There's a lot of talk about Facebook. There's a lot of numbers about Facebook too. 132 million unique visitors per month, versus Google 147 - and Yahoo 131.
3.0 billion visits per month, versus Google 2.7 - and Yahoo 2.3
Twitter has 21 million unique visitors per month, and 162 million visits
I'm wondering about those quantities, and the overall quality. I think that the average Facebook user is just digitally gossiping, and doesn't care nor contribute at all
Update 12th October 2010 12:37 CET: I found out that Compete.com only uses US data, not worldwide. It's in the small print whereas I'd think that should be in big red ink all over their site.I don't see how Facebook gets attributed 400 or even 500 million active users with stats like these
I apologise for this, it means that active user stats below only apply to the US, both for Facebook as for Twitter
If you're an active user, wouldn't you visit at least once a month? Especially given the fact that Facebooks says that 50% of their active users log on to Facebook in any given day - in my view that would make the number of active Facebook users 132 million, and 265 at most. Still impressive, but not anywhere near 400 million
The very reason I started this post however, is the fact that I don't see Facebook people on the Web. I see Tweeps all over the place, they get around, they engage, they read, write and comment to blogs. And especially that last medium made me wonder: where on earth are those Facebook users? I know they're not supposed to tweet, but don't they read blogs?
If you read a blog post now and then, you'll know that you can share it. There are a lot of ways to share a blog post, but there are three main ways: Tweetmeme, Digg and Facebook. Oh and of course Google Buzz
Here's a typical picture of a blog post ways-to-share:
What is the ratio there, between ReTweets and Facebook shares? 1:50 - Tweeps are sharing this post 50 times more than Facebook users. Even a post on Techcrunch about Facebook's socalled Open Graph gets 4 times as many ReTweets as Facebook Shares. Pick any post on TechCrunch and you'll see that Buzz is almost non-existent, and Facebook Shares are 1/10th of Twitter ReTweets. I took the last 19 posts currently out there, and the Facebook-Twitter ratio ranges from 1% to 46%, with a weighted average of 10%
Mashable is a bit (40%) bigger than TechCrunch, so I checked them too: there is a 1:4 ratio there. When leaving out the post about a Russian hacker on Facebook, the ratio is 1:5 - or 20%
So, where and what do Facebook users contribute? Do they all chit-chat among themselves on Facebook, and don't get around? Are they afraid of the outside world, and prefer to remain safely within the -becoming ever so public by the minute- Facebook compounds?
Let's not forget that, regardless of the suggestimations on all sides, the current ratio is that there are 6 times as many Facebook users, as there are active Twitter users. So actually, the ratio shouldn't be 15% (10% and 20% combined), but 600%.
Facebook users should share blog posts 6 times as much simply because there are 6 times as many Facebook users as there are Twitter users
But, on this earth, that is the other way around. The average Twitter user shares 36 times as much as the average Facebook user
Leading by example on the Social Web: Twitter users. By far
Update April 24th 11:39 CET: apparently, I have been too subtle with this post. Reading the comments, the link isn't made. And it's an important point, so I'm making it here:
If this is the default behaviour of Facebook users on the web, then where's the market for their new toy for which the entire web has to adjust its pages?
Facebook is a silo and that's cultural: it will never change. Not when you throw out all privacy by making everything public, nor by placing Facebook buttons all over the world
I'll do the math here to measure the market for facebook's like button, and please correct me if I'm wrong: Twitter users "like" stuff on the web (sorry for lack of words) 35 times as often as Facebook users. Even in one's wildest dreams, there aren't more than 50 million Twitter users. Divided by 35, 50 makes 1.5
So, those 400 or what not million Facebook users act as 1.5 million users that are active outside of Facebook. And the entire web should change in order to give them their own button? Mark, that's just plain crazy
[I don't have a Facebook account myself. There is a Martijn Linssen active on Facebook, but he's half my age and much better looking. Just in case you were wondering]
