I have had a lot of people asking me about market shares of different social networking sites. So I went out and searched for most resent data I could find. While there’s really not much information freely available I compiled this list of sources that are all dated some time this year.
A Map Of Social (Network) Dominance. Really cool interactive map application with data from June 2009. Which social network is the most popular in each country?
Facebook statistics by country. Gender, age groups, percentage of online population. Very useful site. Updates frequently with current data from November 3, 2009.
Global Faces and Networked Places (PDF). A Nielsen report on Social Networking’s New Global Footprint. March 2009. Putting the growth of social networks, popularity and engagement into context.
Top Twenty Five Social Networking Sites, May 2009. Number of unique visitors with yoy change the data is actually only for top 20 sites. Top 10 of display ad impressions and projected ad income of Facebook, MySpace and other destinations in social media.
We have seen the emergence of Facebook for a long time now, and with every social media site talking daily about the enormous success of it, it almost starts to get worn out….almost. Looking at the latest graphs, I can’t stop but feel amazed. Facebook will soon have more visits to its homepage than Google itself! The yearly amount of its visits has grown by 342%, compared to Google’s 42%.
On september 2008, Facebook started out with 0.5 Billion pageviews – a year later today, it’s 2.3 Billion pageviews a month! When looking at the growthchart, I can’t stop but feel amazed – will the only thing stepping in Facebook’s way be the actual number of people in the world with internet connection?
In one way, Facebook’s growth is understandable. People want to communicate and with all your neighbours and even the milkman being on Facebook, it’s natural that Facebook is where they’ll go. 500 Million users next year is a fact seems pretty certain. What about a billion? Can Facebook handle that? Is it even possible? Maybe, cause when looking at the graphs, it seems funnily realistic.
Remember when your company’s homepage on the web was important? Although still important, the times are changing now – Facebook is where you’ll want to be. Getting on the bandwagon early in the game (and Facebook themselves think 2009 is just the start), will get you some big advantages over your competitors in the long run.
Euro RSCG Discovery has announced the availability of “ASL Teen Segments”, the first actionable behavioral segmentation of teens, designed to help marketers more effectively target teen consumers on a one-to-one basis. The segmentation groups teens according to characteristic gender, social and behavioral differences.
ASL Teen Segments survey. Picture from MediaPost.com
The full list of female teen segments includes: In-Style Socialites, Jockettes, Most Likely to Succeed, Style Meets Thrift and Traditionalists. The male segments are: Big Man on Campus, Red-Blooded Boys, Technosapiens, Tuned Inward, Under Construction and Young Metrosexuals.
Gender is a key driver of teen consumer behavior, which is why all segments had to be defined along gender lines.
“Jockettes” are the largest category of female teen consumers, representing more than one-fourth of females. These girls lead healthy and active lifestyles, enjoying outdoor activities and sports.
“Young Metrosexuals” or social, popular boys caring about their outward appearance, are the largest male segment. They comprise more than one-fourth of all the male teens
Although teens are online in large numbers, TV, radio and magazines are still among the most trusted channels teens look to for both information and relaxation. However, the Internet dominates for certain male teen segments. Both genders shop online at the same frequency (14%) and are more likely to make purchase decisions in stores.
“This segmentation breaks down not only what teens are interested in, but where and how they shop, and how they respond to direct mail, digital advertising and in-store marketing. It also shows how teens use different forms of traditional and new media.” – Don Damore, CEO of ASL
A really cool counter that gives some perspective into what’s really happening in the social media. The original page is here Social Web Count. There’s a similar counter for mobile.
It’s all about being human and engaging in conversation with other humans. We have done it for thousands of years and we really like it. That’s why social media is spreading like wildfire. Sir Tim Berners Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, said it best:
“I had (and still have) a dream that the Web could be less of a television channel and more of an interactive sea of shared knowledge. I imagine it immersing us as a warm, friendly environment made of the things we and our friends have seen, heard, believe, or have figured out. I would like it to bring our friends and colleagues closer, in that by working on this knowledge together we can come to better understandings.”
