Trends and directions of the top 10 social media platforms

Social media is a dynamic universe. Seemingly insignificant platforms become market leaders in a matter of months, and web giants that appear indestructible fall in no time. Such a rapidly changing market requires attentive monitoring, and access to accurate statistics is essential.

People at DreamGrow have published the most recent stats on the Top 10 social networking sites in the US. The trends are food for thought:

  • The popularity of MySpace is steadily falling. From being a market leader with almost 50% of the share just four years ago, it now enjoys a laughable 0.3% popularity. Even its latest redesign and $50m investment have not succeeded to resurrect it…yet
  • Facebook and YouTube are stable in their market position. Neither of the two social media giants show any signs of a drastic growth in a near future. Facebook enjoys more than half of the total share which is impressive. The future challenge for the platform is to maintain a stable user base and avoid the fate of MySpace
  • Twitter’s profile is gradually and steadily growing. The platform seems to enjoy a continually expanding user base
  • LinkedIn, Google+ and Pinterest are the most rapidly growing platforms. Pinterest’s success story continues to unfold and Google+ is successfully attracting Gmail users. Meanwhile more and more jobseekers and employers are realising the potential of LinkedIn

Are you thinking which platform to invest your effort in? Here are 7 top tips:

  • Take advantage of Facebook’s enormous market share
  • Forget about MySpace
  • Tweet consistently – it takes little effort and pays off in the long run
  • Take into account the SEO value of Google+
  • Don’t ignore the business opportunities on LinkedIn
  • Make sure you take part in the Pinterest explosion, especially if your products are visually engaging
  • Keep an eye out for new, unheard of platforms. Most of the current leaders were unknown ten years ago

 

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