Day 1: This is the first day of my month long experiment. I wanted to count yesterday's post as my "day 1" posting, but it would defeat the purpose of the experiment if I was an insincere weasel. So I didn't. Which brings me to today, and the post below about a study released this week that digs in to who is actually using social media.

Twitter followers:92

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Today, Anderson Analytics released a study tracking U.S. user behavior in social networks. The firm surveyed 5,000 users over a span of 11 months, and conducted a 15-minute survey of more than 1,000 users age 13 and older. The results of the study were actually pretty interesting. You can find the whole surveyhere, but below are some of the more interesting points:

1. Users who belong to a social network arefour timesmore vocal about products and services than those who don't.
2. More than 20% of Twitter users have their own blog, a large portion of which trumpet social causes.
3. 44% of 35 to 44 year-olds in the U.S. and 30% of 45 to 54-year-olds have profiles on a social network.
4. More than 50% of U.S. users have associated their profiles with a brand, company or product. This association has been overwhelmingly positive.
5. The average U.S. user logs into a social network about 4x daily, 5 days a week, for a total of roughly 1 hour per day.

What these points (and the study itself) resound, is the idea that bloggers + social media users are not only active, but they are hugely important for brands. I know that this isn't the most groundbreaking discovery in the history of humanity -- or of this month -- but getting concrete percentage points for activity is radically different than simply saying "Brands should use social media... it's important?"