Report Generation Y media consumption driven by digital

Media consumption among Generation Y continues to trend toward digital as these consumers rely on the social media, blogs and the broader internet for everything from news to product reviews. A recently published study from L2, a consumer think tank for digital innovation, revealed how rapidly Generation Y is moving away from traditional media consumption. The most prominent finding is this generation's use of Facebook. While wildly popular for nearly all age groups across the globe, the social media giant has a particularly strong hold on Generation Y. Nearly 81 percent of respondents use Facebook about once each day, a figure that is more than double those that watch television or read newspapers. About one-third use the platform more than five times per day and nearly all said they visit the site at least several times a year. By comparison, about 25 percent of respondents use YouTube daily and about 20 percent use Twitter each day. Forty-five percent frequent blogs daily. Facebook is also rapidly becoming the new "word of mouth," or means by which Generation Y accesses information and learns about retail brands. Fifty-four percent of respondents said they have "liked" a retail brand on Facebook. Thirty-eight percent have commented on a brand's page and another 30 percent have shared content from a retail brand on their Facebook profile. And despite the fact that company websites tied newspapers and magazines for second in brand perceptions, these retailers are failing to recognize digital advertising opportunities, according to the report. Companies still allocate more advertising funds for analog channels, leaving only a fraction for digital vehicles. Social media is also taking over the mobile web for this generation. Facebook is the most popular application among surveyed men and women. Twitter and Yelp were also in the top 10 for each gender. Twitter was fifth for men and 10th for women, while Yelp was 10th for men and sixth for women. Facebook's dominance among social media is well documented. According to the L2 report, the site surpassed 550 million users this year, which accounts for one in 12 people on the planet. Members spend more than 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook, and the site accounts for 25 percent of all U.S. page views. At one point in November, Facebook experienced five times more page views than Google.