This is the month where Twitter has witnessed a negative growth of 9.4% on its September number which was 28.3 million. If we see year-on-year growth of other two social networking giants LinkedIn and MySpace than we will see a similar decline in the number of unique visitors. MySpace has recorded a negative growth of 20.5%, and it has fallen from 73 million unique visitors to 58 million, and LinkedIn has recorded a 4.7% negative growth, taking its tally from 14.6 million unique visitors to 13.8 million uniques.

Why I think Facebook is killing others?

We all have a finite 24 hours in a day, which we distribute (unevenly) on the works we do, and we have only so much time for social sites or Internet surfing. Seeing the average time spent by users on Facebook, which is in excess of 40 minutes a day, I think, people hardly get time left for other social networks.

Not only that, our habit of unevenly spreading time, also leaves us wanting for more time, which for many could mean cutting back on time spent on the Internet. And as people are more or less addicted to Facebook, time spent on other social sites drops down, which in the long term means, pulling out of these websites.

How they can survive?

For social networks like LinkedIn and twitter, which are not direct competitors of Facebook, developing a Facebook application could be a way, or may be not.

In January 2009, 11.8 million mobile users used their cell phone to access Facebook.com, which increased to become 25.1 million by January 2010. In the same period, Twitter user base grew from 1.05 million to 4.7 million mobile users.

The growth rates of these two social networking sites have exploded, but MySpace’s shrunk. The user base of MySpace fell short by 7% of its previous years mark. (See image).

Facebook’s  user-base was evenly split between users who are younger and older than 35 years of age n 2009. 23% of Facebook users are between 24 and 34 which is an increase of 18.8% over December 2008. See image for complete demographic divisions.

Now internet advertising consists of making a social networking presence.  You need to have a blog, Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter account, to really make your company known.  So first things first, set up a company blog.  This will be a resource to write about the goings on with your corporation, and provide insightful social commentary on culturally relevant news.  So you want a decent writer who can write regular, engaging content.

Now you need Myspace and Facebook accounts.  Both are essentially the same, just with minor differences.  Keep the page professional, and a resource to sell products and ideas as well as provide news.  Myspace has been in decline, so that doesn’t have to be as big of a priority.  But at the moment Facebook has been holding strong, and could end up being a great interface with your customers.  Listen to them, and communicate with them.  This way you can learn what selling tactics will work, and what your customers expect from you.

Finally, the Twitter account.  This will probably be the most important, because here is where the most people are going to turn for news and information regarding your company.  Linking a blog with your Twitter and Facebook accounts will create a wealth of resources to contact your customer base, and do your own free research into what they expect.  You grow name recognition, and also get a great customer data tool, all rolled into a few easy to use websites.

What changed in the 1st decade?

• In the decade that is passing by, Blogging, video sharing, pod casting, and rich media content has come huge.
• Web which was nothing but a cheap imitation of broadcast media in the beginning of the decade has changed, and now it is more of a conversational media.
• Top-down approach of communication of web 1.0 (web in the beginning of 2000) gave way to two way communication.
• Comments and feedback become a huge force on the Internet.
• People became social.
• Friendster went out and got replaced by Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn.
• People felt the power of 140 characters as twitter, plurk, identi.ca, and like flourished.
• Sharing has become a new nature
• People started voicing their concern with click of a mouse.
• Broadband become ubiquitous.
• Computer is not only medium for web access. More and more people started using handheld devices to access the net.
• Techcrunch, lifehacker, boingboing, and the likes become more popular on the net then AOL, Times and other biggies.
• Being on the first page of Digg has become cooler than being on the top 10 list of the New York Times.
• Social bookmarking became a huge force.
• Search engine became more intelligent.
• Cloud computing is a serious business now.

This is in no way a complete list of what has changed in the first decade of the twenty-first century.

What to expect in 2010

• Authority will rule.
• People with real knowledge about their field will become more important.
• Web will go semantic
• Search engines will become more intolerant of shoddy SEO practices
• Web will become personal and portable
• Big content sites like ehow, about.com will become prominent.
• Broadband will become more popular.
• You will be more important as an individual than as member of tribe.
• Technology will go open source.
• Chrome OS will see the light of the day.
• Wolfram Alpha will become a default search engine for hard data.
• Bing will put a big dent in Google search.
• More and more SEO will happen for Bing.
• Search result will become more personal and local

These and several other changes will happen in 2010. Let’s wait and see how it unfolds, but for now let’s bid adieu to 2009. Bye, Bye 2009!

Never underestimate the power of a social networking environment that facilitates other peers in your profession.  These types of sites can be incredibly influential for finding out the latest industry news, or important competitive information, like where the best jobs are currently, or which companies tend to care for their employees better.  As you can communicate with others in your professional field you’ll also find yourself making friend easier, and industry friends are always good to have, as that sells who you are to a broader audience.  Never forget, when you’re looking for a new job, you want your name out there as much as possible.

Professional social networking sites are also a great resource for any company looking to hire new talent.  Considering they give you the chance to make friends, meet new people, and really learn about them in an unbiased fashion.  From an individual’s online profile, to also participating in conversations with them, you get a real view of the person and what they could offer your company.  Opposed to the biased attitude anybody looking to get a job has in an interview.

So don’t underestimate the power of a good social networking site.  Probably something a bit more serious than Facebook or Myspace, as these aren’t exactly the best place to have a serious conversation with a stranger most times.  But something more geared towards industry professionals like yourself, or your company.