As sites like Twitter and Facebook continue to grow, global consumers spent more than five and half hours on social networking sites in December 2009.

In the wake of Tuesday’s devastating 7.0 earthquake in Haiti, much of what people around the world are learning is coming from social media sources, according to The Nielsen Company.

2010 will be huge test, as new realities of consumer expression and cross-platform integration create a powerful new dynamic hovering over the largest single-spot ad spend on record.

From digital dads to social media mavens, children redefine how parents and kids communicate using traditional and new media. Just ask the eight-year-olds using cell phones—and not for phone calls alone!

Social media has not only changed the way consumers communicate and gather on the Web, but also impacted content discovery and navigation.

If you’re in the U.S. and are using a social network like Facebook, Myspace or LinkedIn, chances are you’re more affluent and more urban than the average American.

Interview by Sue MacDonald, Research Manager, Online Division
In a difficult economy of rising unemployment, struggling newspapers and advertising agency cutbacks, Alexa Robinson graduated this year from the University of North Carolina/Chapel Hill with a degree in… journalism and advertising. But she wound up finding a position that carried an entirely new job title — one that didn’t even exist when she started at UNC — “Twintern.”
As Pizza Hut’s first-ever Twitter intern (Twitter + intern, hence, “Twintern”), the 22-year-old Greensboro NC native has been on the job in Dallas since late …

The notion that teens are too busy texting and Twittering to be engaged with traditional media is exciting, but false. To develop the best strategy around teens and media, start by challenging popular assumptions about teens.

David Martin, Vice President, Primary Research / Sue MacDonald, Research Manager
You’ve probably heard of the Morgan Stanley report that declares “teenagers do not use Twitter,” based on a sample size of one 15 year-old intern named Matthew Robson. Morgan Stanley rightfully disclosed that they do not claim that his study is representational or merits statistical accuracy, so we thought we could provide both with our NetRatings panel of 250,000 U.S. Internet users.
Twitter’s footprint has expanded impressively in the first half of 2009, reaching 10.7 percent of all active Internet users …

As Myspace.com continues its strategic move toward becoming an “entertainment portal,” the growth to Myspace Music should help cement their presence in this space. Since the site’s launch in September 2008, unique visitors to the music.myspace.com subdomain have increased 190 percent — growing from 4.2 million unique visitors to 12.1 million in June 2009. Year-over-year traffic to the URL has increased 1,017 percent.
When comparing unique visitors of the music.myspace.com subdomain to other sites within the music category in June, it ranked third behind AOL Music and Yahoo! Music and …