Comments on: Social networks, social markets http://weblogsky.com/2010/01/04/social-networks-social-markets/ Smart thinking about culture, media, and the Internet. Wed, 04 Jan 2012 17:30:25 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Jon Lebkowsky http://weblogsky.com/2010/01/04/social-networks-social-markets/comment-page-1/#comment-1066 Jon Lebkowsky Tue, 05 Jan 2010 11:56:32 +0000 http://weblogsky.com/2010/01/04/social-networks-social-markets/#comment-1066 Good point, Scot. Wikipedia says "Although estimates of the number of daily users vary because the company does not release the number of active accounts, a February 2009 Compete.com blog entry ranked Twitter as the third most used social network based on their count of 6 million unique monthly visitors and 55 million monthly visits. In March 2009, a Nielsen.com blog ranked Twitter as the fastest-growing site in the Member Communities category for February 2009. Twitter had a monthly growth of 1,382 percent, Zimbio of 240 percent, followed by Facebook with an increase of 228 percent. However, only 40 percent of Twitter's users are retained." Those numbers don't say how many accounts; Twitter evidently doesn't release that information. The last number I heard was around ten million - it's probably 15-20 million by now (compared to Facebook's 350 million). In a way it's a moot point - it's not like talking about something like a magazine's readership where you can assume a fairly consistent experience and exposure. Your experience of Twitter and Facebook both, and social network platforms in general, depends on who you follow. On Facebook, it also depends on what parts of the system you use - what fan pages you follow, what groups you join, what apps you use. Strategists coming from mass media backgrounds have to get their heads around the fact that these systems are collections of niche groups and communities, and not mass audiences. Good point, Scot. Wikipedia says “Although estimates of the number of daily users vary because the company does not release the number of active accounts, a February 2009 Compete.com blog entry ranked Twitter as the third most used social network based on their count of 6 million unique monthly visitors and 55 million monthly visits. In March 2009, a Nielsen.com blog ranked Twitter as the fastest-growing site in the Member Communities category for February 2009. Twitter had a monthly growth of 1,382 percent, Zimbio of 240 percent, followed by Facebook with an increase of 228 percent. However, only 40 percent of Twitter’s users are retained.” Those numbers don’t say how many accounts; Twitter evidently doesn’t release that information. The last number I heard was around ten million – it’s probably 15-20 million by now (compared to Facebook’s 350 million). In a way it’s a moot point – it’s not like talking about something like a magazine’s readership where you can assume a fairly consistent experience and exposure. Your experience of Twitter and Facebook both, and social network platforms in general, depends on who you follow. On Facebook, it also depends on what parts of the system you use – what fan pages you follow, what groups you join, what apps you use. Strategists coming from mass media backgrounds have to get their heads around the fact that these systems are collections of niche groups and communities, and not mass audiences.

]]> By: Scot Hacker http://weblogsky.com/2010/01/04/social-networks-social-markets/comment-page-1/#comment-1061 Scot Hacker Tue, 05 Jan 2010 07:51:28 +0000 http://weblogsky.com/2010/01/04/social-networks-social-markets/#comment-1061 At first I was shocked to see this discrepancy between facebook and twitter. I would have expected FB to have, say, twice the usage of Twitter. But then I realized that they were comparing *the number of visits* to the respective sites. The vast majority of FB users use FB via the web, while many/most Twitter users use Twitter via 3rd party clients. The lion's share of Twitter usage is not (or cannot be?) counted. Which makes me question how meaningful the chart is. At first I was shocked to see this discrepancy between facebook and twitter. I would have expected FB to have, say, twice the usage of Twitter. But then I realized that they were comparing *the number of visits* to the respective sites.

The vast majority of FB users use FB via the web, while many/most Twitter users use Twitter via 3rd party clients. The lion’s share of Twitter usage is not (or cannot be?) counted. Which makes me question how meaningful the chart is.

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