Affluent and urban drawn to online social networks: Nielsen

Market-tracker Nielsen reported on Friday that the ranks of US online social network users continue to grow, with cyber communities tending to attract people who are affluent and urban.

"Nielsen's online data shows that about half of the US population visited a social networking website in the last year and that number grows every quarter," said Nielsen Claritas research executive Wils Corrigan.

Facebook users in particular have "largely upscale" profiles and are far more likely than MySpace members to also be part of LinkedIn, a social network focused on business and career connections, according to Nielsen.

People prone to posting blogs or "tweeting" at microblogging service Twitter did not tend to be affluent, but they were likely to live in cities such as New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles, Nielsen reported.

Bloggers and "tweeters" were much more inclined to be members of social networks, the most visited of which were Facebook, MySpace, Blogger, Twitter, WordPress, ClassmatesOnline, and LinkedIn.

(c) 2009 AFP