 8.3% in June 2010. This is drop of 28%. Luis Suarez will be pleased (see: posts on “a world  without email”).

With mobile devices email still holds strong for now while social networking use is growing.  In a Nielsen survey of mobile web users, there is a 28 percent rise in the prevalence of social networking behavior, but the dominance of email activity on mobile devices continued with an increase from 37.4 percent to 41.6 percent of U.S. mobile Internet time.

Does this switch to social media tools transfer to action within the enterprise? I have heard from some sources that email is starting to be replaced by social collaboration tools (see my last two posts: What Social Media and Enterprise 2.0 Can Bring to HR Processes and Looking at the Social Enterprise with eXO CEO Benjamin Mestrallet) ). While many of the social collaboration tools offer email integration to attract those locked into email, the stated goal of many is to take activities out from the email inbox. I would be pleased to see research on this but I am hopeful. I know from personal experience that it is hard to kick the email habit but I also have seen the benefits. 

 

Comments

[Ljseverson]

These are some interesting numbers. I wonder how much the mobile information would change if we focused on just the iPhone and Android market where there are better apps for social networking?

[CFDs]

This is a true scenario. I appreciate the good job you did. This article surely is a great info that we can use in analyzing why is it so. The trend is gearing towards this phase. More power and thanks a lot for sharing your ideas with us.