A recent 2010 Nielsen study Social Networks/Blogs Now Account for One in Every Four and a Half Minutes Online found that globally, we spend about 110 billion minutes on social networks and blogs, which accounts for one in every four and a half minutes spent online. The average amount of time spent on these sites has gone up from about three and a half hours, to about six hours per month in 2010 (at the time the study was conducted in April 2010).

Another study Australia Getting More Social Online as Facebook Leads and Twitter Grows tells us:

“Nearly four in five (78%) of Australia’s nine million social media users sent or shared a photo in the past year and nearly three quarters (74%) sent or shared a link. The biggest increases in social media usage were reading and posting on Twitter, reading wikis and engaging with brands and organizations via social media.”

It is interesting to note that about two in every five Australians online is actively interacting with companies and brands via various social networks, telling us that Australians are becoming more receptive to social media marketing efforts. Almost nine in ten Australians online look to their peers for feedback and recommendations; engaging in a conversation with and/or about the company or brand.

In the same report, it is also stated that about 43% of Australians online own a smartphone. Mobile social networking has also become drastically popular in the last year with major telcos like Optus and Three offering unlimited Facebook and Twitter access. The top four social networks visited via smartphones are Facebook (92%), YouTube (18%), Twitter (18%) and MySpace (9%).