Commentary

The Whole Story - Where Are We Most Social?

12-11

The growth in the use of mobile devices and apps when accessing social media is well documented. This USA TouchPoints analysis looks at where people use those devices most for that purpose.

The ubiquity of mobile media means the potential exists to use a cellphone to access social media anywhere, but it is more valuable to understand which locations are most dominant. Also, it's helpful to understand what average weekly reach of the total 18-64 population they deliver, rather than just social media users.

To that end, we conducted the following analysis of the top five locations by average weekly reach:

*In line with other research -- last week's column showed that prime time for social media use is in the evening -- we see that the Home has a 79% weekly reach of adults 18-64, which outstrips the second-strongest location by marginally over 30%.

*That second-place location is not actually one specific type of location but a composite of several. It is categorized as Other Out-of-Home locations -- anything from shopping malls, movie theaters, restaurants, bars, etc. Considering the ubiquity of mobile media, this intuitively suggests the potential for social and mobile as a powerful combination, if the brand messaging vehicle can be effectively developed and leveraged.

*The Workplace and the Car and other modes of transport each deliver a weekly reach of 30%. Work may be expected to deliver higher reach than travel-based media. But considering constraints on social media access in many workplaces and that Americans spend a great deal of time in the car, these numbers are less surprising than they may seem.

*Perhaps time spent in Someone Else’s Home only delivers 18% weekly reach reflects the social pressure to focus on socializing.

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