56% of Americans have a personal profile on a social network.

93% of Americans have heard of Facebook and 90% have heard of Twitter, (which is significant because only about 85% of Americans have Internet access).

22% of Americans – about 58 Million people – use social media sites every single day.

These are just a few of the stats Tom Webster shared during his session, “The Social Habit 2012: How Americans Real Use Social Media.” Tom works for Edison Research, and his presentation revealed some interesting – and even surprising – facts about today’s social media users.

Twitter’s Interesting Growth

Facebook is still killing it when it comes to social networking, but that doesn’t mean other networks aren’t growing at all. Twitter, for example, has seen some interesting growth. About 26 Million Americans use Twitter, but even more interestingly, people are starting to become more engaged on this network. People aren’t just “silent users” watching that is going on – they are no using the network more to send tweets.

In addition, more than four in ten Americans hear or read about tweets nearly every day in the media, even if they don’t have a personal profile on Twitter. Says Tom, “I have to believe the amount of content that gets shared, the way it gets shared…it’s changing the way we process and learn information.

Following Brands Online

Another interesting group of stats Tom shared was about how people follow brands on social media sites. Most follow on Facebook, which is unsurprising, but what is notable is that people are becoming more aware of how they’re following brands online. Fewer people are simply hitting the “like” button and are instead making a conscious decision to follow brands they like online. 33% follow a brand on social networking sites – this number has doubled since 2010.

Want More Stats?

This is just a small taste of the stats Tom shared, alone with his dissection of what these stats mean. Want the whole thing? Check out our virtual ticket, which gives you access to full recordings of all of the sessions you may have missed at BlogWorld New York 2012! It’s great for those of you stuck  at home or for those of you already at BlogWorld and worried about missing sessions you want to see. (And if you’re on the East Coast and don’t yet have a ticket, there’s still time to head over to the Javits Center in New York to check out Wednesday and Thursday sessions.)