Social Networking By The Numbers

NEW STUDY CONFIRMS PATTERNS

• A new Rapleaf study of 49.3 million looked at data across social networks including Myspace, Facebook, LinkedIn and Flickr. Highlights:
• 120 million total social network profiles with each person averaging 2-3 social networks
• Women and the 14-24 year olds are more likely to use Myspace and Facebook. This demo represents 66% of each
  site’s users.
• 
  Men and the 25-34 year olds prefer LinkedIn and Flickr. The 25-34 year old demo represents 51.0% and 38.1% of total users respectively.

ANALYSIS:

According to Rapleaf, women spend more time on social networks building and nurturing relationships, whereas men are less likely to spend as much time nurturing relationships as they are ‘transacting.’

Across all age groups, Rapleaf found there are more women on Myspace and Facebook than men.  Men, on the other hand, dominate sites such as LinkedIn and Flickr.  Along with the community aspects, female dominated sites such as Myspace and Facebook also have photo sharing and networking capabilities.  Hence there is a further incentive for women to use these social networks over LinkedIn and Flickr which are more niche.  In other words, Rapleaf believes that women are more likely to post pictures and network on Myspace and Facebook than men.

Since older men tend to be more transactional and given the transactional nature of LinkedIn and Flickr, it can be seen from our study below that the average demographic for these social networks are older than those on Myspace, Facebook, and the majority of other social networks.

Also, the study shows that Myspace users peak at 17-18 years old and then greatly drop relative to the number of Facebook users, who peak at 18-19 years old.  Our assumption is that once Myspace users graduate from high school, they switch over to using Facebook as their primary social network. 

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