Sixty percent of adults in Ireland have a Facebook account, with four out of five of those people using the site everyday, according to a poll conducted by analysis firm Amarach for data company EMC.

The figures suggest that so-called "Facebook fatigue," the theory that people are eschewing the social networking service for other social networks, is not as prevalent as believed.

The EMC/Amarach poll showed that 25 percent of the 1,000 Irish adults surveyed use Twitter. Twenty-one percent have a LinkedIn account and 31 percent use YouTube, reports the Irish Independent.

The survey also revealed that smartphones now dominate social media access, with only one in 10 social media users saying they use a home PC to access social networks.

Said EMC director for Ireland and Britain, Jason Ward: "The big data society has arrived in Ireland."

"As these online conversations grow, we are generating vast quantities of unstructured information which represents a massive opportunity for Ireland.

"The survey shows the creation of massive unstructured digital shadows when Irish adults use these social networks on their laptops, smartphones and tablets. This has implications for how online information is managed and stored and extracting meaningful intelligence from these colossal amounts of data is where the value lies for Irish businesses," he said.

"For example, retailers can collect social networking information, blog content and analyst research with socio-demographic data to identify buying trends and motivations for customer loyalty.

"If Irish businesses and public sector organisations leverage this advent of big data and buy into the analytics space now, they will quickly turn big data into a tool to help them better understand the marketplace, developing new business opportunities and more tailored public policy responses," said Ward.