Teens Not Loyal To One Social Network

What might be more surprising, after a solid year of Facebook hype, though, is the vast difference in numbers still between it and the Mother Ship: MySpace.

Nielsen//NetRatings’ latest numbers, gleaned from August 2007, show that young visitors (ages 12-17) spend a lot more time at MySpace, averaging 331 minutes per person to Facebook visitors’ 74 minutes per person.

An even more impressive number: 80 percent of the 19.2 million Facebook visitors also visited MySpace. But 19.2 million visitors are nothing to sneeze at, of course, and represent a 117 percent increase over August of 2006.

When young visitors flit between sites like this, says Nielsen, they show a stronger tendency to spend more time on both sites. In August, teens who visited both sites spent on average 20 percent more time on MySpace (398 minutes) than loyal Myspacers, and 26 percent more time on Facebook (93 minutes).

“MySpace introduced a lot of people, especially young people, to social networking, and that forum continues to be overwhelmingly popular,” said Jason Lee, a Nielsen//NetRatings media analyst.

“But Facebook’s innovative features, many born out of partnerships with third party developers, are driving user growth. Teens continue to interact with friends on MySpace, but have not hesitated to follow their peers to the latest social networking brand. At this point, each site has a unique offering, and teens are happily visiting both.”