According to an ongoing web study – the Global Web Index – which surveyed a total of 51,000 consumers globally at three points between July 2009 and September 2010, participation in real-time social networks and microblogs both grew by 20%.
Mashable reports while social networks still dominate, there is a lot of growth in the ‘relatively new’ area of micro-blogging. This shift can be seen in the change in design of popular social media platforms: Twitter now asks “What’s happening?” and Facebook removed the “username is” preface from its status updates.
Other highlights from the report indicate that social media networks are still ‘king’:
- More than 50% of participants have updated their profiles on a social network
- Only 29% of participants reported ever using a microblog
- The percentage of consumers who said they updated their social network profiles daily was twice the percentage that said they updated their microblog
But also that micro-blogging (taking over from traditional blogging and forums) is on the rise, potentially as a professional tool more than for personal use:
- The number of microblog users who linked to news stories increased by 17%
- The number of microblog users that posted updates about a particular product increased by 14%
- Those who posted updates about personal photos on their microblogs decreased by 5%
- Blog writing declined by 4%
- Forum participation decreased by 11%
View the full Global Web Index report below:
