The march of mobile social connectivity

The rise and rise of social media and social networks is illustrated well by the annual report produced by media and branding firm Universal McCann.

They've been tracking social media for a while and each year produce a study of what's happening.

The first study was performed in September 2006 looking at 7,500 internet users in 15 countries, increasing this year to 22,729 active internet users - those who use the net at least every other day - in 38 countries.

The survey took place between November 2008 and March 2009, with the report due out in the next few days.

The headline is that increasing numbers of internet users are much more comfortable within the social media and micro-blogging environment, and particularly on their mobile telephone.

The survey notes a major surge in mobile internet access, with 17% of active internet users now online on the move as well as at home.

Meantime, last year's survey is available online, for those interested.

In addition to these headlines, the news that 9 out of 10 25 to 34 year olds in the UK use social networking, with most content shared by these sites (24% on Facebook, 10.8% on Twitter, 11.1% via email) and we can see, yet again, why this stuff is important.

And if you don't think this is important, then here's two other articles I spotted today.

One was the Carlyle Group's experience, where they've just been squattered on Facebook. The other is that Twitter recently had some corporate documents compromised, which included these estimates for their service:

• 2009: 25 million users
• 2010: 100 million users (300% growth)
• 2011: 350 million users (250% growth)

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