With Twitter getting so much attention these days, Facebook almost seems to have drifted into the background. But the more you look at data on web traffic, the more you realize how big a force Facebook has become.
The chart below is from Mary Meeker's presentation at the Web 2.0 conference a few weeks ago. It clearly illustrates Facebook's rapid rise to key web player status.
Marketing Charts has another angle on the growth of Facebook. Their chart (below and sourced from Nielsen) shows the top 10 U.S. Web brands by unique visitors and time spent in September. Facebook is 4th in terms of audience size and 1st in terms of time spent per person.
What is striking about Facebook is not the size of their audience or how much time people spend on the site. It is their growth rate on both metrics that is impressive. They are quickly becoming the place people hang out on the web.
Despite these numbers, the vast majority of small businesses do not need a Facebook presence at this time. It is not yet a site most customers turn to for business purposes.
But it is time to pay attention to Facebook and start to understand how you can use it for your business - because the day is coming when a Facebook presence will be required.
I am not so sure that Facebook has come out of the attention of many, in fact, the more I speak to people, the more seem to wander away from twitter in search of something more, which of course FB offers.
Some see twitter as a passing fad that is wholly endorsed by the various celebrities etc, shame really as it does have its place in branding and networking.
Posted by: Gill | November 17, 2009 at 05:08 AM
You seem to have got the niche from the root, Awesome work
Regards
Posted by: Certified Financial Planner Raleigh | November 18, 2009 at 08:13 PM
Facebook won’t be stopped in its tracks unless or until another network emerges that offers something faster, slicker, easier or sexier.Any diehard Facebooker will admit the service ain’t perfect, but here is a tech startup that figured out a long time ago how to get people to spread the word about it.
Posted by: 4gb usb drive | December 15, 2009 at 08:58 PM
Thank you for this information. I saw Facebook coming up more and more in discussions but I had no idea it was becoming this important. www.wizetime.com
Posted by: Lorraine | December 17, 2009 at 06:32 PM