The Center for Media Research notes that the latest figures from Nielson Online support their recent research brief about the importance of the trust placed in word of mouth marketing.

The Nielsen figures  for the top U.S. social networking sites and blogs in October show that:

Facbook more than doubled their traffic in the last year

MySpace had a 19 percent growth over October 2006

Althought their numbers are much smaller, LinkedIn was the big winner in terms of growth – 189 percent!

Kids are getting active in the social media space too – Club Penguin visitors grew by 157 percent

Buzznet, a new kind of social site that gives members the tools to create multi media around music and pop culture is also attracting a growing audience. They’re up 117 percent in the last year.

Top 10 Social Networking Sites for October 2007 (U.S., Home and Work)
Site	Oct-06(000)	Oct-07(000)	 Percent Change |
Myspace.com	49,516	58,843	19%
Facebook	8,682	19,519	125%
Classmates Online	13,564	13,278	 -2%
Windows Live Spaces	7,795	10,261	 32%
AOL Hometown	9,298	7,923	 -15%
LinkedIn	1,705	4,919	189%
AOL People Connection	5,849	4,084	 -30%
Reunion.com	4,723	4,082	-14%
Club Penguin	1,512	3,880	157%
Buzznet.com	1,104	2,397	117%
Source: Nielsen Online, November 2007

 

What does it all mean?  Social media is not going away. Word of ‘mouse’ is the trusted form of communication.  Reaching these people online means you have to get your wits around social media. 

If you’re planning your 2008 PR strategy over the next few weeks getting familiar with these social media tools and how to interact with them should be on high your list.