Much has been said about social networks, their quick growth and gradual integration into a dynamic new form of relationship building and marketing. But what does the future hold for social networking? This is a question that holds weight not only in the US, but globally. According to ZD NetAsia's article Analyst: Social networking faces uncertain future:
Growth in the membership of social-networking sites varies dramatically by region, according to the analyst, which predicts Asia Pacific will account for 35 percent of global social networking users by the end of this year, followed by EMEA (28 percent), North America (25 percent), and the Caribbean and Latin America (12 percent).
What this means for the small business is that global reach of your company's services or message is possible through the use of social networking sites (barring language issues). But much like any other technology, some tapering is expected to happen within the next 5 years. According to pcworld's "Social Networking to Taper Off in Five Years"
According to market tracker Datamonitor, global active memberships in social networking sites will reach 230 million at the end of 2007. The firm expects revenues from social networking services to reach US$965 million this year, growing to $2.4 billion by 2012...But the firm cautions social networking companies and investors not to get giddy with the growth and popularity of the services. Although players would like to be in on the next Google or Yahoo, exuberance must be tempered with memories of the Internet bubble bursting at the beginning of this decade.
For the meantime, companies are still finding benefits with engaging in online social networking - the Guardian Unlimited's Social networking 'a boost to PR' says:
The popularity of sites such as Facebook and MySpace is driving growth in public relations as companies tap into the power of recommendation, according to WPP advertising boss Sir Martin Sorrell."It is unusual for it to be so strong at this stage in the cycle and the reasoning behind it is to do with social networking and the web," said Sir Martin. "Social networking seems to underline the importance of editorial publicity. Social networking is really recommendation between people about the things that they are interested in and they like... this has stimulated people's attention."
So who is the biggest and best site so far? Seeking Alpha's "Social Networking Sites: Blogger is Biggest, Facebook Growing Fastest" analyzes the latest comScore results:
According to internet research firm comScore, Blogger had the largest number of unique visitors of all social-networking sites in September, but Facebook grew the fastest. Yahoo's Geocities and Yahoo! Groups are struggling, but its Flickr.com service grew almost 100% year-over-year. Blogger is gaining market share from Typepad (Six Apart) in the blog space, and Wordpress.com is now significantly larger than Typepad
Check out Google's Zeitgeist 2007's Social Networking Panel Discussion which includes the CEO of LinkedIn . The panel talks about the art of the social start specifically for the start-up entrepreneur and the social network marketer.
