Nearly half of all online adults embracing multiple social media sites

New research from Pew Internet has revealed the growing extent to which adults are now diversifying their online presence. According to the data, 73% now use at least one site, with 43% embracing two or more sites to communicate online.

Based on a survey of almost 2000 US adults aged 18 and over, the data reveals a number of interesting insights into the core user bases of dominant social media sites, many of which will be of key interest to brands looking to appeal to a particular type of audience.

According to the results, Facebook continues to reign supreme among users, with 71% of those surveyed revealing they use Zuckerberg’s creation, up from the 67% recorded last year.

The popularity of image-based site Instagram, which has a core audience composed of digitally-friendly and characteristically youthful users has grown significantly in the past 12 months, with committed Instagram users now almost as likely as Facebook users to check the site out at least once a day.

As well as this, Pinterest was revealed to be particularly popular among women, with the fairer sex reportedly four times as likely as men to use the photo-based blogging site. LinkedIn unsurprisingly saw its greatest user base come from job-hungry uni grads and users operating from high income households.

Interestingly, brands looking to appeal specifically to younger adults may be intrigued to hear that Twitter and Instagram are their social media sites of choice, with much overlap occurring between the user bases of both sites.

As more people around the world continue to embrace social media and create an increasing number of different online profiles on various sites, brands are presented with a number of prime opportunities to penetrate various audiences by devoting more time and money enhancing their presence across a number of social media sites.