Recently, at the Minority Corporate Counsel Association’s CLE Expo in Chicago, I had the opportunity to participate in a fascinating panel discussion on the growing use of social media and its implication for businesses. The session included representatives from AOL, Walmart and PRNewswire.
During the panel discussion, several audience members asked about data that shows increased user engagement with social media. As a global leader in measuring the digital world, Comscore is well positioned to report on such trends in social networking. The average U.S. internet user now spends nearly 6 hours every month engaging with social networking sites, about 50% more time than a person would spend watching their favorite weekly one-hour primetime drama on TV. Currently, social networking is the second most engaging content category online in the U.S., trailing only web portals. It seems likely, however, that social networking will assume the top position in 2012, a milestone that was reached in Latin America earlier this year.
Comscore’s insights into social networking trends specifically, and internet trends generally, is drawn in large part from our research panel. Comscore’s 2 million global panelists have embraced our programs by giving us permission to measure their internet activity after they install our panel software and by completing an occasional survey. This participation provides significant value to the digital business community, since many companies use Comscore’s anonymous, aggregated data to make decisions that shape the products and services that they offer.
The benefit of volunteering for Comscore’s market research panels also extends far beyond the internet. For example, in return for participation by millions of people in our RelevantKnowledge, OpinionSquare, and PremierOpinion panels, Comscore has planted approximately 3 million trees around the world as part of our “Trees for Knowledge” program that we use as an incentive to recruit panelists. We take participation in our research panels seriously and strive to provide value to participants, to businesses, and to the broader global community. We’re also proud that the Better Business Bureau has awarded us an “A+” grade for our attentiveness to panelists’ questions and other inquiries.
We believe that market research is a value-creating enterprise for all involved, and we look forward to continuing to provide unique research and insights that help business navigate the digital world.