Looking Behind The Social Media Numbers

2006 is the year that social networks came of age. MySpace, YouTube, Photobucket and Facebook have all become destination points for million and an integral part of our Internet experience. According to Hitwise, 4.9% of all Internet visits in September went to one of the top 20 social networking sites. That is a 94% increase in traffic over September 2005.

Hotwise just released a terrific study about the social networks and we will dealve inside there numbers throughout the week. Hitwise segregated traffic to the social sites into three segments: traffic to “traditional” social networking sites, traffic to Photo Sharing sites and traffic to Video Sharing sites. Some of the report highlights are:

Social Networking Statistics

Social networking websites have emerged to become an integral part of web activity for many Internet users – in September 2006, one in every 20 Internet visits went to one of the top 20 social networks, nearly double the share of visits compared to a year ago.

• In September 2006, the market share of visits to the top 20 social networking websites accounted for 4.9% of all Internet visits. This was an increase of 94% compared to September 2005.
• Users of social networking sites tend to belong to more than one network: in September 2006, 24% of visits to the remaining 19 websites in the social networking custom category came directly from MySpace. Other fast growing social networks between March and September 2006 were Bolt, up 271%; Bebo, up 95%; Orkut, up 63%; and Gaia Online, up 41%.

Later this week we will look at what I call the MySpace Halo Effect. MySpace is so dominant, that they are often the biggest source of referral traffic to the other social media web sites.

Photo Sharing Sites
When you ask people for examples of social media sites, very few people mention photo sharing sites. However, with the growth in social networks, blogs and personal websites, there has become a demand for hosting services where users could easily post their images to be shared. Leading image hosting websites Photobucket, Imageshack and Slide differ from traditional photo sharing websites in that they allow users to paste a line of HTML code onto their social network profiles, personal websites or blogs that will display the image on the website.

• Photobucket is the leading image hosting website, and its market share of visits has grown by 43% from March 2006 to September 2006.
• Slide has emerged in the past six months to become one of the most visited photography websites, with its market share of visits increasing by over 1300%.
• Photobucket, Slide, and Imageshack receive the majority of their traffic from MySpace, as users post images and links on their profile pages.
• The market share of visits to Flickr, a photography website that also serves as a social network and photography viewing destination, increased by 49% in the six months from March 2006 to September 2006.

Phto sharing sites operate under the radar of most marketing and brand managers. There growth in 2006 indicates that their exists marketing opportunities for many web savvy companies.

Video Sharing Sites
2006 has seen a drastic increase in the consumption of video online, and in particular consumer generated video. This increase in video content creation and sharing denotes a significant shift in online behavior, and is changing potential revenue streams for copyrighted content owners.

• The market share of visits to YouTube increased by 249% in the six months from March to September 2006, and in September was the 26th most visited website by US Internet users.
• The market share of visits to MySpace Video increased by 253% between March and September 2006, while visits to Google Video increased by 170%, visits to Yahoo Video were up 13% and visits to Metacafe increased by 133%.

The video space gets a lot of press because of YouTube and Metacafe, but the Hitwise data presents us with information about where video uses go, and how companies can use that information when planning their online campaigns.

Throughout the week we will delve further into the Hitwise data, especially from how you can use it to increase the ROI on your social media marketing campaigns.

David Wilson

I have been in providing Search Engine Optimization (SEO) services to clients for the last 8 years. I believe that SMO is where all the online services are going to converge over the next 18 months.

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