Research Analyst Sandra Hanchard notes, "Of the traffic that MySpace, Facebook and Bebo send to other Social Networks, more than 89% of their downstream traffic is sent to second-tier players.  While the major players hold concentrated market share of visits to the Social Networks custom category, there is significant referral traffic to minor networks.  This underpins the importance of understanding multiple network loyalties."

View Larger Image

Indeed, 89 percent is a large segment, and so marketers may be able to save a lot of time and money by avoiding the biggest social networks.  If most of the same users are going to wind up on little ones, then wherever there are fewest competitors is the best place to be.

Just the same, not everything about the big networks should be left behind.  After they hit Facebook or Bebo, MySpace is a popular second stop for many people.  This site is well known for having spam issues and some horribly ugly profiles, but it remains widely liked.  Although we can’t encourage the addition of sparkles and emo music elsewhere, marketers should study the network.

Still left wondering what to do with all this info?  Hanchard gives a few ideas.  "This could involve developing widgets that are compatible for multiple social networks, or applications that draw in data from the full spectrum of a user’s social graph.  Other potential avenues for marketers include targeting websites that facilitate management of user data sources, such as Plaxo."