According to Nielsen, social media now accounts for 22.5% of the time that people spend online. An important point to note is that active social media users are also influential offline and are more likely than the average adult Internet user to be found at political rallies, professional sporting events, and working out at the gym.
According to Sinan Aral at MIT peoples relationship status determines their susceptibility to being influenced by peers:
- Single people are 20% more likely to be influenced
- People ‘in a relationship’ are 50% more likely to be influence
- People are ‘Engaged’ are 60% more susceptible to influence
- People who are ‘Married are only 13% more susceptible to influence
- But people who state their relationship is ‘its complicated’ are 90% more susceptible