Facebook remains top social network, Google+, 2nd, and YouTube, 3rd
Steven Vaughan-Nichols (@sjvn) reports in ZDNet that Facebook remains the top social network with Google+ and YouTube battling for second.
Facebook’s being number one with 1.1 billion members is not a surprise.
EMarketer believes that just over half, 51 percent, of all internet users visit Facebook at least once a month. The company also stated that worldwide Facebook penetration will only continue to grow higher, reaching 60 percent of internet users by year’s end.
Behind Facebook, things get more interesting. There are numerous companies fighting it out for second place, with Google+ out front at 26 percent of internet users. Google+!? Yes, Google+. As eMarketer stated, “In the US, Google+ gets limited attention, though its user base is growing. Worldwide, Google+ has been much more successful.”
Looking at LinkedIn as far down the list is a mistake. It trails only number four, Twitter, the fastest growing network percentage wise, in non-Chinese networks.
Chinese social networks will always be near the top. Per eMarkter:
Chinese social networks garnered among the greatest percentage of users worldwide, a reflection of both the vastness of the social audience in China and the limited availability of foreign properties, like Facebook, in the country.
For lawyers and law firms doing international work, take note of the countries with the greatest rate of growth in social networking. Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, the US, and Russia. Mobile is driving this growth.
For lawyers, LinkedIn is going to remain the social network of choice. It’s full of clients, prospective clients, referral sources, and Influencers such as association leaders and mainstream media. Lawyers also feel a sense of safety and professionalism that they don’t sense in Facebook.
Proceed at your own peril though, if you, as a lawyer, are ignoring the networking opportunities Facebook provides. Relationships are built upon getting to know each other and establishing trust and friendship. Such relationships can be borne out of much more than legal or business exchanges.
Who’s to say sharing your children’s graduation or recital pictures which a client gives a ‘Like’ to on Facebook isn’t a more powerful way to nurture a relationship than sharing a legal article in LinkedIn? Heck, I think that Facebook exchange is more powerful.
My point is Facebook is the largest social network. You don’t need lessons or a social media policy to get out and use it to nurture relationships. Sure, you need to use some common sense as a lawyer in the way you use Facebook, but you’d be foolish to take a pass on the world’s, and this country’s, largest social network.