I’m a big fan of a trade publication that appears on tables at many of the adult webmaster conferences. With what happened at TPF in terms of the lack of understanding of social media, I think it’s important to reproduce some of the stories from AdultWebLife (with MikeB’s permission). If you’ve been attending adult conferences and are not reading his publication, then you only have yourself to blame when people mention things like social media and you’re drawing a blank.
Over the next few posts, I’ll be reproducing some past articles from AWL just to get you hopefully up to speed with some valuable information as well as just some plain facts to keep in your back pocket.
It may surprise you to learn that Facebook is now the #1 social networking tool on the ‘Net. It has far surpassed expectations, deftly taking over the top spot from the once unbeatable MySpace, and has a steady lead in the overall market share of all other US-based social networking sites.
These numbers come from a data study conducted by Experian’s HitWise, which revealed that nearly 59% of all social network category hits were made at Facebook, with MySpace crawling in at second place with a mere 30%. This data was collected in September 2009 and when compared to a similar study that was done the year before, Facebook had tripled its share of the market – and MySpace has dropped by a whopping 55%.
So who is using Facebook and who is using MySpace? Studies show that MySpace continues to be the go-to spot for teens to build their vanity pages, chat with friends and post blogs. On the other end of the spectrum, Facebook is proving to be a more “mature” stomping ground with the 25+ crowd – your target sales audience – and the business sector. In a nutshell, MySpace is for kids and Facebook has become the place to do business and reach a mature and marketable demographic – one with credit cards and money to spend.
Don’t be deceived by Twitter’s numbers. They came in fourth place in the September 2009 market ranking; however, they posted a huge increase from September 2008 as well. Taking 1.84% of the market share is nothing to scoff at, considering that many Twitter readers and posters connect via mobile devices over traditional Internet connections.
Conflicting statistics reveal, however, that time spent on MySpace was approximately 26 minutes per session as opposed to 23 minutes per session spent on Facebook. Twitter time dropped from 2008 by 56%, proving either a more efficient use of time spent on that social networking tool by users or yet another increase in user ADD.
Twitter, in fourth place with 1.84% of social networking site visits in September 2009, posted a huge increase over September 2008. But reports of a Twitter slowdown are bolstered by the fact that the site actually lost share since August 2009, down 0.11%.
Other data considered by the survey included the insight that US internet users overall decreased their time spent on all social networks by 20% in September 2009 compared to September 2008. This just proves – once again – that in order to get the most out of these social networking sites and traffic tools, Web developers need to increase the speed of their pages, improve the ease of navigation and use design to increase sales in order to bring up their conversion ratios.
Knowing the facts and information from current surveys and data research is a great way to help your site stay ahead of the curve. Keep evolving and growing and your site will continue to be productive for many years to come.
My take on the diminished use of sites like Twitter is that it’s also related to current economic conditions. Twitter became popular at around the same time as the beginning of the recession. With so many unemployed people trying Twitter to network, it also created a tidal wave of spam, scams, and MLM attempts. Now that we are slowly coming out of the deepest parts of the recession and people are slowly starting to get hired again, the amount of time spent in frivolous chatter is diminished. Conversations become shorter, but more meaningful. Fewer chats about peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and more discussions about how to do what you’re doing better and even more efficiently.
What does that mean? If people are spending less time just chatting away happily on sites like Twitter, then it’s even more important to get their attention, in less time than before. Your message must be well-constructed, well-communicated, and as un-spammy as possible. Your interpersonal skills on the internet (”inturpersonal skills?”) must be good, fast, and most of all, honest. If you can’t do that, then you’ll be labelled as spam or scam, and passed over or blocked.
Popularity: 4% [?]
Admittedly, I am using Twitter a bit for the business side of things. Just because my account is for generating a bit of interest for my endeavors, doesnt mean that I see it as an excuse to be lazy. You are very true that with the low-attention-span of Twitter and the increase of spambots using the service.. you have to make sure that your appearance in that 140-character realm is meaningful and genuine.
Now, Im a bit intrigued about Facebook and how adult-oriented business can really thrive in there. I know of people who have had pretty clean Facebook pages and/or profiles but still had their account disabled suddenly and no reason given. That said, how would adult stars be able to use Facebook without breaking the site’s TOS?
-Vixen Blu
Interesting read. People (especially corporations) tend to have a knee jerk reaction when it comes to social media. They know that social media is hot so they think “I have to be on Twitter, Facebook or MySpace” just because social media has become another buzz word. Social media consultants I know have told me that they usually pose the question to their clients, “Why do you want to be on there?” They are usually met with deafening silence or with answers like “Well….because.”
If you are using social media as a way to attract more customers or remain engaged with existing customers that’s fine. But these sites are only tools and you should understand the mindset behind those tools and how to be engaged with your target market. The 3 you mentioned won’t be here forever as they will likely be replaced by something else as things often are.
Those in job transition they may use Facebook to connect with friends and family. For the 25+ Up Club (smile) MySpace is considered “old school” believe it or not but people still get on there passively to play games. However, if they are looking to land a job then Twitter and, more importantly, LinkedIn.com are good tools to make connections. With the latter you can use the principals of social media as connect with old colleagues/managers who will ideally recommend your past work performance, you can join industry-related and alumni-related groups or those specific to your field and build a presence by actively commenting on questions posed by the groups or post articles. All will increase your visibility to companies or external recruiters who are searching for candidates (a means of increasing search optimization) and build connections to individuals in target industries or companies through your established network. The more you grow quality contacts in your network (like your list of friends on Facebook and MySpace) the better your chances of landing a job. Its just social networking in a different form which is better than applying on job boards.
Social media won’t go away anytime soon. Only the tools for engagement.