Millionaires’ use of Facebook has nearly doubled since last year to 46 per cent, according to a report released by Spectrem. This is despite other research finding signs of maturity and even “fatigue” among some segments of social media users.

Spectrem’s findings, which relate specifically to the HNW populace, show Facebook as a growing phenomenon, with almost half of the HNW population now logging on. The survey was based on interviews with the financial decision-makers of 1,294 households.

As well as being popular among HNW individuals (defined here as having net worth of $1 million - $5 million not including primary residence), the social networking site is popular among UHNW individuals (with 47 per cent using it), and mass affluent individuals (55 per cent).

Blogs also rank as popular among these segments of the population, especially as a way of gaining financial advice. Just under one-third of UHNW investors say they either read or would read blogs by their trusted financial advisors. The equivalent percentages are 20 per cent for millionaires and 21 per cent for mass affluent people.

“Learning how to effectively use social media and financial blogs is critical to the future success of financial services firms,” said George Walper, president of Spectrem Group.

LinkedIn also proved popular: 19 per cent of millionaires used it, 26 per cent of UHNW investors, and 22 per cent of the mass affluent investors. Twitter usage remains much lower, in the region of 3 per cent to 6 per cent.

Meanwhile, the IT research firm Gartner, in an unrelated international survey with 6,295 respondents - not focused on the HNW population - identified signs of “social media fatigue” among some user segments. Overall, 24 per cent said they were using their favorite social media site less, while 37 per cent had increased usage. Online privacy emerged as a concern when using social media.

“Overall, our survey underlined respondents’ continued enthusiasm for social media… Teenagers and those in their twenties were significantly more likely to say that they had increased their usage,” said Charlotte Patrick, principal research analyst at Gartner.