Eight out of 10 online adults in Ireland use social networks –survey findings

In a recent survey conducted Amárach Research on behalf of EMC, it was found that eight out of 10 online Irish adults use social networks, with most doing so through mobile devices,

Amárach Research surveyed almost 1,000 adults and the findings were as follows:

  • 78%      of adults were on Facebook,
  • 42%      used YouTube,
  • 32%      use Twitter and
  • 27%      used LinkedIn.

And here’s now we said we were accessing our social networks:

  • almost 80% of Facebook users are using  a smartphone, tablet or laptop.
  • One in four Twitter users use their smartphone app and
  • only 20% used a PC to login to Facebook.

Some other interesting facts that came out of this survey also:

  •  one in five respondents comment on social media sites at least once a day,
  • while half of those surveyed said they added a comment at least once a week.
  • 79% of Facebook users visit the site once a day or more and
  • a third added content from status updates, comments to sharing information on the site.
  • Of the one-third of Twitter users who visit more than once a day, 11% said they uploaded information.

Almost a quarter (24%) of respondents said the amount of data they uploaded on social media websites is increasing, relative to last year. According to CSO statistics, 81% of Irish households had Internet access, while 76% of those aged 16 or over used the Internet in the past three months.

This of course presents lots of opportunities here in Ireland for Big Data related jobs with the amount of data in the world doubling every two years. According to a recent report from Gartner, 4.4 million IT jobs globally will be created to support Big Data by 2015.

It also presents a challenge for employers and companies in relation to the social media activity of staff while at work and the kind of information that is being shared in relation to work, colleagues and customers etc.

Having an appropriate social media policy in place is becoming more critical to ensure you set out the company’s position on what is and isn’t appropriate social media activity when it comes to work related matters. Over the past few years, Voltedge has seen an increase in the requests from our clients on social media and social networking advice and policies. Its never a bad time to review your company’s policies and communicate it again to employees.