A recent post on social media blog Mashable shows exactly how much of a force Facebook has become. We all know Facebook is popular, but as of March 2010, it is controlling 41% of all social media traffic. That’s an astounding number, but possibly even more impressive is the amount of growth Facebook has experienced from March 2009 to March 2010.
Last March, the falling giant MySpace was still ahead of Facebook in social media usage at 38% and 33% respectively. Now, Facebook has gained a significant amount while MySpace has dropped rapidly and now stands holding only 24% of the social media traffic – a number that is sure to drop.
The study also shows that LinkedIn and Twitter have experienced tremendous growth as well making great strides in year over year growth.
Understanding where the market is heading is important when determining your social media marketing strategy. With the strong growth in Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, signs are pointing to social media being used for not just personal use, but business as well. We’ve talked before about how mobile is changing social media and with the mobile friendliness of services like Facebook and Twitter very well could be contributing to the current traffic trends.
Will Facebook continue it’s upward trend or will a new platform rise up and turn Facebook into the next MySpace? Only time will tell, but it’s important to keep an eye on the trends and be adaptable. If your consumers are migrating, you should be too.
