New Study: 6 Types of Social Media Users

Social Media is THE hot topic in all media discussions at the moment. We at Brand Support know this from discussing the possibilities social media platforms offer with our clients. Now a new global study called “MePublic” and presented by MTV Networks and car manufacturer Volkswagen gives you an idea who uses social media and to what extent. For the study, young people (14-29-year-olds) in 10 countries (Mexico, USA, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy) were asked how they use social networks.

The study identifies 6 different types of users:

The “Mediacs” are the largest group with 23%. They are very much committed to social networks and spend more than 160 minutes there every day. More than a quarter of Mediacs (28%) access the communities via mobile phones.

The “Tagtics” (22%) tend to use the platforms to get specific pieces of information. They are not as committed as the Mediacs.

The third largest group (17%) can already be referred to as skeptics: “Skipits” keep their distance from social networks. They have a hard time recognizing the point of such communities. It must be added that they also use other media less.

“Funatics” are mainly looking for entertainment in social networks and prefer to observe what the others are doing instead of becoming active themselves. Two thirds of Funatics are female.

“Crewsers” (13%) see social networks mainly as a place for exchange with friends.

Almost as big as the Crewsers group is the group of those who do not want to use social networks or tried it once and then quit: the “Nobuddies” (12%). As their reasons for quitting they named having no time, being afraid of becoming addicted or being harassed by others. A quarter of "Nobuddies" does not want to join the networks because of data protection concerns.

It should be noted that social networks are only used daily by a little more than half of all 14-29-year-olds (58%). In the study, television is in first place with 69% daily use.

As radio people we certainly have to add that in reality our “good old radio” is in the lead, which is still used by approx. 80% of the total population and by more than 70% of 14-29-year-olds every day.

Sources: wuv (German), Volkswagen press release (English)