The IDC have just released the results of a study on social networking services (SNS) such as FaceBook, MySpace, Bebo, etc.
Their research shows that SNS sites have great market penetration with more than half of US consumers (with Internet access) using such sites regularly. They also believe that this will grow over the coming years.
So good news for SNS sites, but not great news for advertisers.
Users of SNS sites seem to be resistant to advertising on these sites – or certainly not in a "buying frame of mind" when using them. It seems that only 57% of users of social network sites have clicked on an ad in the last year compared with 79% of all web users.
In terms of these click converting into sales, apparently only 11% of SNS users will actually place an order versus 23% for the rest of the internet.
So the click through rates and conversions are very low compared to other online resources. This is largely down to buying intent – when someone is reconnecting with friends onfacebook, they are not receptive to sales messages and so will largely ignore them.
Having said that, the sheer volume of traffic taking place on these major SNS sites can still compensate for the lower average conversion rates for the right types of products or services. You just need to ensure that your messaging is adjusted to take into why and how people are using these sites.
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