Who is winning this social media battle?
And the Award goes to … Blogger!
Social media sites have been around for sometime now and have gained huge popularity amongst most internet browsers especially the younger generation who just can’t seem to get away from it. The number of social media sites has been increasing day by day. However some of the top sites have a staggering number of visitors and are popular for various reasons. The popular media sites are a combination of blogging platforms and social networks.
Blogger, by comparative data, is in the top slot of popular social media sites. This site has an estimated 222 million unique visitors worldwide. Facebook comes next with 200 million visitors, MySpace has 126 million visitors, Wordpress is currently gaining popularity and has 114 million visitors. Windows Live Spaces has 87 million unique visitors. Yahoo Geocities has 69 million, Flickr has 64 million, hi5 has 58 million, Orkut with 46 million, Six Apart has 46 million, Baidu Space, a Chinese site has 40 million visitors, Friendster has 31 million, 56.com, another Chinese site has 29 million, Webs.com has 24 million, Bebo has 24 million visitors, Scribd is a document sharing site and has 23 million visitors, Lycos Tripod has 23 million, Tagged has 22 million, imeem has 2 million visitors while at the 20th place is the Netlog with 21 million unique visitors worldwide.
Blogger seems to be the favorite of most internet browsers going by its sheer visitor strength. It is a combination of daily pulpit, a personal diary of sorts, a collaborative space, and a collection of links as well as a breaking news outlet. It allows the member to share thoughts, photos and much more. Its ease of use and flexibility probably are the reasons for its success especially amongst the young. Facebook is not just a regular social media site, the Facebook Platform provides unique features for marketers, business and web developers to develop, sell and advertise themselves. It also allows companies to post up contract jobs and many online auction sites have successfully used it to sell their products. MySpace too has easy to use tools and has been a hit with teenagers. MySpace also gives its members the opportunity to keep in touch through IM and bulletin boards. It also allows creating links on the pages of “friends”. MySpace has been used by two music bands to popularize their music.
Although not a mainstream marketing tool, social media sites and blogs are increasingly being discussed as a strategic marketing tool. The present day consumer expects a steady supply of new content from all sorts of businesses. Social media sites provide an opportunity to participate in creating content or commenting on it. Consumers also seek information from these sites and subscribe to RSS feeds. Such interaction is boosting the media consumption patterns and marketers are viewing this as an advantageous opportunity to strengthen consumer relationship. Thus you can find a lot of advertisements right from the basic level on major social media sites. Other forms of marketing through social media sites are the “crowd sourcing” wherein the marketers offer to sponsor or promote video contents on most visited video-sharing sites. One of the best examples of this has been the Southwest Airlines Contest. Audiences were invited to upload videos on YouTube with “Wanna Get Away” theme. A panel of judges as well as the public decided the winner who took away a Southwest Airlines sponsored vacation and the video was aired on national television. This is bound to inspire potential videographers to follow suit, while Southwest Airlines gained hugely in popularity. Unlike conventional advertising, the process of online advertising through top social media sites differs. Here you will need to provide assistance, establish a process and ends with tips on how to get there, contribute with genuine and valuable information, and connect with your consumers.
Social media sites are undoubtedly here to stay and the better use the marketers can make of it, the more they would gain. Consumers continue to frequent the social media sites and the population (membership / visitors) is increasing manifold each day.
