Online metrics firm Compete.com announced on Wednesday that a monumental shift has taken place in the online world: Facebook has taken over Yahoo as the number two most popular site in the U.S., as measured by unique visitors. While Google overtook Yahoo two years ago for the number one spot, Yahoo’s 132 million unique monthly visitors are nothing to dismiss. Looking at the chart provided by Compete.com, you can see that Facebook experienced a giant growth spurt between February and July of last year.
From Facebook’s perspective, a larger network equals more advertising dollars. From a marketer’s perspective, audience targeting is further strengthened as the Facebook network expands.
The second bit of information gleaned from Compete.com is a game changer. Their research found that 11.6% of all time that Americans spent on the internet was on Facebook. The chart below shows that this number is on the rise as well. This news is more important than who is number two because it shows that social media is growing in societal influence.
Looking at Alexa’s top 100 U.S. websites provides an even more interesting look at social media’s relevancy. Depending on how you define a social media site, most of the top 15 sites are either purely social media-focused or tilt heavily in that direction. From our point of view, this means one thing: defining a social media strategy for your organization should be one of the most important considerations when you review your overall communications plans.
As evidence continues to roll in that your customers are spending considerable amounts of time on social networks, will you shift money from traditional advertising to social media engagement? What market signals will be the turning point for you and your organization?
