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Darren Waters

The value of social networks

  • Darren Waters
  • 15 Jan 08, 11:02 GMT

Think social networks are a waste of time? Think again.

According to a report released today by market research firm Experian, social networking sites such as Facebook, Bebo and MySpace now account for one in every five net page impressions in the UK.

Facebook logoThat's a lot of activity. I had begun to find my enthusiasm for Facebook waning somewhat, but that might just be because I'm too old.

The report also says that younger users are starting to use social networks to communicate rather than using e-mail.

It states: The top 25 social networks accounted for 5.21% of all UK Internet visits in November 2007, compared to 4.92% for e-mail services, which include Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail and Google Mail.

Experian is predicting the rise of the "super advocate", a person who has a huge online following and influences
others through their actions and opinions.

Does that sound like you? You may be interested to know that Experian believes companies will quickly need to identify these super advocates and "use everything at their disposal to keep these key influencers on side".

Hmmm. Does that sound like bribery to you?

You can read more .


Comments

Am I a "super-advocate"? I doubt it, but I do like Social Network sites a lot. I think the future will give people a better and safer experience when they meet new friends through social networking, and an expereince that's better integrated with the rest of their "digital" life when interfacing with people they know in real life....

Guy
www.sleepywhisper.com

  • 2.
  • At 01:30 PM on 15 Jan 2008,
  • Trevor wrote:

I think this trend will continue with more people using niche social networks targeted to particular interests, vocations and demographics. With smaller, focused communities, users can receive genuine support, friendship and even mentoring.

Websites such as allow anyone to create their own social network, while search engines like help users find niche social networks and enable these sites to promote themselves.

More and more advertising budgets will be directed towards niche social networking as this offers companies and brands hyper-targeted markets.

I like the idea of "Super Advocate", you're beginning to see it in the blogging world in micro levels.

One such blogger is John Chow. Despite being deindexed by Google and his blog not being the best writing - in fact it's rather dull - he's managed to build up a $25,000/month empire through that blog. Why? Because he's very good at influencing people. There are blog posts and even blogs dedicated to him, in a rather strange, cult like fashion.

For money it's understandable and encouraged. For personal views though, it could be quite dangerous.

Personally, I see the whole facebook thing as a place where people with too much time, and too little imagination hang out until the next big thing. Its interesting that the 大象传媒 is the largest single employer of facebook users with 14k members - it might explain why it gets such coverage - I guess you people weren't around during the first social network revolution called newsgroups - or even the second known as ICQ.
Facebook will go the same way as the bright young things find a new secret place to hang out!
As for the super user - they are a product of their time and they will only gain from it if they can also jump at the right time!

  • 5.
  • At 07:54 PM on 15 Jan 2008,
  • Kan wrote:

Investment banks created new models to value the internet stocks not too long ago. They valued the websites in the number of "eyeballs" and not the income generated. This is happening again - why do you get fooled again? Web 2.0 or Web 3.0 are just monikers. Value a company on its ability to deliver profits not pie in the sky projections.

Online social networks sites now are helping individuals develop personal and professional relationships more than ever before. Users go to considerable trouble to upload information and images to these sites, and to establish elaborate networks of friends for electronic sharing. They are not likely to abandon all that effort as casually as they would switch from one online bookseller to another.

- Discover the best of web!

Social networking site are a great idea. They help people communicate at all different levels. My site solves an offline problem missing pets by using the power of the social network.

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