Facebook Leads the Social Media Boom

Social media sites are becoming more and more popular among Britons, with Facebook dominating the boom. In September 2009, research estimated that Britons would spend 11.1 billion minutes on the 75 most popular social media sites (nma 5 November) which included Bebo, Blogger, MySpace, YouTube and Twitter.

The head of the social media sites, Facebook, reached 350 million global active users in 2009 and accounts for three quarters of all time spent on the top 75 social media sites, up from 63% in 2008. In second place is YouTube with 8.4% of all time spent, which is down from last year (nma 5 November). However, other social media sites haven’t been able to match such growth with Bebo and MySpace cutting back on staff and seeing a decline in younger audiences using the site.

In 2009, Facebook saw an increase in the number of users between 35-49 year olds, of who subsequently have higher disposable incomes and are potentially valuable customers for businesses interested in incorporating Facebook into their marketing plans.

McDonald’s is one major company which is taking advantage of Facebook’s ‘fan’ application. The global chain has designed a campaign to boost loyalty to its most popular products rather than the brand itself; where 140,000 Facebook members are fans of the McDonald’s McFlurry.

The social media revolution shows no sign of stopping and although Twitter has grown considerably in the last year, it would take something pretty big to push Facebook off the top spot. It is no wonder that more and more big names are directing their marketing campaigns towards social media and networking sites.

Added: January 7 2010

Read More Articles »