ComScore: Mobile social media audience grows 37%

Mobile social networking is on the rise, according to a new study from comScore, which shows that 72.2 million Americans accessed social networking sites or blogs on their mobile devices in August, a 37 percent increase over the past year.

In addition, the study revealed that almost 40 million mobile users in the U.S. visit these types of sites every day, a 58 percent increase since August 2010.

"This behavior is even more prevalent among smartphone owners with three in five accessing social media each month, highlighting the importance of apps and the enhanced functionality of smartphones to social media usage on mobile devices," said Mark Donovan, comScore senior vice president for mobile.

The largest increase in growth was the number of users who accessed social networking sites from a mobile application, a 126 percent change from this time last year. Users accessing social networking sites via a mobile browser also increased from 34,192 to 42,251, a 24 percent increase.

Among social networking brands, Facebook captured the largest average audience over the three month period ending in August, with 57,332 users, a 50 percent increase over the year-ago period. Twitter experienced the amount of growth, with a 75 percent increase in its mobile audience.

The study also examined users' mobile interactions with brands, with more than half of mobile social networkers reading posts from brands and organizations. One-third of users received a mobile deal, and one-fourth of users clicked on an ad on a mobile social networking site.

"Advertisers and marketers should take note--mobile users are not only engaging with their friends through social networking, but a majority are also interacting with brands in these social media environments," said Donovan.

For more:
- see this release

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