Are you on the internet or watching TV?

Over at my favourite podcasting news site - Podcasting News - they report that

"People now spend twice as much time surfing the Web as they do watching TV, according to new research from IDC.

IDC surveyed nearly one thousand Internet users for the survey. They found that:

• The Internet is the medium on which online users spend the most time (32.7 hours/week). This is equivalent to almost half of the total time spent each week using all media (70.6 hours).
• People spend twice as much time on the Internet as they spend watching television (16.4 hours).
• People spend eight times as much time on the Internet as they spent reading newspapers and magazines (3.9 hours)."

That makes sense in my life as I find that the internet provides my audio, my video, my news..Why? Well, I have total control over what I listen to and that I can personalise my content. I do still watch TV but it is always in a recorded format so that I can skip titles, adverts or padding in the program...I find I can watch an hour long program in about 30 mins!! Now that time saving means that I can spend more time with my family or working on my business. Maybe, I am not a typical person....but this report shows that it is a growing trend.

For small business it is important to recognise this trend - because if that is where your consumers are, then you need to make sure that your story, your products, your services are there for people to find.