People spend 2 hours daily on social networking sites Facebook is tops; LinkedIn is popular – but only 30% respondents have a Twitter account

A survey by content service company Indiabiz News & Research Services (INRS) finds that Indians have a mind of their own when it comes to social networking; they have taken to Facebook in a big way and blog a lot – but leave trendy things like Twitter to the glitterati.
According to the Social Media survey covering over 350 respondents in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Bangalore, the popularity of micro-blogging sites such as Twitter seems to be limited to celebrities. Linkedin, according to the survey, has a greater following. This could be attributed to the business networking focus that this networking space is known for.
The survey also re-affirmed the perceived dominance of Facebook. It took the first position in terms of usage.
The findings establish that most Indians seem to decide things on their own and do not follow trends per se. About 63% of those who took the poll have never engaged with Communities, Groups and Fan pages on networking sites. Among these, more than half join on their own will and a miniscule (11%) would only follow brand endorsements by their friends. And only 15% say they trust the information provided. Despite the efforts of companies trying to push their brands in the social media space, nearly half of the respondents do not associate themselves with any brand or product.
About 37% of the respondents belong to the 26-30 years age group. And almost 35% of them were professionals with mid-level jobs. Perhaps, that explains the importance of LinkedIn, a business networking platform that helps its users in establishing contacts and connections related to jobs and business opportunity. The vote in favour of LinkedIn (45.8%) was way above either YouTube (36.5%) or Twitter (29.6%).
Even as more and more people are joining the online networking space for professional reasons, the most dominant reason to join the club is to stay in touch with friends. Almost 90% of the users join such sites to follow or stay in touch with their friends. And, nearly 80% follow their friends for their pictures.
More than tweeting, blogging is becoming a popular choice among thinkers and debaters. A large number of users (45%) are reading or writing blogs to express ideas and opinions. Almost 70% of bloggers spend half-an-hour per day -- mostly for gaining information. The top 5 categories of blogs are entertainment, current affairs, personal, fashion and technology, in ascending order.
So, despite the hype surrounding the emergence of social media chatting and tracking pictures of friends and relatives still top the charts. Netizens also would prefer companies communicating through corporate blogs (41.4%), videos/pictures (40.3%) and emails/messages (37.3%).

June 20 2010