It's Certainly an Online World We Live In

According to a San Francisco Chronicle report from the research firm Nielsen Co., the number of Internet users who visited a social network or blog increased by 24 percent from April 2009 to April 2010. Also of note? The average person spent 66 percent more time on those sites during that period. Nielsen added about 75 percent of all Internet users visited a social network or blog in April 2010, and they spent 22 percent of their online time, more than 110 billion minutes on those sites.

The main driver of that trend? If you said Facebook, you win the prize. Since early 2009, Facebook more than doubled its membership. The company is now at about 500 million users. But Facebook was only the third most popular brand. Google was first. MSN, WindowsLive and Bing also drew a tremendous share of the online audience. While the average user spent 1 hour and 21 minutes on Google in April, Facebook users were logged on an average of six hours. It is interesting that as of late, I have heard Facebook talked about a lot on television and radio. I don’t think it’s a coincidence. Facebook has been driving its PR hard and doing a great job.

Staying on the Internet trail, Starbucks announced it will begin offering unlimited free wireless Internet access at all company-operated U.S. locations staring July 1. What took them so long? I gave up my favorite Starbucks Tazo tea drink several months ago when they changed that beverage format and rarely visit the malt shop of the 21st century anymore. My multi-year office lease is almost at an end and maybe I should consider moving into a Starbucks location full-time to connect to their wireless, interface with my clients, write my blogs and use customers to develop consumer surveys. That would be the ultimate form of “social” media.