Jennifer Bergin's Posts
Social Media is going to dramatically change the way we market but we just don't have it all figured out yet.
Here are some numbers to consider (thanks to Nateonk ):
- Facebook is growing by 600,000 to 700,000 users per DAY . The site has 150 million registered users today and is obviously growing.
- Twitter has 6 million users. I love this statistic: 11 percent of Internet users are on Twitter.
- LinkedIn , the professional social-networking site, has over 35 million users.
I have said this a number of times, but there is a whole generation of people who are turning on their computers, opening their social-media application first, leaving it on and living their Internet day in the application. Recently I was out with a bunch of social-media loving twenty-somethings, PSOGLE and Meadball . Somehow, I ended up arguing against the power of Facebook and Twitter with these young guys. But they were confirming the points I make every day: social media is incredibly relevant as more and more people manage their Internet experience out of these applications. I don't have the statistics, but I honestly believe no one under the age of 27 has a @yahoo email address or goes to Yahoo! or MSN. They use Facebook and have GMail. They are "doing the Internet" differently than my generation, and it's all about social media. It seems like my peers are more likely to live on LinkedIn and Twitter.
So, you would think that this would translate into an entirely new paradigm for Internet-revenue generation, but it doesn't. The revenue generated from these social media sites just does not come close to their popularity. Everyone tells me not to read Valleywag , but I do and do so religiously. Anyway, they had a post on Facebook's inability to generate revenue commensurate with their enormous number of users . Do the math and you realize social media might be headed for trouble:
- Facebook is trying desperately to justify the $3.7 billion dollar valuation and failing.
- Twitter just has to get bought; I can't see anyway out for them. They're going with the old-school Web site model — building traffic now and figuring out the rest later. There have been a lot of posts on how Twitter can make money and none have resonated with me.
- I have hope for LinkedIn , but I am not hearing much about their revenue.
The net-net: I was asked by Steven Woods from Eloqua : Can social media scale? According to him, the market is growing and frankly starting to dominate, but won't scale without revenue.
Stay tuned.
Comments
Posted By: Elizabeth (3/14/2009)
Comment: Please do research before posting inaccurate data: Linkedin generates profits.
Posted By: Martin (3/4/2009)
Comment: I'm a 20-something person with a degree and job in the graphic communications industry. I have Facebook, LinkedIn, and MySpace accounts. I only go on MySpace every few months now, while the other two are daily logins for me, that's if I happen to log out before going to bed the night before. I use Firefox as opposed to Internet Explorer and started to use the free download Adblock Plus. I haven't seen an ad on these sites in weeks. People like me grew up with computers, I can remember having an old Apple II in kindergarten. Many of us use tools like Adblock Plus to eliminate ads, for those that don't they just ignore them and don't click on them. We're the same group that has TiVo in our homes that don't see commercials, and we download our music online either with our computer or our mobile device. Ads are not a good way to generate revenue. I can guarantee you, my generation are not the ones clicking the pops ups that inform us that we are the 999,999,999 visitor to a site and have won a special prize for it (mainly because our pop up software blocked it). Oh, and I also have a Gmail account which is checked more on my multimedia phone then on my computer.
Posted By: Courtney Bosch (3/4/2009)
Comment: Interesting points Jennifer! But even if Twitter (for example) were bought, the purchaser would be in the same boat, no? Left having to find a way to generate revenue. What is the answer? Advertising? Facebook & LinkedIn both have ads on their pages, but I assume neither are generating enough to sustain themselves in the long run.