January 10, 2007

If you're an Internet marketer looking to reach U.S. teenagers who use social networking Web sites, a new study suggests that you will find them on MySpace. About 85 percent of U.S. teenagers who have a social networking profile use MySpace most often, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

On average, more than fifty percent of the teens surveyed use social networking sites a lot.

The Pew Internet & American Life report confirms the importance of social networking among youths and sheds new light on how teenagers use such Web sites.

As a whole, teenagers are frequent visitors to social networking sites. About fifty percent visit once a day or more.

Especially older teens and girls aged 15 to 17 are more likely to create social networking profiles. However, household income did not impact social networking use the study has found.

Teens who aren't white are slightly more likely to create profiles (58 percent vs. 53 percent), although the report's 3.7 point margin of error may reduce the significance of this statistic.

Studies done in 2006 from the Los Angeles Times and Bloomberg as well as Burst Media also found that teen girls were more likely to visit social networking sites.

The Pew Internet report also delved into why teens use social networking sites, something other studies have not covered.

On average, about 90 percent of teenagers use such sites to stay in touch with friends they see a lot, but half are interested in making new friends.

Source: eMarketer