Social networking sites like Facebook and Myspace has overtaken emailing as the most popular internet activity, which was reported by Billboard over a study taken by Nielsen. And to think some of us thought "Facebook Stalking" was a fad. Bah!
Neilsen released a study showing that online participation on social networks exceeded emailing by 67 percent to 65 percent. This shift in online activity is going to have a profound effect on marketers and publishers. They are already having a hard time connecting with more consumers because time is being taken away from them in favor of more time on social networks, which is already hard to reach consumers on. Basically, the more time social networking takes of you, the less you shop and buy, and the less those marketers and publishers make.
I've personally noticed my shift from using email to Facebook messaging friends. It's just plain easier to message others, especially more than one. Twitter has also made it much easier to keep up with friends and family, leaving my email for more professional contacts. Interesting enough, Linkedin has slowly taken over my professional contacts as well!
Some interesting data that Neilsen reported were that nearly 2/3 of the world's internet users visited a social network in 2008, 10 percent of total internet time was spent on social media, and that social media has broken out of the youth demographic. Facebook's greatest growth has come from the 35-49 year olds, and has added double the amount of 50-64 year olds to the under 18 crowd. I'm sure many of your mommas and papas are already on Facebook (and even more of you have untagged those less than flattering pictures from last weekend.)
With this new development, marketers and publishers are in a dilemma and you know what that means! New business models!
"As the online industry matures and the values of online real estate is increasingly measured by time spent, rather than pages viewed, a significant shift in advertising revenue from 'traditional' online media towards social media could be realized -- if the successful ad model can be found," the Neilsen report said. "Whatever the successful ad model turns out to be, the messaging will have to be authentic and humble, and built on the principle of two-way conversation -- not a push model -- that adds value to the consumer."
Athentic and humble? Two-way conversation? Sounds like they are talking a little bit about viral marketing, which relies mostly on word of mouth marketing. This has been working well on Youtube, but can the music industry benefit from this shift too? We're definitely on the right track with the incorporation of applications like iLike and Last.fm, but how can we further this concept into the social networking sites?
Whoever thinks of a good model will probably be the next hired. I graduate soon... excuse me while I wrap my head around this;)
1 comment:
yup. could you imagine papi on facebook? i think it's only a matter of time.
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