Online intelligence service Experian Hitwise, which tracks 2,00,000 Web sites in India, has revealed a trend of social media visits increasing steadily, even as visits to search engines show a drop between August 2010 and August 2011.

Search engines still account for the maximum share of visits in India.

While professional network linkedin.com saw traffic rise by 52 per cent to account for 0.89 per cent of social media visits, twitter.com dropped 6.05 per cent on traffic to account for 0.8 per cent of visits, according to the study.

Sourced from Social Media

The study also measured upstream industries from social media Web sites – industries to whose Web sites visitors went after visiting a social media site (measured as percentage of clicks through social media and opened on a separate tab). This was for the month of August 2011.

In the category of computers and internet, 13.31 per cent visitors were previously on a social media site. Music Web sites had 13 per cent visits happening from a social media user. This is followed by entertainment (11.89 pc), shopping and classifieds (10.57 pc), lifestyle (9.91 pc) and sports sites (9.56 pc).

Facebook by Country

On Facebook.com, average time spent by a user from India per session in August 2011 was 20 minutes and 21 seconds, while a Singapore user spent 38 minutes and 46 seconds, according to the study.

Mr Navin Chandani, Managing Director, Experian Marketing Services in India, said, “Our research shows that the way individuals use social media can and does change according to cultural and personal backgrounds. He added, “For international brands to be successful in their digital campaigns, they must understand the local, digital and personal nuances that exist.”

>gokul.k@thehindu.co.in

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