Back in 2007 my uncle (a Nashville graphic designer) sent me a link to this brilliant (and humorous) visualization of the web:
My wife happened to stumble on the image in cleaning out her emails and boy, things sure have changed in the last 2 years.
One of the biggest changes my wife noticed was Myspace and Facebook. Since 2007 Facebook has sky-rocketed to the top of the pack of social sites, even getting more hits on Christmas day than any other site (including Google). According to Facebook’s stats page, their network now has over 350 million members worldwide. And there are more than 700,000 local businesses with pages up on Facebook as well. Looks like Facebook is the place to be in the social networking/media world right now.
Another interesting item from the above map was the complete absence of Twitter. Though not technically a social network in the strictest sense (but rather more of a communication tool) it has been the hot topic for social media and networking in 2009 and boasts one of the fastest growing memberships amongst online communities. It’s amazing that two years ago it wasn’t even on the radar for most people. Such is the nature of internet trends: they come hard and fast (and usually disappear just as quickly).
What do you think about Facebook, Twitter and social networking sites? Does the business you own or work for use social media marketing? Why or why not? I’d love to hear your thoughts.