Location
Go where your audience is. People will not spend time on your site it’s not interesting enough. Most of us like to spend time with other people and this usually happens in social media sites so you have to be there.
Identity
Don’t try to hide who you are in social media. The key in social networks is that people like to talk to other people not some anonymous entities. Full disclosure is the best way to go. Be authentic, be believable, be you.
Connections
Concentrate on relationships with people and get involved in relevant discussions with consumers. Try to find and connect with those who have influence and authority in social media sites. But don’t forget others who are not “A-list”. Thousands of regular people might give you more stable audience than few A-list influencers.
Understanding
Use search to find out what your customers are talking about your brand, competitors and industry. Search Twitter, Facebook and Google Blog Search for relevant keywords. Set up Google alerts to get the latest news.
Give value
To be a successful in social media doesn’t always mean the number of followers, friends, or postings you have managed to get. It is more about trust and your reputation. Giving out consistent and useful information will help you to become an expert in your field.
Interact
Don’t use social media platforms as a new way to yell at people by giving out one-way marketing messages about your brand. Do not sell! Help, share, engage people, ask questions, give support, promote others… and then they will buy.
Long term
Building a following in social media sites will take time. It is not one-off campaign media. You may have a slow start. Just keep going. When you have accumulated enough value on your social bank account then your fans will pay back by spreading your message and buying your products.
Measure
In the end we want results. Some metrics to follow might be: incoming traffic from links, number of people subscribed to news feeds, members, fans, followers. How many mentions you get in the form of trackbacks and links to posts. Number of mentions in social media. Comments on blog and other social media posts. And the most important of all sales and leads.
Facebook executive Mike Schroepfer announced recently during a Web 2.0 summit, that the average amount of time people spend on Facebook is on average 8 billion minutes per day! That’s 15, 220 years spent on Facebook every day. Some 2 billion pieces of content are shared every week, and 2 billion photos are uploaded each month–1.2 million served per second on a “peak day,” he said.
Facebook’s vice president of engineering was also on the scene, focused on talking about the challenges of scaling a social network to the more than 300 million active users it has today. One of the big challenges is that Facebook’s home page news feeds have to be able to process 50 million operations per second. In order for that to be possible, they went for an open source software called Memcache, customized it and deployed it with five times it’s original performance.
What about the growth statistics of Facebook’s user-base? Well, three months ago in July, they had 250 million users. Three months before that, they had 200 million. That’s 100 million new users in 6 months – Facebook is clearly having an unprecedented growth here. A growth, that even a year ago most people wouldn’t have believed.
What does this mean for companies? The answer is, if your company still isn’t on Facebook, it should. You could have been a sceptic some years ago, but today we are seeing Facebook emerging as one of the most important channels for delivering your brand message to people. If the growth rate will stay the same, we will have half a billion active people on Facebook by the same time next year. If you already are on Facebook, then there’s always more that you can do.
Start an active conversation with people on your fan page, answer to their questions and try to give them value. Go ahead an try out advertising on Facebook. It may not work for all, but the beauty with advertising on Facebook is, that you can segment down your target group to age, sex, education and even their hobbies. If you have done all of that, go and tie your Facebook page tightly together with Twitter and your Youtube channel. Be visible. As we are seeing today, the company websites themselves are getting less and less important. People are getting increasingly more used to with the idea of getting information about brands from other networks, Facebook being one of them.
What about Facebook a few years down the road? Only time can tell – personally, I’m quite sure to see the one-billion-mark some time soon. When by that time you have already established your company on Facebook, you can have a big advantage over your competitors.
“We’re just getting started.”, as Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg said.
Seth Godin posted a video where people were aked what is a browser. The point is that if you film real user reactions it gives you a lot more understanding than just dry statistics that only 8 percent of people know what a browser is.
About the video: What is a browser? was the question we asked over 50 passersby of different ages and backgrounds in the Times Square in New York. Watch the many responses people came up with.
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