Facebook accounted for 58.59% of all U.S. visits to the top 155 social networking Web sites in September of this year - a 194% increase since September 2008 according to Hitwise. MySpace was second with 30% of social networking. The picture was far different just a year earlier in September of 2008 when MySpace accounted for 66.84% of U.S. social networking and Facebook sat at just under 20%.
Twitter, which grew 1170% in the last year, still accounts for only 1.84% of all social networking traffic. The seldom talked about Tagged.com grew 47% in the last year to stay ahead of Twitter with 2.38% of social traffic.
ANALYSIS: For marketers of music, success is not just found in overall numbers, but in who is being reached. MySpace still puts more emphasis on music and attracts a younger crowd; though that too is shifting: the 18-34 demo declined 13% at MySpace and increased 10% at Facebook last year. Twitter users are more active consumers and often help shape trends and opinions.
But Facebook has the eyeballs and is grabbing more every day. If there is still mass media, Facebook, at this moment, is it.
