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Social networking cemented its status as a bona fide Internet phenomenon in 2007. The question for businesses taking a long, hard look at this trend is whether its growth is sustainable, and if so, how can it really support through-the-line marketing? This Experian-Hitwise report looks in detail at the key social networking learnings from 2007, the trends that are most likely to play out in 2008, and the critical areas that brands need to consider when developing their social media marketing strategies. Key insights and in-depth analysis of the social networking environment in the UK is provided by Robin Goad, Director of Research for Hitwise. Tony Mooney, Managing Partner at Experian ClarityBlue, the specialist consulting division at Experian Integrated Marketing, recommends the key areas to focus on in 2008 when looking to capitalise on the opportunities social media marketing presents.
What are social networks?
Social networking websites are online communities of people who share interests and activities, or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others. They typically provide a variety of ways for users to interact, through chat, messaging, email, video, voice chat, file-sharing, blogging, and discussion groups. Facebook, Bebo and MySpace are currently the most popular and well-known social networks in the UK, and all three appeared amongst the top 10 most-visited websites in the UK during November 2007, while ‘bebo’, ‘facebook’ and ‘myspace’ were also in the top 5 search terms in the UK during the same time period.
The big three social networks accounted for 84% of UK Internet visits to a Hitwise custom category of the top 25 social networks in November 2007, but there are lots of other competitors competing for users. These range from generalist websites, such as Friends Reunited and Faceparty, to more specialist websites such as Club Penguin (a social network/virtual world for young children), Neopets (a virtual pet community) and LinkedIn (a professional networking website). The market is moving rapidly, and there is no certainty that today’s hot property will still be leading the market tomorrow. Facebook increased its market share forty-fold between October 2006 and 2007, and social networks users’ loyalties cannot be taken for granted. There is also a lot of traffic between social networks themselves – for example, in October 2007 MySpace received 7.6% of its traffic from Bebo, and returned the favour by sending 4.7% of its traffic back.
The growth of social networks
Social networks have grown rapidly in the UK over the last few years and their share of total UK Internet visits more than trebled between November 2005 and October 2007. As social networks expand their subscriber base, the network effect kicks in and the average time users spend on them increases as their number of friends and contacts increase. For example, Bebo tripled its market share of UK Internet visits between February 2005 and 2006, and at the same time its average session time increased from 6 minutes, 22 seconds to 21 minutes, 32 seconds. Consequently, social networks now receive one in every five page impressions in the UK - more than any other industry, including Search Engines and Shopping & Classifieds.
Social networks are also starting to eat into email’s dominance of the Internet messaging market. A growing proportion of the UK online population is choosing to communicate with friends via social networks rather than email. This is nicely illustrated in Figure 2, which shows that in October 2007, Internet visits to Social Networks overtook visits to web-based email services. A Hitwise custom category consisting of the top 25 social networks accounted for 5.21% of all UK Internet visits in November 2007, compared to 4.92% for Computers and Internet – Email Services, which includes Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail and GoogleMail, amongst others.
Not just for young people and city dwellers
Younger users are currently more likely than their parents’ generation to use social networks in place of web mail services for online messaging. For example, in October 2007, 62% of Facebook users were aged 34 and under, whereas 55% of visitors to Windows Live Hotmail, the most popular web mail service in the UK, were older than 34. However, when you look at overall usage of social networks, the age gap is closing rapidly. As Figure 3 illustrates, the proportion of visitors aged 55+ to the Hitwise Social Networking and Forums industry (which is dominated by the social networks) increased from 9.3% to 15.3% between October 2006 and 2007. In addition to participating in the more established social networks, older users are also carving out their own niche online – so much that Saga Group recently launched SagaZone, a social network for the over 50s.
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