According to the latest survey of measurement group comScore, U.K. participation in social networking usage proved to be the highest in Europe, with 24.9 million out total 127.3 million unique visitors or 78 percent of the total U.K. online population.

Usage of social networking sites in the U.K. proved heavier than the European average in terms of hours spent, pages viewed, and the number of visits per month. The average visitor to social networking sites in the U.K. spent 5.8 hours per month on those sites in August and made 23.3 visits. This was a significantly heavier usage level than in France, which averaged 2 hours per month and 16.8 visits per visitor, or Germany, with 3.1 hours per month and 13.8 visits per visitor.

“This study reveals the importance of looking beyond averages if one is to clearly understand the characteristics of the key segments that make up the users of social networking sites. Averages provide a valuable summary of the behaviour of visitors to European social networking sites, but as the segmentation of this audience shows, there is a lot more that smart media planners need to know. As an example, about eighty percent of all online activity at Social Networking sites can be attributed to only 20 percent of visitors,” said Bob Ivins, EVP of International Markets at comScore.

Originally posted on October 10, 2007 @ 10:46 pm