30 January 2008
Not the words of a social networking addict (such as myself) but those of the level-headed number crunchers over at web stats firm, Hitwise. The latest report follows their announcement late last year that social networking sites such as Facebook and Bebo have become the fourth biggest drivers of traffic to online retailers after the usual suspects of SEO, email etc.
Now the even more stark warning to brands seems to be 'ignore them at your peril'. Their stats machine shows that Christmas Day 2007 was the busiest day ever for social networks in the UK and Facebook was the third most visited website in the UK over the Christmas period, pushing eBay into fourth place for the first time since January 2005!
No doubt following such grand pronouncements Facebook's ranks will swell with middle aged retail executives who previously considered such sites the realm of their teenage daughters.
Robin Goad, Research Director of Hitwise, UK, says: "At the end of 2007, social networks accounted for 7.7 per cent of all Internet traffic sent to other websites. As the functionality and accessibility to the information they hold improves, this figure will only increase during 2008. Easier access to this data will mean that marketers can use it to better target their social media messages, gaining better quality business leads and greater value from their social media marketing investment."
Check out their report here.
In other social networking news Myspace are finally opening up their API to external developers. Now the non-techie amongst you this may not be impressed but it is exactly this ability for third parties to develop functions and promotional tools that allowed Facebook to steal a march on the one-time, undisputed champion of social networks. Maybe this will turn the tide for Rupert Murdoch's network of choice.
NMA report on it here
And finally Comscore have released to ranking sites for Dec 2007 and suprise, suprise Facebook has sneaked in at number 10. Check out the rest here.
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