Decline of Social Networking?

So a number of papers reported this morning on the apparent 'death of social networking' as Facebook's users declined (drop in uniques) for the first time between December and January.

Here is a round up of some of headlines so far:

The Guardian - 'Facebook Fatigue'

Forbes - 'Facebook Falters'

The Times - 'Is Facebook Finally Losing Its Glow?'

The Register - 'Facebook Loses a Few Bitches'

But here's the reality, (well done Techcrunch for highlighting this within minutes). Facebook's users are still 712% higher than this time last year and we always see a dip in users during this period because of the Christmas holidays and people being on holiday and away from work and their computers.

Website traffic fluctuates in the same way the stock market does. Just because numbers are down one month does not mean impending doom.

Give it time. Social networking may be beginning to slow as the initial craze begins to fade, but it will be interesting to see how people continue to integrate it into their daily routines.

Throwing sheep, vampire-bites and superpokes will become tiresome but there are a host of useful apps out there making Facebook so appealing to so many.

First 'live' marketing experiment kicks-off in Seesmic

So recent user numbers seem to suggest Seesmic (think Twitter meets YouTube) is going from strength to strength, all good considering it is still in private alpha.

I have just been speaking with Dan Light, Head of Interactive at PPC and it turns out he has just kicked off the first 'live' marketing experiment on the video platform.

It is still in its infancy and still very much live so you can follow the tale as it unfolds.

Dan has pulled together a summary of the story so far on his blog.

All about Digg

So Yahoo! has declined Microsoft’s $44.6 billion approach offer. Will Bill up the ante or turn his focus elsewhere? Dom White at the Sunday Telegraph thinks the latter and points to Digg as a potential purchase. No figures were batted about but the list of investors and 24m monthly uniques amongst a key target audience must be getting Microsoft excited.


Digg has gone from strength to strength since its birth in 2004, but what I find most interesting is the growth of Diggnation, Digg’s spin-off weekly video podcast (think Wayne’s World but replace music with technology). Presented by Kevin Rose (Digg’s founder) and Alex Albrecht, the hour long show already pulls in 4.2million viewers each month. What’s interesting is Rose’s return to his roots, before Digg he was a cable TV producer and he has already pulled in show sponsors (GoDaddy, Netflix, Becks (?)) who get ad space and plugs during the show, without inhibiting the laid-back, grassroots style of the show.


Diggnation is part of a wider network of internet television shows made by Revision3 (again founded by Rose), an “an actual TV network for the web, creating and producing its own original, broadcast quality shows”. Available as podcasts, all content is syndicated through Revision3.com but also iTunes, YouTube and BitTorrent. Just two weeks ago it was even announced Revision3 shows would be available to watch on Virgin Atlantic flights.


So good for brands? Well the shows survive through the revenues from advertising so there is plenty of ad space available but don’t forget the PR opps , from product plugs / reviews to CEO interviews.