ECONOMIC SNAPSHOT | SOCIAL NETWORKING

Following social media trends

By KRISTA M. TORRALVA
Staff Writer businessnews@dallasnews.com

By TOM SETZER
Staff Artist tsetzer@dallasnews.com

Social networking is at an all-time high, with nearly three quarters of American adults using a wide variety of platforms. Nationally, the percentage of social media users multipled ninefold from 8 percent in 2005 to 72 percent as of May, according to the Pew Research Center. While young adults still make up the largest population of social media users, older Internet users are getting more connected.

Mobile devices keep people connected

In three years, Americans have almost doubled their time online, mostly by using smartphones and tablets. About 65 percent of time spent on social networking sites is through mobile platforms.

Billions of minutes spent on the Internet on each platform in ... May 2010 May 2013

None
Tablet

100

81
Smartphone

381

416
Desktops, laptops

477

Share of time spent on social networking sites

Facebook is by far the most popular social networking site in the U.S., accounting for five out of every six minutes spent on a site in 2012.

1.4% 1.9% 83% 5.7% 1.7%

NOTE: Percentages do not total 100 because of rounding.

Other 6.1%

Looking at whos on Facebook in the Dallas area and in Texas

As of July, more than 1.5 million Facebook users were within a 10-mile radius of Dallas; nearly 15 million were in Texas.

Demographics on U.S. social networking users

Nationally, women, Hispanics and young people were the most active on social networking sites as of May.

Dallas
Male Female Age 13-18 19-30 31-50 51 and up 760,000 800,000 116,000 580,000 620,000 240,000

User percentage within each group

Gender Male Female Race/Ethnicity White, non-Hispanic Black, non-Hispanic Hispanic 6,800,000 7,800,000 1,520,000 5,400,000 5,200,000 2,800,000 Age 18-29 30-49 50-64 65 and up 32% 52% 83% 77% 65% 68% 72% 62% 71%

Texas
Male Female Age 13-18 19-30 31-50 51 and up

SOURCES: comScore; Facebook; Texas Social Media Research Institute; Pew Research Center

The bottom line

Social networking is basically one of the most popular activities on desktops, accounting for one out of eight minutes people spend on their PCs. Social networking is even more popular on mobiles, where it counts for one out of four minutes. Theres more social networking activity than ever before. Andrew Lipsman, vice president of marketing and insights, comScore We'll see further integration of tools like Vine and Instagram. Particularly, I think were going to see more businesses look at ways to use video and social media marketing. It is more interesting to show than to tell, and thats especially true with social media these days. Sharing photos and videos is becoming increasingly popular and is easy to do with mobile devices.

Anthony Edwards, board member, Texas Social Media Research Institute

Krista M. Torralva, staff writer, The Dallas Morning News