Six Major Consumer Trends in Social Media - Graeme Hutton-UM

Social media recently reached a major tipping point – not in its number of users but the way consumers use social media. The fundamental difference in consumption between social media and mainstream media can now be summed up in one word: "active". Until now, all media outlets have principally been consumed passively, e.g. watching TV, listening to the radio, seeing a poster, etc. And until now, social media predominant pursuits were similarly passive: watching a video on YouTube, visiting a friend's social network profile, reading a blog, etc. For the sixth successive year, UM has tracked social media consumption across the world in our study called Wave. This year's study, Wave 6, has witnessed a distinct set of six trends emerging in the U.S. that clearly depicts an "active" social media user: