Westport, United States (IBwire.com - September 16, 2009) Move over, Dear Abby. Use of Online Social Networks, a new White Paper from Beresford Research (Westport, CT) shows that 65% of 18 - 24 year-olds using online social networks turn to their online communities for advice when they have a decision to make. While over half of all social network users surveyed agreed that the opinions and insights shared by others in their networks have some influence in their decision process, this percentage increases significantly for adults under 35. “This suggests that younger users have integrated social networks into their lives to such an extent that it has become a trusted resource for their decision making,” said Julien Beresford, President of Beresford Research.

Beresford Research surveyed over 400 users of online social networking sites this summer, including Facebook, My Space, Linked In and others, to learn how people over 18 are using online social networks. In doing so, the company identified four distinct groups of users, and in addition to uncovering the influence of social networks, found that online social networking is their most important online activity other than email. Even among offline activities, the importance of online social networking is only exceeded by going out with friends.

Among other findings:

• Social networkers are spending 22 hours per week on networking sites
• Employees accessing social network sites from work do so for 6.6 hours per week
• Nearly half of all social networkers Twitter, and suburbanites Twitter more
• Almost 40% of social networkers click on paid advertising

“This study underscores the enormous opportunity represented by online social networks for companies seeking new ways to interact with their customers and employees. We were surprised to learn that a quarter of all respondents have provided links to specific products, companies or services on their networking sites, providing both endorsements and free advertising,” said Kathy Brunjes, Vice President of Marketing. “These findings suggest that online social networking is more than social, and is expanding to include new opportunities for businesses to interact with their consumers.”

The survey identified four individual social networking groups:
RESIDENTS -- most comfortable with social networking, have been members over 3 years on average, are constantly logged in and have a large number of friends/contacts 
TWITTERERS -- true extroverts of social networking, have usually been members for a slightly shorter time than Residents (1 - 2 years on average), are most interested in starting new online groups, getting to know new people, and discussing online activities
HOBBYISTS -- tend to restrict their group of on-line friends to social contacts, interact with social networks from home computers and spend the most time updating their status and profile
ROOKIES -- social networking for less than a year, are by far the least security minded, and far less concerned than others that what they share could have a negative impact on future employability

Use of Online Social Networks is available at no cost at www.beresfordresearch.com.

Methodology
Beresford Research fielded the survey of 21 questions online with 421 qualified social networking site users in June 2009. Tabulations of the data included significance testing at the 95% level; the margin of error for the total sample is +/- 4.8 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. The data was also analyzed using cluster analysis (K-means) to identify the four user segments.

Beresford Research
Beresford Research (www.beresfordresearch.com) is a 19 year-old private market research firm based in Westport, Connecticut, that delivers creative, customized solutions to give clients -- including Booz & Co., Towers Perrin and PhoCusWright -- a competitive edge. For more information on the social networking study or how Beresford Research might assist your company, please contact Kathy Brunjes at (203) 226-6997 or kbrunjes@beresfordresearch.com.

Subimt Press Release - IBWIRE Inc