Has social networking peaked?

One of the most discussed and possibly hyped topics of 2007 was the continued rise of social networking sites, such as Facebook. However, recent news coverage of this sector now seems to be declaring that the popularity of social networking may be on the decline.

A recent survey by Nielsen Online recorded a decline in the numbers of UK Facebook users, down by 5% in January to 8.5m. This marks the first decline in usage since the numbers were first measured in July 2006. Bebo and MySpace also showed slight falls in user numbers over January 2008.

But does this really mean that the social networking phenomenon has now peaked?

Given the huge popularity of these sites, there are bound to be dips and cycles in usage once the initial rapid uptake period had passed. Despite this new reported decline, the year-on-year figures for Facebook still indicate massive growth in user numbers of some 712%. Plus, the Nielsen research shows that while some site numbers have fallen, other UK social networking sites like Friends Reunited attracted more users in January 2008.

This could mean that users are looking for a social network that reflects their particular needs or demographics, or some are simply looking for a change. It can certainly be true that as these new services become more mainstream, original users of the sites may move away to use other networks instead, plus once the initial media frenzy has subsided, such major sites can then start to attract more negative publicity – as Facebook is now seeing with reports about privacy concerns and the inability of users to delete their details from the site once they cancel an account.

There are also new ‘social’ or user-generated content sites emerging all the time, such as the new social shopping sites and also Wikia Search, which we featured last month. This new type of search engine relies on user articles and ratings to help assess relevant content. At the moment, the site is still in Alpha release and the quality of the results is fairly poor, as admitted by Wikia Search itself. But many industry analysts believe this type of site could have staying power once the initial resistance and quality issues are overcome.

What does this mean for businesses looking to leverage social sites for marketing? Social networks still attract substantial numbers of web visits and mark a significant trend in the way the Internet is being used over the past few years. They provide many opportunities for businesses to access niche demographics or interest groups and so the trick will be keeping up with changes in the social networks and the features each one offers, as well as spotting those channels which best suit the unique selling proposition of a business.

If you want to start using social networking sites as part of your online marketing strategy or would like more information on how this could be done, please contact us now.

Leave a Reply