Interesting article over at Mashable today. Apparently, Forrester Research has released numbers that shows the amount of social networking users (those that visit MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc…) has doubled since this time in 2007.
Over 55 million adults (nearly 1/3rd of the population!) visit a social networking site at least once a month. Talk about a sharp rise in activity. The most significant jump occurred from just a year ago, when activity was around 18% of the population.
Mashable also reports that the new figures mean that social networking is now more popular than instant messaging among the adult population, which draws around 54.3 million users. The only thing that tops social networking at this point is email, watching videos, and online shopping. As the web continues to “ball” itself up and combine activities, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see social networking integrate more tightly with other activities.
One of the commenters on the post who works for a Chicago SEO firm stated the following:
“Not surprising! I’m the interactive marketing manager at a Chicago firm and the number of clients asking about social media and social networking is just exploding (video content as well). Definitely the way the web is going.”
I couldn’t agree more! As someone who consults with small businesses about online marketing, nearly all the requests I receive these days are geared towards ramping up their social media/networking activity. It will be interesting to see what 2010 brings.
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