By Lee W. Frederiksen, Ph.D.
Nielsen-Online just released their latest report on the year over year growth in social media site usage. From my perspective the biggest point was the overall increase in social media usage. They reported an 83% increase in total time spent on these sites from April 2008 to April 2009. The big winners, in terms of sheer popularity, are Facebook, with a 699% jump to 13 billion minutes. MySpace, the second most popular site was actually down by 31% (I believe this highlights the fickle nature of the whole space). Other big winners are Twitter with a 3700% increase and a respectable 69% jump in usage by LinkedIn.
So what does all this mean for professional services marketers? In my view there are two implications. First, the social media space continues to rack up impressive growth. Your clients are migrating there over time. Second, it seems to me that services with the strongest business application, such as Linkedin, FaceBook and Twitter, are holding their own. I’m concluding that social media is likely to shift from an interesting experiment to a must-use category, much like websites did over a decade ago. While I don’t believe the technology is there yet, I continue to be impressed by the business opportunities that come our way via social media channels.
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Lee,
Some good points are made here. However, I have to question the assertion that Twitter, specifically, is “holding it’s own.” It’s quite possible you have seen the Neilsen Company’s study already, but here’s a quick snippet of their findings:
Source: http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/twitter-quitters-post-roadblock-to-long-term-growth/
Given the findings, Twitter’s “impressive growth” (at the current time) rings hollow. As a result, I’m not sure anyone should classify Twitter as a strong business application just yet. The ROI on Twitter, it appears, may be far less than hoped if one’s readers/followers are dropping like flies.
Thoughts?
You make a great point.Initial adoption is a poor measure of effectiveness. I wonder what is the best use of Twitter?….lwf
Personally, I believe Twitter is doomed to fail as the social media arena evolves. The very nature of their business is about quick bursts of information which is not conducive to long-term communication. Tweets are too short and detached. It’s endless banter with no real hope of being able to have a deeper conversation, and that’s why Facebook and MySpace are more reliable platforms. A business can send out quick bursts, but have the opportunity to delve deeper if needed.
IF Twitter is to survive, they have to A) specialize; and B) develop a reliable revenue stream.
My two cents.