The Sensis (formerly Yellow) social media report has been released for 2015. The study based on a survey of 800 Australian consumers and 1100 Australian businesses is the most comprehensive look at just how we spend our hours social stalking.

The basics

A healthy 68% of Australians use social media. Nearly half of us use it everyday and a quarter of us are checking in more than five times a day. On average we’re spending nearly 8 and a half hours a day checking Insta, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat…Wow, staying in touch is exhausting. In news that will surprise no one, 18-29 year olds are the most frequent social butterflies with nearly 80% using daily. The mobile trend has continued to grow with 70% of us now primarily getting our social news on the go.

When are we social?

It turns out Facebook is the new breakfast of champions, with 45% of us checking Facebook at the beginning of the day, making it the most popular time to check. Most of us top and tail our day with 40% saying we check Facebook right before bed. Interestingly usage at work has risen by 11% to 32%, all productive competitor research related I’m sure.

What are we using?

Facebook is still king with 93%. Social getting serious is continuing to grow with LinkedIn the second most popular network and Insta 3rd. Australia continued its trend of being one of the few countries to really reject Twitter, with 39% of respondents saying goodbye birdy, leaving just 17% sharing our thoughts 140c at a time.

What’s our social spend like?

One in five of people said they researched products on their social channels before buying. The most common products we were checking out were clothing and fashion, electrical goods, furniture and household items.

We love social proof

If you’ve ever changed your dinner plans based on an Urbanspoon review, you’re not alone. The report found that 62% of us would change our opinion of a business if it had negative online reviews. Over half of us said we’d read as many as five reviews before making a purchase.

We’re socially diverse 

Both the CEO of the AIMA (who conducted the study) and General Manager of Digital at Sensis noted that the social scene is continuing to diversify. Not surprisingly the LinkedIn crowd is a little different from the Snapchatters.

What do we want from businesses?

Nearly a quarter of us said that one of the main benefits of social media was being able to follow or find out about particular brands or businesses. That figure jumps to 35% for those of us aged 18 to 29. The main thing we were looking for from brands online is discount offers, how frugal of us.

What about the businesses?

Given how important online reputation is it was a little strange to see social media use by business decline.

What are y’all doing?

Perhaps the shrink can be attributed to the fact that 80% of SMEs and 37% of large businesses did not have a strategic plan for their social media activities.

Social satisfaction

In more encouraging news for businesses making social happen a quarter of the businesses surveys had taken to using paid advertising to make the most of their social reach. Nearly 70% of these businesses felt their spending was effective.

Now that’s enough of the stats, get back to Facebook.