Classification of Social Network users

Social networks are one of the web 2.0 hypes and the number of participants is still increasing. By the end of 2008, social networking had overtaken emails (according to a study of Nielsen online). Some of the key points figured out by the study:

- 66.8% of Internet users across the globe accessed “member communities” in 2008, compared to 65.1% for email.
- In 2008, users spent 63% more time on member communities than they did in the previous year.
- Facebook saw growth of 566% in time spent on it by users worldwide.
- Facebook’s fastest growth demographic is older users – 12.4 million people between ages 35-49 in 2008
- Globally, Facebook reaches 29.9% of global Internet users, versus 22.4% for MySpace
- MySpace remains the most profitable social network, generating an estimated $1 billion in revenue versus $300 million for Facebook in 2008.

Due to these impressive figures, social network platforms are becoming more and more interesting for marketers. Not only that the interactivity of social networks allows a targeted communication with the users. Even if a company is not inter-active, their customers may publish a lot, entirely out of marketers’ control. But how can an organisation communicate with somebody they don’t know? Forrester Research identified 6 user groups in the internet (based on a study in the US) and classified them according to their main attributes.

The following graphic shows how the number of participants of the identified groups have changed during the last three years.

Even if the Forrester study is a general classification of web users, it may give an interesting aspect of how important it is to know the “online community” of a company. Not only because they are potential customers, they may report positive about an organisation with a positive “social network” image.