Study: Social Media Use Diversifying

Facebook remains the go-to social media site, but users are also diversifying their social media use, both in the number of sites and the frequency with which they are visited.

Among the sites benefitting from the widening circle of online connections are Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and LinkedIn.

That is according to a new Pew Research Center Internet Project Report that sought input on the use of those five sites.

Facebook remains the leader by a wide margin with 71% saying they use the site, up from 67% in 2012. Use of all the sites was up year to year, though some within the margin of error. LinkedIn was the second most popular at 22%, up from 20% in 2012; followed by Pinterest at 21%, up from 15%; Twitter at 18%, up from 16%; and Instagram at 17%, up from 13%.

Some 42% of online adults now use multiple social networking sites, said the report. In addition, Instagram users are nearly as likely as Facebook users to check in to the site on a daily basis.

The diversification appears to break out along demographic lines, the study finds. For example, women tend to be four times as likely to be on Pinterest, while LinkedIn is especially popular among college graduates and users with higher income households. Twitter and Instagram tend to be favored by younger, urban and non-white users, with substantial overlap between those two services.

The study was based on phone interviews with 1,801 adults, 18-plus, by Princeton Survey Research Associates International from Aug. 7 to Sept. 16, 2013. The margin of error is plus or minus 2.9 percentage points.

LINK:	http://www.broadcastingcable.com/news/technology/study-social-media-us...
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