Frequent social networkers—people who use social networking sites several times a day—are more likely to follow brands, access their favorite social sites via mobile devices, and consume a wide variety of mobile technologies, according to a survey from Edison Research/Arbitron Internet.

Such frequent users, which number 39 million in 2010 (up from 18 million a year earlier), are also avid consumers of on-demand media, such as timeshifted TV, podcasting, and online video, but they still watch less television than other adults, the study found.

Below, other findings from the 18th Edison Research/Arbitron Internet and Multimedia Research Study.

Frequent social networkers now constitute 30% of all social network users, up from 18% in 2009; they are predominantly female (57%) and much more likely to be young: 66% are age 34 or younger. 

Frequent Social Networkers

Frequent social networkers tend to be more active on social sites and to follow brands and access social sites via mobile devices:

• 72% say they post online content and status updates when they visit social sites, compared with 55% of all social network users.
• 25% say they follow brands or companies, compared with 16% of all social network users.
• 50% say they access social sites/services via mobile phone, compared with 32% of all social network users.

Among frequent social networkers, 87% say they visit Facebook several times a day, 54% visit MySpace, 19% visit Twitter, and 17% visit LinkedIn.

Mobile Devices

Among frequent social networkers 90% say they own a mobile phone and 70% send and receive text messages on their cell phones multiple times daily.

Frequent social networkers are nearly twice as like as all other adults to own an iPod (50% vs. 28%) and have higher adoption levels of other mobile technologies:

The mobile phone, however, has had the "biggest impact" on the lives of frequent social networkers: 67% say so (5 on a scale of 1 to 5), followed by the effect of broadband (63%), the iPhone (60%), the BlackBerry (59%), and social networking sites (36%).

Overall, technology has played a bigger role in the lives of frequent social networkers than on the lives of others—with the exception of TV: Just 34% say TV plays a big role, compared with 34% of all adults age 12+.

Looking for real, hard data that can help you match social media tools and tactics to your marketing goals? The State of Social Media Marketing, a 240-page original research report from MarketingProfs, gives you the inside scoop on how 5,140 marketing pros are using social media to create winning campaigns, measure ROI, and reach audiences in new and exciting ways.

Television

Overall, TV is less important to frequent social networkers than it is to others: 74% say if forced to choose they would eliminate TV rather than eliminate the Internet (26%), whereas among all adults it's a tossup between eliminating TV (49%) and eliminating the Internet (51%).

Frequent social networkers also watch less TV. On average, such users watch 2 hours and 50 minutes of TV daily, compared with 3 hours and 25 minutes a day for all adults.

Not surprisingly, frequent social networkers rely significantly more than all adults on the Internet (3:52 hours vs. 1:56 hours), but they still turn to radio slightly more than all adults, listening on average 2:07 hours a day vs. 2:05 hours for all adults.

Frequent social networkers are more likely to consume media content on demand, including TV, online video, and online radio:

• DVRs and TiVo: 47% say they own a DVR and 16% own TiVo, compared with all adults (36% and 13%, respectively).
• Online video: 64% say they have watched a video on YouTube and 46% have watched Hulu, compared with all adults (27% and 15%, respectively).
• Online radio: 76% say they have listened to streaming radio, compared with 52% of all adults.

Pandora, which integrates with Facebook, is the most popular online audio brand among frequent social networkers: 40% say they listen to it, followed by AOL (10%), Last.fm (7%), Yahoo (7%), and Slacker (5%).

Other findings:

• Digital music: 37% of frequent social networkers say their recent music purchases were made digitally, compared with 19% of all adults who say so.
• Podcasting: 62% of frequent social networkers are familiar with podcasting, compared with 45% of all adults who say the same, and 45% of frequent social networkers say they have consumed either a video or audio podcast, compared with 27% of all adults.

About the data: Findings are based on the 18th Edison Research/Arbitron Internet and Multimedia Research Study, conducted by telephone survey (including 371 mobile phone interviews) among a nationally representative sample of 1,753 Americans age 12+ in February 2010.