Growth of Social Media

Aug 20, 2009•Blog Posts• Online & Digital Media• by author

Stacey A.

Fifteen years ago, we got our news from the daily paper and local news segments on television. We planned high school reunions the old fashioned way by snail mail. If we had something to say to our friends, we would call them on the phone or include the news in the annual holiday newsletter/greeting card. If we wanted to network, we would go to conventions and hand out business cards, shake hands and maybe have a drink or two to solidify things.

Ten years ago, the closest things to social media were AOL chat rooms and online message boards.

Things are a little different today:
•    Catching up with old classmates is taken care of on Facebook.
•    We learn about breaking news on Twitter before it’s even picked up by local news channels.
•    Networking is done online, via sites liked LinkedIn and Brazen Careerist for professional endeavors and Twitter, Myspace, Facebook, and others for personal contacts.

And what’s more, a case can be made that the relationships made via online networking may be more concrete and long lasting than those made by traditional means. The difference is the amount of effort that is put forth in order to maintain these connections forged online, rather than those that exist based on physical proximity.

Much attention has been paid to the explosive growth pattern of social media. The Nielsen Company published a social media quick take in May of 2009, which highlighted the expansion of various sites within the social media bubble, and similar studies have been conducted by eMarketer.

eMarketer reports a 16% gain in Social Media growth between 2008 and 2009 and makes a note that users are attempting to focus their online presence to as few applications as possible.

The Nielsen study included blogs and concluded that the total minutes spent on social media sites and blogs increased 82%, year over year – with the average time per person increasing 67%.

eMarketer also took a look at the frequency with which users viewed social networking sites, as well as where they were using them. Respondents were most likely to visit social networks in a family area at home, followed by in a private area at home, at work and through mobile devices.

The most popular sites for social networking were: Facebook, Myspace, LinkedIn and Twitter, in that order. According to the Neilsen study, Facebook was ranked the global number one social networking platform with 144.3 million unique users.

Twitter experienced the most explosive growth with a 1448% growth rate, year over year. eMarketer estimates that by 2010, the number of Twitter users, who access the site at least once a month via any platform (desktop, mobile, etc.), will leap to 18.1 million users, representing 10.8% of all internet users.

Why has Twitter grown so quickly? -Because its users have come to depend on it as a means for learning new things, rather than simply for networking. A study of Twitter users found that nearly 100% respondents agreed with the statements “I value getting information in a timely manner,” and “I find it exciting to learn new things from people,” while about 80% “like to be connected to lots of people.” The networking aspect of the site does retain a strong pull, with users indicating that they found it gratifying to have new followers and that they respected those with popular accounts.

It will be interesting to see how Social Networking continues to influence the average Internet user, the news, and business practices. Marketers everywhere must watch and follow the changes very closely to stay in front of the consumer and remain competitive with their brand.