Twitter is insignificant compared to MySpace. That's what I learned from comScore's data on social media. Facebook is clearly the reigning champion of social media. That wasn't much of a surprise, but the thing that really grabbed my attention is the fact that MySpace is a strong second while Twitter is barely in the running. Take a look at the graph below to see what I mean.
Isn't that amazing? All we seem to hear about is Twitter this and Twitter that in the blogosphere, but I think the real story is Facebook and MySpace. From all the talk, or lack thereof, about MySpace, I thought the service was practically defunct. But it has three times as many visitors as Twitter and two-thirds the number of Facebook's visitors.
MySpace doesn't look weak in my eyes. In fact, it looks dominant compared to Twitter.
I found the above graph in the Chicago Tribune's Business section on a page simply entitled, "Twitter vs. Facebook vs. MySpace." The paper offered no commentary on the graph's startling revelations, so I'm taking the liberty of doing so here in the Submit Solution Social Media Blog.
I would like to focus on three aspects of this graph: 1. Twitter's and MySpace's recent stagnation, 2. Facebook's astonishing rise to the top spot, and 3. Social media's revenue sources.
1. Both Twitter and MySpace are faltering
Both Twitter and MySpace have stagnated recently. However, MySpace was still above 60 million visitors in August, a barrier it crossed at the end of 2006 when Twitter was just starting out. Twitter, however, barely crossed over the 20-million mark after a meteoric rise in 2009, and then it started plateauing a little bit.
During the same time period in which MySpace has started dropping and Twitter has grown, Facebook has exploded in popularity, reaching 92.2 million visitors.
Facebook and MySpace seem to be performing well and have reached a much broader audience than Twitter. Perhaps over time Twitter will make up the difference, but I don't see how that explains its disproportionate amount of attention in the media and blogosphere.
2. Facebook's leap to the top
Over the past 18 or so months, Facebook has added more than 50 million visitors. That's more than twice what Twitter has ever reached. Twitter added almost 20 million visitors in the course of eight or so months to reach its current level, but that still pales in comparison to Facebook's rise. I think the real success story here is Facebook, while Twitter still needs to prove itself. That leads to my third point.
3. Twitter has no revenue source
Both MySpace and Facebook have pretty well-defined revenue sources. They depend on online advertising, as well as some clever services available to their visitors. Twitter hasn't quite figured out how to generate revenue and strive for profitability, yet. It's working on premium corporate accounts, but it's still fairly untested and uncertain if that will work.
My point in all of this? Simply that Twitter seems like a new kid on the block that is getting lots of attention, even though it hasn't really shown itself to have staying power.
What do you think? Is my line of thinking way off? Even though the numbers show Twitter to be small and insignificant compared to the other giants of social media, does it deserve all of the attention it's getting?
This internet marketing article was originally posted at submitsolution.com
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