Nielsen: Americans spent 53.5B minutes monthly on Facebook

U.S. Web surfers spent 53.5 billion minutes on Facebook in May 2011, according to Nielsen's third-quarter report on the state of social media. The report offers insight that cable programmers and operators looking to reach subscribers on multiple platforms may find useful, including:

Click here for details on Nielsen's Q3 2011 Social Media Report.

-- More than 31 million people in the U.S. watched video content on YouTube, Facebook and other social networks in May, viewing nearly 157 million video data streams. Men are the heaviest users, streaming more videos and spending 9 percent more time watching video on social networks.

-- About 2 percent of consumers use an Internet-connected TV to access social networks, and 37 percent use mobile phones. But computers remain the most popular device for accessing social networks, with 97 percent of consumers saying they use a PC or laptop.

-- Trailing Facebook in minutes spent on social media were Yahoo, which racked up 17.2 billion minutes in time spent from users. It was followed by Google (12.5 billion); AOL Media Network (11.4 billion); MSN/ Windows Live/ Bing (9.5 billion); YouTube (9.1 billion); eBay (4.5 billion); gaming company Electronic Arts (4.3 billion); and Apple (4.3 billion).

-- Women ages 18 to 34 are the most active users of social networks and blogs.

Cable operators are looking for ways to cash in on the booming popularity of social networks. Verizon (NYSE: VZ) offers subscribers access to Facebook and YouTube through its FiOS TV service, and Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA) plans to integrate social TV recommendations from Facebook into a new version of its interactive program guide. The challenge pay TV distributors face in integrating social media into their platforms is getting consumers accustomed to using a computer or mobile phone to access social networks to use their TV remotes to access content from Facebook and other sites, and finding a way to generate ad revenue from offering access to social networks on TV. 

For more:
- see Nielsen's Q3 social media report

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