Women prefer social networks, men more likely to visit Wikia (survey)

Nielsen Media Research recently published its third quarter Social Media Report, which uncovered how many social media users in the U.S. visit and consume social networking content. This includes participation, talking and networking on platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, video and photo sharing sites, blogs, online forums and more.

Some of the results could have been predictable (i.e. mobile social media is on the rise), but there are certainly some shocking reveals. revealed the size of the audience and the degree of consumption across social networking platforms in the U.S.

Here's a snapshot of some of the more surprising highlights from the report:

• Women between the ages of 18 and 34 are most active social networkers
• Men are more likely to visit LinkedIn and Wikia than women
• More women watch video on social networks, but men watch for longer periods of time
• Over twice as many people aged 55 and higher visited social networking sites on a mobile device compared to last year
• GPS is the most valued feature on mobile devices at 56 percent; downloading/playing music came in at 26 percent

Out of every brand online, it might be safe to say that Facebook is the supreme leader (Google+ what?) domestically at this point as Nielsen found that U.S. internet users spend more time on Facebook than any other web brand with 53.5 percent. Yahoo actually came in second in this category, yet at a distant 17.2 percent. Google, AOL, Windows Live/MSN/Bing, and YouTube rounded out the top five.

Tumblr has also had a successful year as it has nearly tripled its unique U.S. audience over the last 12 months. The blog hosting platform was on track to hit 10 billion posts a few weeks ago, which has already come to pass.

For reference, the results are based on the responses of 1,865 adults aged 18 and higher, who were recruited from the Nielsen Online Panel to take an online survey between March 31 and April 14, 2011.

For a slide-by-slide look at Nielsen's Social Media Report, check it out here.

Related:

• Nearly half of North American mobile users will buy iPhone 5 (survey)
• The new Social Business Index seeks to bring enterprise insight to social media
• Women use Facebook more than any other Android app
• Nearly one-third of Americans prefer texting to calling (survey)
• Nielsen: Nearly 60 percent of all new cell phones sold are smartphones