One Year Enough for Facebook to Triple its US Market Share

They say change is the only thing that is constant. While year 2009 has been fabulous for Facebook as it became the leading social network worldwide, MySpace has struggled to sustain its strong position that it enjoyed last year. The US market has embraced Facebook and distanced from MySpace ever since the former gained acceptance and adulation from the global social networking audience.

The Mark Zuckerberg-owned company grabbed a 59% market share in US according to online research firm Hitwise. On the contrary, MySpace managed to grab only 30% of the visits in September this year. If you still think that 30% is not bad, you are bound to get shocked after comparing MySpace’s performance during the same period last year.

Concerns Over Army Using Social Networking Sites

We all know how social networking has transformed our lives since the past few years. People across the world use it to share updates, pictures, videos and personal information with their friends and family. However, like every coin has two sides, social networking has a major drawback of leaking confidential information if not used carefully. Concerned about this issue, the Indian Army recently handed over a circular asking its personnel to beware from uploading such content on social networking sites like Orkut and Facebook.

To avoid putting the national security in danger, the Army has asked all the units across the country to remove work-related information such as place of posting, ranks, etc. from their profiles, if already posted. According to the Army’s estimation, about 35,000 of its total 1.1 million soldiers are active internet users.

Social Networking Sites – Virtual Real Estates

The global recession has created problems for a number of people to acquire a land- property or a home.  In fact land properties across the world are experiencing inflated rates, adding to the buyers’ woes. However, social networking sites are inviting worldwide users to invest in their site and find a virtual property to live in. Here, the investment is not in terms of money, but time. No wonder there is such an explosion in the usage of social networking sites since the last couple of years or so.

Finding a virtual property (i.e. becoming a member of a social networking site) is not a difficult task. There are plenty of options available for the users such as Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, Orkut, Friendster, Twitter, LinkedIn, amongst host of others. Quite amazingly, most of these online properties are competing amongst themselves to attract more number of users, and eventually more number of advertisers.

Social Networking Up 83% in a Year, Facebook Leads the Race

Nielsen Online released latest figures of the social networking industry, stating that the time spent on these sites jumped 83% from previous year in the U.S. While this may seem to be exciting news, the report also warns that the behavior of social networking users is erratic and can turn the tables for any popular social networking site.

Not surprisingly, Facebook led the race with about 700% increase in total time spent on the site by users. The mammoth year-on-year increase from 1.7 billion minutes in April 2008 to 13.9 billion in April 2009 made it the top performing social networking site in the category. Long term competitor MySpace slipped back 31%, while Twitter recorded a growth of over 3700%, as it can be seen from the table below.

Ibibo – Much More Than a Social Network

At a time when majority of the upcoming social networking sites are focusing on a niche segment or industry, ibibo is one fearless player that is gaining tremendous attention in the Indian market space by offering multiple social media services. The site, which is well-known to provide platform for budding artists and talents, is an excellent example of a complete social media package.

Following are the different social media services at ibibo:

Do Users Care About Ads on Social Networking Sites?

They say that ads must be targeted only at places where your potential costumers are available. While this statement largely holds true, there may be cases that even your potential customers would not be too keen about buying your product at one of the most crowded places in the world – the social networking sites.

Generally, users do not portray their actual behavior on social networking sites. They are often manipulative and pretentious to grab the attention of their friends or connections. Hence, you might also likely find that their behavior would be different on different social networks. Also, thinking that users would enjoy seeing your ad displayed on the site and would eventually purchase your product is more of an optimistic approach towards marketing, rather than a practical one.

Before advertising your product on a social networking site, you must ask yourself the following questions:

MySpace is Popular, But Are Your Friends Out There?

One of the major reasons why MySpace is losing competition to Facebook is its inability to win the hearts of the overseas audience. No doubt it is still the leading social networking site in the US today, but when it comes to the global market share, it is Facebook that enjoys a dominant position. Moreover, the latter is also getting closer and closer to MySpace and can overtake it anytime now to achieve the first position in the US market.

According to comScore, it is Facebook that ranks as the top social networking site in the majority of European countries, where a massive chunk of the online social networking audience exists.

Using Corporate Blogs and Social Networks to Save Communication Costs

Every company in this world aims to cut down its costs and improve its bottom line. There are several costs that a company has to incur to perform its business, one of the most important being the communication cost. Communication costs refer to expenses made on internal and external communication. Internal communication takes place within the company, such as internal newsletters and brochures, employee engagement activities, group meetings, conferences, etc. External communication takes place outside the company with the public, consumers, local authorities, government agencies, etc.

One of the major benefits of social media is that it is open to all and is freely available. Social media applications such as social networks, blogs, video and photo sharing sites prove useful in sending across messages to any concerned person whom you wish to communicate with.

Organizations who wish to leverage social media and cut down their communication costs can take up the following two steps:

Woah! Twitter Grows 3000% in a Year

Achieving landmarks seems to have become a routine for major social networking sites these days. Just few days back, Facebook crossed the 200-million-users mark and extended its lead from arch-rival MySpace. And now, it is Twitter that has entered the arena and doing exceedingly well in just a short span of time. The micro-blogging and social networking site has accumulated a staggering 17 million U.S. visitors in April and grown 3000% compared to a year ago. That’s indeed massive!

What led to the increasing popularity of Twitter is the tremendous exposure it received through media, bloggers around the world, and of course the presence of top-notch celebrities on the site.

Top 10 Comparisons Between Life Before and After Social Networking

Social networking has become a phenomenon today, and most of us can’t even think about living without it. However, the same feeling wasn’t about 4 years back when social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, Orkut, etc. were evolving and slowly picking up pace over the Web.

This article reflects top 10 comparisons between life before and after social networking to understand how we have become the slaves of this growing trend.