Sorry its been a while! I’ve been traveling (back to my home country of Australia), and then my Mac died (gasp!)

But I’m back online, and bringing you the latest stats on Social Media usage from the folks at Nielsen.

What I find interesting is the extraordinary growth of Twitter – 1,520% in the last 2 years! And who knew that US consumers, spend (ONLY) an average of 6 hours, 13 minutes a month using social networking websites. I confess – I spend way more time than that! And the impact of review/community websites and forums is extraordinary – TWO THIRDS of global consumers seek online reviews and recommendations when making a purchase decision. Holy cow – that means enormous opportunity for companies like my client, Bragadoo!

Check out the rest of the data below, and share what stat surprised you the most. Or is this data expected and unsurprising?

• More than two-thirds of global consumers seek online product reviews, recommendations from discussion forums or social media sites when making a purchase decision.
• 40% of global consumers would not buy Consumer Electronics, 22% would not buy Telecommunications Services and 19% would not buy Gaming Devices without consulting online reviews.
• 21% of U.S. adults online publish or own a blog.
• 55% of U.S. adults online have 1 or more social networking profiles.
• 75% of the active U.S. Internet households visit a social networking site (May 2010). Globally, it’s 74% (April 2010).
• Social media websites had a unique audience in the U.S. of 148.2 million visitors (May 2010).
• U.S. consumers spent an average of 6 hours, 13 minutes a month using social networking websites (May 2010). Globally consumers spend an average of almost 6 hours (April 2010).
• Facebook is the #1 social networking site in the U.S., with a unique audience of 125.2 million visitors (May 2010).
• The average U.S. worker spends nearly 5.5 hours a month visiting social networking sites at the office (May 2010) and much of that time is spent visiting Facebook.
• Twitter has a unique U.S. audience of 19.1 million visitors (May 2010), growing more than 1,520% in the last two years (May 2010 v. May 2008).

More here!