Since Facebook launched in February 2004, it has become a social networking phenomenon, with latest figures showing it had 845 million monthly active users at the end of December 2011. Recent UK research highlights who are its most committed fans, but also shows that some of its users are no longer so keen and have already left, or plan to do so soon.

Looking at the people you can best target on the site, David Cole, managing director of fast.MAP which carried out the research says: “Facebook users are most likely to belong to the much-publicised ‘stretched-middle’ income group – 70 per cent of those earning £25,000 to £39,999 use it; along with 61 per cent of those who earn less and 57 per cent of those who earn more; although this includes only 51 per cent of those in the over-£70,000 bracket.

“Two thirds of adult females use it, compared with just over half of males and around eight out of ten 16 to 44-year-olds, making this an ideal medium for messages targeted at the young to middle-aged.

“And since traditional media has become so fragmented, use of Facebook by more than half of the older, richer population means relevant messages should be included the communication mix for this audience too.”

Do you use Facebook?

Source: fast.MAP, April 2012

But not everyone who uses Facebook is a fan. When you look at how people use it today, compared to a year ago, there are some worrying statistics. Although just over half of users claim to use it the same amount (52 per cent), nearly one if five (18 per cent) say they used it “a lot less” compared with one in ten (10 per cent) who said they used it “a lot more”. Looking ahead just 3 per cent of users plan to use it a lot more, which compares unfavourably with the 18 per cent who plan to use it a lot less.

Thinking about how you use Facebook versus how much you used it a year ago, do you use it:

How often do you think you’ll be using Facebook in the next year?

Source: fast.MAP, April 2012

Methodology
 

Research conducted by fast.MAP on behalf of PRmoment to a demographically balanced panel of 1,472 UK adults between March 22 and April 10, 2012.