Facebook now favorite among U.S. college students

The annual “GenX2Z College Brand Study” from Anderson Analytics has seen a change in the brands most favored by U.S. college students. In 2006, MySpace was ranked number one, and this has now given way to Facebook.

"While Facebook has long been the most popular site among high school students, we've seen its popularity growing among a much older audience lately. However, Facebook’s' place as #1 among college students this year is not due to growth within the college demographic, rather it is a testament to Facebook being able to stay relevant and interesting to youth over time, something which can be very difficult to do" , said Tom Anderson, Managing Partner of Anderson Analytics.

Key findings from the study include:

- 75 percent of college students surf social-networking sites
- 71 percent read news online
- Google ranked second
- MySpace ranked second favorite with females, but dropped out of the top five for young men
- Young men rank Digg and Engadget among their top 10 websites
- Marketers using social-networking sites to target young people are reaching far more females than males
- While college students watch a lot of YouTube content, they generally don’t create it
- Social networking is twice as popular with young women as young men

Tags: college students, Facebook, social networking, young adults