With thanks to all who participate, here are the results of this past weekend’s poll, which I’ve now closed. This poll’s focus:
Could you last a week without social media?
The results: It’s probably unsurprising that 89% of respondents to a website poll reported that they regularly use social media. All respondents use social media for personal/networking purposes, and 59% also use it for business purposes.
Which channels do you use? In terms of percentages of people reporting the channels they use, LinkedIn, Facebook and then Twitter came out on top, followed by Pinterest, Instagram, Google+ and XING. If you’re unfamiliar with XING, it’s a social network used by more than 10 million German-speaking business professionals. When I asked people to list their their three favourite forms of social media, Facebook and Twitter tied for first, followed by LinkedIn.
LinkedIn groups are clearly relevant. 89% of respondents belong to two or more, with 39% of those who responded belonging to 10 or more. Interested in exploring these groups? Have a look at my own, and you’ll find a number of others that also serve as interesting forums for information sharing.
How much time do you spend on social media each day? 41% of respondents spend less than an hour on social media on a given day. That’s probably less time than many used to spend reading newspapers and magazines, without the benefit of reciprocal communications. Are you surprised to learn that 32% of respondents spend more than two hours on social media on a given day? Probably not, when you remember that the majority of respondents reported using such channels for business purposes.
When’s the best time? Evening was the single point in the day most referenced, but almost half of all respondents ran with the “morning, noon and night” option.
How long did respondents go without in the last week? Six percent of people went the full week, and longer; they don’t use social media. On the other end of the spectrum, 24% of respondents went no longer than one – three hours without social media in the past week. For a full 60% of respondents, that period of doing without didn’t exceed a day.
Could you go without social media for a full week? More than half of respondents were confident you could do so. Another 32%, however, thought otherwise. One respondent wrote, “Impossible!” Speaking of doing without, I asked readers to select the one item from a list of six that would be hardest to do without for the week. Coffee and tea both outranked social media.
Detailed Results: The Stats
Do you regularly use social media?
- Yes: 89% of respondents
- No: 11% of respondents
Do you use social media for personal/networking purposes?
- Yes: 100% of respondents
Do you use social media for business purposes?
- Yes:59% of respondents
- No: 41% of respondents
Are you on Facebook?
- Yes: 82% of respondents
- No: 18% of respondents
Do you use Google+?
- Yes: 24% of respondents
- No: 76% of respondents
Do you have an Instagram account?
- Yes: 53% of respondents
- No: 47% of respondents
Do you use LinkedIn?
- Yes: 94% of respondents
- No: 6% of respondents
Do you belong to any LinkedIn groups?
- 11% of respondents said no
- 44% of respondents belong to two to five LinkedInGroups
- 6% of respondents belong to six to 10 LinkedInGroups
- 39% of respondents belong to more than 10 LinkedInGroups
Do you use Pinterest?
- Yes: 63% of respondents
- No: 32% of respondents
- 5% of respondents selected “Other”. Comments included, “I have an acct but rarely use it”.
Do you use Twitter?
- Yes: 67% of respondents
- No: 28% of respondents
- 6% of respondents selected “Other”. One respondent wrote, “partially”.
Do you use XING?
- Yes: 11% of respondents
- No:84 % of respondents
- 5% of respondents selected “Other”. Comments included, “I host a group.”
Do you access one or more social media channels daily?
- Yes: 82% of respondents
- No: 18% of respondents
How much time do you estimate you spend on social media on a given day?
- 5% of respondents: none
- 16% of respondents: 16 – 30 minutes
- 21% of respondents: 31 – 45 minutes
- 5% of respondents: 46 – 60 minutes
- 21% of respondents: 1 -2 hours
- 16% of respondents: 2 – 3 hours
- 11% of respondents: 3 – 5 hours
- 5% of respondents selected the “I have a bit of a problem; more than 5 hours” response
What time of day are you most likely to use social media?
- 5 % of respondents: N/A
- 5% of respondents: Morning
- 5% of respondents: During the work day
- 32% of respondents: Evening
- 47% of respondents: All of the above – morning, noon and night
- 5% of respondents selected “Other”. One wrote, “On work days in the evening & on Weekends or holidays – any time”.
What’s the longest period you’ve gone without social media in the last week?
- 6% of respondents – n/a; I don’t use it
- 24% of respondents: 1 – 3 hours
- 18% of respondents: a half day
- 18% of respondents: one day
- 6% of respondents: two days
- 18% of respondents: three to six days
- 6% of respondents: the full week
- 6% of respondents selected “Other”
Could you go a week without social media?
- Yes: 53% of respondents
- No: 32% of respondents
- 11% of respondents selected “Other”. Comments included, “Impossible ! Depends on my whereabout(s)??” and “don’t know”.
- 5% of respondents selected the option that stated, “Of course! I do so now.”
I asked which of the following would be hardest to do without for a week. Here are your responses, in descending order.
- Coffee
- Television
- Social Media
- Chocolate
- Tea
- Exercise
Lastly, I asked you to list your three favourite forms of social media. Here they are in descending order, with Facebook and Twitter in a tie for the channels most mentioned.
- Tied: Twitter and Facebook
- Blogs
- Tied: XING, WhatsApp and “no favourite; necessary evil”
