On average, adult social networkers in South Africa are in their thirties, employed full-time, and describe themselves as sociable and outgoing. This is according to findings in new research commissioned by MWEB. The Friendship 2.0 survey was conducted towards the end of 2009 among local web users aged 16 years and older; busting the myth that social networking is only done by youngsters. It demonstrates how social networking has gone mainstream.

Facebook remains the dominant social networking platform with a massive 82 percent using the service. Behind Facebook comes YouTube (32 percent), then MXit (29 percent) and Twitter 28 percent. The majority of people are using these services to communicate real life activities such as sharing personal news, gossiping and making arrangements to meet socially.

Social networking is changing the format of personal networks dramatically. Many people are now making friends and meeting potential partners online. The impact of social networking is also expanding personal networks with the average user claiming to have around 158 friends they regularly interact with.

Carolyn Holgate, General Manager of MWEB Connect, says: "Social networks have really become the garden fence of the 21st century, and are used for very much the same purposes as community meeting places. We are at the end of the early adoption phase, which was dominated by young people, and social networking is now a mainstream activity enjoyed and used by all age groups, particularly those in their thirties."

Users in South Africa

The survey revealed that the average age of Facebook users in South Africa is 33; MySpace is 32; Twitter and YouTube come in at 31; and the youngest in the survey is MXit with an average age of 27. These findings dispel perceptions that social networking is for teenagers only.

Multiple presences

Many online South Africans are also taking up multiple presences using a combination of Facebook, Twitter and MXit accounts. To facilitate integration between these multiple platforms, these users link their various accounts to each other enabling visitors to their Facebook pages to view their Twitter updates and click through to their MySpace profile.

On certain social platforms it?s more a matter of viewing than doing. For example, 75 percent of MySpace users are only 'viewers', moving from one profile to the next. Similarly, 72 percent of Twitter users are 'lurkers', reading what others post. This may be because Twitter is still relatively 'new' and users do not have the option of accepting people who would like to follow them. Users could also be more concerned about what their followers may think of their comments.

Facebook and LinkedIn are the most balanced, with 60 percent of their users classed as 'viewers', who just view other people?s pages, and 40 percent actively posting their own information regularly.

Facebook Chat

The addition of Facebook's chat facility/instant messenger tool has seen 56 percent of South African Facebook users 'chatting' to their friends on the site. "When we looked at who they are chatting to, friends and family were tops. Clients, partners and suppliers were the lowest, possibly because most Facebook users prefer not to befriend people they deal with professionally."

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