Aussies on Facebook – how much do Australians use Facebook

There’s plenty of stats graphs and infographics about social media and how much we use it or how it has grown over recent years, rarely though are those stats directly related to Australian usage.  This week Facebook released data and some outcomes from recent surveys they’ve done to see just how Aussies are using Facebook.

TOP LINE DATA: AUSTRALIANS ON FACEBOOK

12 Million Australians use Facebook every month, 9 million of them use it each and every day and the percentage of those users who are doing so on their mobile continues to grow.  The monthly figure isn’t a huge shock given it’s a number accessible even to the lowest spending advertiser on the platform, however the daily figure really starts to put into perspective how big a part Facebook is playing in the lives of Australians.

Through a survey of Facebook users there has also been some interesting insights into just where we are using Facebook, given the dominance of the mobile app it’s getting easier to use it almost anywhere.  When asked where they usually or regularly use Facebook – 90% users surveyed had used Facebook at Home – no surprises there.  40% have used it in bed.  29% while commuting, 38% while watching TV, 13% while shopping, 27% at work, 20% at school, 22% at cafe’s, 23% while queuing and 28% on holidays.

The TV figure gets more interesting when you look at the 38% who say they use Facebook regularly while watching TV.  53% of them do so if a show gets boring, 70% browse Facebook during TV ads, and 24% are doing so to chat with friends.  In the words of Helen Crossley who is in charge of Measurement & Insights at Facebook Australia and New Zealand – when it comes to what we refer to as watercooler conversations about TV shows; “that watercooler is now Facebook”.

When it comes to sharing, we’re doing a lot more than just telling people how we’re feeling.  77% of Australian users posted photos on Facebook in 2013 – that’s up from 65% just a few years earlier.   That can mainly be attributed to the shift toward mobile.  In recent years the use of mobile phones and tablets for internet access has skyrocketed – and that’s no different when it comes to Facebook – in fact, when you also take into account Facebook’s ownership of Instagram, one in five minutes spent on a mobile is spent on Facebook and Instagram (US data) – we’re loving our photos!

If you wanted to get really sexist, get this for a stat – Women talk about Christmas Shopping five times more than men.  The peaks come each weekend, while for men – there is one peak.  December 24.  We love our last minute crisis – “oh no I haven’t done my Christmas Shopping” – that’s the likely status of a bloke on the 24th December.

And while we’re looking at the battle of the sexes – Aussie mums are proving big users of the social media giant – they check Facebook 20% more often than the average Facebook user, and they do so starting earlier in they day.  Those little kids getting up at sparrows mean that mums are some of the first to check Facebook in the wee small hours.

Twitter seems to get a lot of the publicity of late, but there is no denying the scale and popularity of Facebook among Australians.  With well over 50% of the population on the site every month and almost half doing it every day it’s something that businesses and brands can’t ignore in this modern day.