Brits are big social networkers

BEANCOUNTER FIRM Experian Hitwise has reported that for the first time ever social notworking is more popular as an online passtime than looking at entertainment or news websites.

The company found that social networks were the most popular online destinations in the UK in the month of January and were on the receiving end of 2.4 billion visits during the month of January alone.

The firm has produced a report, called "Carpe Diem - Seizing the moment in Social Media", which found social notworking websites attracting 12.4 per cent on all online visits and entertainment websites 12.10 per cent. More time is being spent on those websites too, and Experian Hitwise said that the average session lasted 22 minutes.

This time is spread over a few websites, though, and most users are tweeting and poking their way through their online sessions.

"While social networks of course compete amongst themselves for users, many of those users have a presence on multiple networks," said Experian Hitwise's research director, Robin Goad.

"One in every eight people leaving a social network visits another one immediately after, something that is encouraged by the connections that exist between the networks. Facebook, for example, is a key source of traffic for many smaller social networks; while almost a fifth of people leaving Twitter go on to visit another social network."

The greedy social notworking websites do not appear to be sharing their traffic with retailers, despite the best efforts of their advertising and marketing software and activities, and little of their user base makes its way onto merchant websites.

For example, in January of this year social networks sent just 16 per cent of their traffic on to retailers and transactional websites, while search engines sent around a third.

Goad said that merchants need to do more to grab hold of people's eyeballs and drag them through their front doors. Although not in those exact words.

"Successful transactional websites will be those that learn to harness the power of social networks, driving traffic through to their own websites," he explained.

Facebook is the biggest eyeball magnet and time harvester and takes 56 per cent of the traffic to social notworking websites. µ