Over 2xs Over 55 Visit Mobile Sites than in 2010

Stats, stats and more stats. Everyone in social media must be part statistician, but who doesn’t enjoy watching this industry take shape? Here’s the latest from Nielsen’s Q3 2011 social media report.  One statistic that popped out:

Internet users over the age of 55 are driving the growth of social networking through the Mobile Internet. Source: Nielsen Q3 2011

The chart above shows year over year mobile internet audience growth to social networking sites.

The top five US social networking sites via mobile internet: Facebook 46, 531,000; Twitter 11,453,000: LinkedIn 6,031,000; MySpace 4,047,000 and Photobucket 2,122,000.

Do you use Photobucket? I use instagram for mobile photo sharing and flickr for photo storage.

Social Networking App up 30% from Q3 2010

Top App Categories: games, weather, social networking, maps/navigator, music, news, entertainment, banking/finance, shopping/retail and dining/restaurant. Which do use the most? For me it’s more about social networking and maps – games not so much. If you need a social media marketing PR app, here’s mine.

Highest percentage of social networking apps by user age and network:  18-24 Facebook and MySpace 20%;  25-34 Foursquare 21%; 35-44 LinkedIn 26%; 45-54 LinkedIn 18% and 55 and up Facebook 10%. Where do your social networking app allegiances lie? I like to switch out, but MySpace is not on my phone.

Mobile Social Media Use is on the Rise

Nearly 2 in 5 users access social media from their phones. This makes sense, but can the 3% iPad number be right? I mean, how could iPad tie with gaming consoles?

Most valued features on phones include GPS at 56% and social networking at 30%. I’ll admit my life has changed since I got an iPhone with a map app. And, sometimes I switch off all of my social networking on my computer. When I access updates on my phone, it seems so much quicker. How about you – what app do you rely on the most?

Thanks to my mastermind colleague, Dr. Pauline Wallin for the link.

Where do you or your customers fit into mobile social networking?