ADOTAS — Where, oh where, is everybody spending their unproductive surfing time?

According to a survey by Burst Media, although a majority of respondents belong to at least one social networking site, the amount of time spent on the sites is somewhat short, compared to overall time spent online. For example, the research found that while 40% of 18-34 year olds spend 11 hours or more per week online—less than ½ hour a day (or 3.5 hours/week) of that time is spent on social media sites.

The respondents of the Online Insights report survey, which included nearly 1,900 adults 18 years and older, were asked where they spend their remaining time online. Those 18-34 years indicated they are drawn to entertainment news and gaming sites, while Baby Boomers (ages 45-64 years) gravitated toward sites providing local/national news, shopping/comparison shopping, and health information.

Over half (52.5%) of Baby Boomers surveyed indicated that they did not belong to a social networking site - pointing to potential opportunity in the social networking space to reach this active demographic. This opportunity, however, may not be fully realized with the current selection of social networking options. Among Boomers not belonging to a social networking site, a huge majority (96.3%) feel these sites are focused on age groups other than their own.

“There is no denying the fact that social networks are hugely popular, but it is important to recognize that Internet users still spend a significant portion of their time online visiting content sites,” Chuck Moran, Vice President of Marketing at Burst Media, said in a statement “The results of this survey reveal a tremendous opportunity for marketers to utilize both social media and the thousands of high quality Long Tail web sites to reach their target audiences.”

Source: http://www.adotas.com/2009/08/social-network-opportunity-to-reach-baby-boomers/