Promotions 2.0Blurring the line between interactive advertising, promotions and social network marketing.

March 23rd, 2009

Social Networking’s Growing Footprint

Online communities, which include both social networks and blogs, are now the fourth most popular online category visited by 67% of the global online population, according to new research by Nielsen Online.

The communities are growing twice as fast as any of the other four largest sectors—search, portals, PC software and e-mail.

“Social networking has become a fundamental part of the global online experience,” John Burbank, CEO of Nielsen Online, said in a release. “While two-thirds of the global online population already accesses member community sites, their vigorous adoption and the migration of time show no signs of slowing. Social networking will continue to alter not just the global online landscape, but the consumer experience at large.”

The report also found that Facebook, which is the world’s most popular social network, is visited monthly by three in every 10 people online across the nine markets in which Nielsen tracks social networking use.

Other findings include:

* One in every 11 minutes online globally is accounted for by social network and blogging sites.

* The social network and blogging audience is becoming more diverse in terms of age: the biggest increase in visitors during 2008 to member community Web sites globally came from the 35 to 49 year old age group (+11.3 million).

* Mobile is playing an increasingly important role in social networking. Nielsen found that 19%  (10.6 million people) of mobile Web users in the US visit a social networks through their handset. These numbers are a big increase over last year—up 156 percent.

* While social networks started out among the younger audience, they’ve become more mainstream
with the passage of time. Not surprisingly the audience has become broader and older. This shift has primarily been driven by Facebook whose greatest growth has come from people aged 35-49 years of age (+24.1 million). From December 2007 through December 2008, Facebook added almost twice as many 50-64 year old visitors (+13.6 million) than it has added under 18 year old visitors (+7.3 million).