While we marketing types tinker away on our Facebook-for business-campaigns, the “numbers people” have discovered something sort of shocking about the world’s most used social network. According to a report in The Guardian, new users aren’t exactly flocking to Facebook anymore and growth has appeared to stall.
The Guardian explains the Facebook drop-off like this:
“In the last month, the world’s largest social network has lost 6m US visitors, a 4 percent fall, according to analysis firm SocialBakers. In the UK, 1.4m fewer users checked in last month, a fall of 4.5 percent. The declines are sustained. In the last six months, Facebook has lost nearly 9m monthly visitors in the US and 2m in the UK. Users are also switching off in Canada, Spain, France, Germany and Japan, where Facebook has some of its biggest followings. A spokeswoman for Facebook declined to comment.’The problem is that, in the US and UK, most people who want to sign up for Facebook have already done it,’ said new media specialist Ian Maude at Enders Analysis.”
In other parts of the world, however, Facebook is still growing and folks are still signing up. In Brazil, for example, Facebook sign ups grew by 6 percent last month. Yet without significant growth in more developed markets, Facebook will have hit a glass ceiling. Social media experts are wondering if an inevitable “MySpace effect” is coming next for Facebook.
Can another hipper, younger and more dynamic social network knock Facebook off its perch? Perhaps, but for small businesses and mega brands alike, Facebook marketing is still valuable and worth our time. Sure, it isn’t the end of the digital marketing rainbow some once thought it was, but Facebook is a great tool for informing folks about your business and for engaging your customers and following. No other social network gives you the ease and access to so many people worldwide to talk about your brand.
But that’s what we think. You tell us: Is Facebook marketing still relevant or on its way to becoming extinct? Sound off below!
Found your site on Google. This is a cool post. I’d like to see you take the main idea from this article and cretae another second article, and maybe you could embed a vid, also?