Social Network Solutions

Facebook Becomes a Bigger Hit than Google

http://www.cnbc.com/id/35908591

Social networking website Facebook has capped a year of phenomenal growth by overtaking Google’s popularity among US internet users, with industry data showing it has scored more visits on its home page than the search engine.In a sign that the web is becoming more sociable than searchable, research firm Hitwise said that the two sites accounted for 14 percent of all US internet visits last week. Facebook’s home page recorded 7.07 percent of traffic and Google’s 7.03 percent.

It is the first time that Facebook.com has enjoyed a weekly lead over Google.com. The lead may be slim, but it has become inevitable as Facebook’s popularity has grown rapidly from just over 2 percent of visits a year ago. Heather Dougherty of Hitwise said that Facebook had “reached an important milestone” with the weekly figures.

Facebook’s membership has more than doubled in the past year, passing the 200m mark last April and 400m in February.

“The true value of Facebook and social networks is just becoming clear to marketers,” said Augie Ray, analyst at Forrester Research.Although Facebook is enjoying rapid growth, it is only beginning to cash in on its success. Revenues at the social media company are estimated to be in the range of $1 billion to $1.5 billion this year, while Google took in $23.7 billion last year.

Google has responded to the ascendancy of the social networking site with its own Buzz service last month. Buzz allows users to add status updates, friends, pictures, videos, location information, comments and links to other networking sites. Buzz, though, has struggled with privacy concerns just as Facebook has been criticised for encouraging members to reveal personal data to search engines.

The Hitwise figures only cover visits to the Google.com site, meaning that services such as Gmail, YouTube, Google Maps and searches carried out in a box in a browser toolbar are excluded. Taking all Google properties into account, the internet company accounted for 11.03 percent of US website visits last week, compared with 10.98 percent for Yahoo properties and 7.07 percent for Facebook, according to Hitwise.Facebook’s trajectory suggests that it will soar ahead of Google.com in the coming months. However, social networking sites have fallen in the past. Google.com had led since September 2007, when it overtook News Corp’s MySpace.com

Internet users worldwide spent more than five-and-a-half hours a month on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter in December 2009, an 82 percent increase over the previous year, according to the Nielsen Company research firm.

US users spent nearly six-and-a-half hours on Facebook compared with fewer than two-and-a-half hours on Google.

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Why Social Media Is Worth Small Business Owners' Time
By Steve Mckee

YouTube. Flickr. Digg. Metacafe. Stumbleupon. Technorati. Del.icio.us. Kaboodle. Fark. Furl. Swik. Mixx. Are social media tools like these the future or simply new ways to waste time? Can't we slow this train down?

Unfortunately, we can't. But if you think about it, we don't want to either. The Web is a vital source of innovation, and it levels the playing field between small businesses and corporate giants. The only problem is keeping up with the pace of its rapid (some would say rabid) advances. Taking advantage of all the Web has to offer is like eating your vegetables or getting exercise—most of us don't do enough, and even those that do could always do more.

The first thing I want to encourage you to do is relax. Take a deep breath and release that tightness in your chest. This column isn't about making you feel stupid for not knowing what Reddit.com is, or chastising you for not having three extra hours a day to spend tweeting and blogging. I simply want to encourage you to get started. (For background on social media, check out this story.)

The Price Is Right Activity in this universe has thus far been dominated by innovators and early adopters. But now that the early majority is getting in the game (with the late majority right on their heels), the numbers are starting to swell. Facebook, the most popular of the social media sites, has nearly 200 million users worldwide. LinkedIn is like Facebook for professionals, and more than 30 million of us have signed up. And Twitter—not even three years old—tracks thousands upon thousands of instant message "tweets" every day. That spells significant opportunity—whether your customers live around the world or across the street, you can find a lot of them online.

The biggest reason to use social media is that it's free. You can be a significant player online without laying out any cash, and in this economic environment cash is king more than ever. It does take time, though, and in business time is money. But getting up to speed on social media is like learning to ride a bike; it's difficult and intimidating at first, but once you get the hang of it you can get where you want to go quickly—and even enjoy the ride.


Think back 15 years or so, to when you first heard of the term "Web site." Your first thought was probably "What's a Web site?" quickly followed by "Why would I ever need one of those?" Now, of course, some of the tiniest mom-and-pop shops in the farthest corners of the world do business on the Web. You probably had the same reaction when you first discovered blogs, text messaging, and even e-mail. Many of today's flavor-of-the-month social networking sites will go the way of the dinosaur, but the medium is here to stay.

Jump Right In The key to getting on top of social media is not investing a fortune on expensive new initiatives. They key is to get your hands dirty. Pick a site, find a spare hour or two, and sign up. Experience it as a user, and observe how others are using the site. Only in doing that can you come to understand not only how it works, but how it might relate to your company. As outlandish as it may appear at first, there's probably an application of it for your business.

Let me give you an example. I'm not an early adopter, but I do have a Web site and blog, I use text messaging frequently, and have Facebook and LinkedIn networks. I had been hearing a great deal about Twitter, so I decided to spend part of a recent weekend getting up to speed on it. At first I was lost, but before long I figured out what the community was about and how I wanted to develop my network. I even made a business connection my very first day that made the investment of time more than worthwhile.

Interestingly, I found that, unlike me, most of the people now on Twitter would fit the "early adopter" category; when I searched for a wide variety of clients and other professional colleagues, most of them weren't there yet. But with that small investment of time, I now have one more social networking tool in my repertoire. And I now know how to fit it into my business practice in a way that isn't overwhelming or intimidating.

Dividends Within Weeks If you were to take on, say, one social networking site per month, you would be ahead of 90% or more of your peers (and your competitors). And it would have the added benefit of helping you relate to the emerging workforce for whom all of this is second nature. If you do, I'm convinced you'd have at least one new customer, product idea, or other business-building asset to show for it within weeks. Give it a try. Pick a site, log in, and get started. If you find me there, introduce yourself. I'll be happy to show you around.

From the producers of this video:



"In this exclusive interview, social media expert Euan Semple breaks social media down into easy to understand terms and explains not only why every business should at least have a look at social media but also how they can make a start without the need of employing expensive agencies and IT professionals.

Euan explains how most companies are starting to feel pressured to jump head first into social media because everyone is talking about it, although it would be imperative for most businesses to at least investigate social media, throwing too much at it isnt necessarily going to help.

Euan also acknowledges that social media can be perceived as being a tool for the younger generation, but that generation is now starting to work within your organisation and with them they will bring the tools which theyre used to using on a day to day basis. This doesnt mean you need to ban social networking sites like Face Book and MySpace in your office, it means you need to encourage these staff to use these tools in a manor that can benefit your business and you need to trust them to do this. Euan justifies this by pointing out that they may be more likely to ask their existing peers within that network if they encounter a problem rather than going through the usual time consuming channels. This example is not just limited to the more junior employees; encouraging staff to participate in social media can speed up trouble shooting and enable any solutions found to be shared.

Whilst at the BBC, Euan pioneered the use of weblogs, wikis and online forums to enable staff to work more collaboratively across the organisation. Euan also worked on the BBCs award winning leadership programme, gaining experience in how to engage and inspire people with the possibilities of social computing as a business tool. He is now independent advisor on social computing for business, and a well known writer, thinker and public speaker. His unique experience enables him to provide inspiration on this wired-up world of work and strategies for how business can prepare themselves for the challenges and opportunities presented by new technologies."