Facebook Suffers its First Drop in Unique Monthly Visitors

All through 2007 we heard an awful lot about the social networking site Facebook. It shot out of obscurity and into super stardom when it changed its registration policy to allow anyone to register. What followed was a year where everyone talked about Facebook non stop. Workers all over the country compulsively checked their accounts throughout the day. Those on the move soon discovered they could use their phones to check the latest comments on their wall. All the mainstream press reported on this phenomenon and now you can see little share this buttons at the bottom of every article alongside those from Digg and Del.icio.us.

January saw the first drop in monthly unique visitors for the site. Reports show a drop of around 5% from 8.9 million to 8.5 million (Forbes, Times). Are we bored of social networking? Or is it just we are bored of Facebook?

What has changed?

Following the buzz as always, marketers and public relations firms have invaded the blue and white pages once reserved for university students. Businesses have made Facebook user groups and adverts have appeared. There has even been some high publicity issues where adverts which were deemed inappropriate were appearing.

As if this was no bad enough, politicians are making profiles and using Facebook as a way of connecting with the younger more tech savvy potential voters. The cool factor suffers severely when Tory MPs are on a social networking site. The honesty and transparency social networks strive to create in the first place is lost when marketers and PR firms are creating and managing profiles.

The never ending creation of new applications since Facebook opened up the code to developers may also be a factor. Profiles have moved from being nicely designed, sleek, easy to use layouts to being cluttered and messy, filled with these applications, most of which offer little extra value. Examples of these include: petrolhead, likeness, vampires, werewolves, compare, growing gift, superpoke, hatching gift, pirate, mood, movies and many many more.

An interesting point to add is that as Facebook usage in the US continued to grow in January, Europe’s usage fell in line with that of the UK. The three main social networks in the UK are MySpace, Facebook and Bebo. Facebook has attracted the most users but most of those are aged 25 and over. Bebo has been the one to market most prominently to the younger demographic. Perhaps this focus on an older age group and the spread of these applications has put off Facebook users.

As far as I am concerned

We all knew Facebook would be in the news this year and the chances of it all being positive were slim. I am still a Facebook user. I know no better way of keeping in contact with friends who are scattered all over the world. I like only ever being a few clicks away from sending a message to someone even if I have not seen them for ten years. I must also admit the novelty has worn off. I do not check Facebook anywhere near as much as I used to.

Looking to the future

As the world goes online more and more there has been a focus towards catering for niches. There are many niche social networking sites such as Linked In for business networking, WAYN for those interested in travelling. One size does not fit all – but we all need a central hub with which we can maintain contact with people who do not share our interests.

Will Facebook go the way of Friends Reunited and other networks which had the buzz then lost it? Is this just a minor blip? Anyone know what the next Facebook will be? Or will Facebook make a comeback?