Social Networking Sites: Who's the Audience?

If your idea of social networking sites are MySpace and Facebook and you are considering including them in your health communications or social marketing plan, get a little closer. Nielsen/NetRatings looks at the Bebo and MySpace audiences and finds clear differences between them. While not getting the same mainstream buzz, Bebo had 2.16 million compared to MySpace's 2.84 million hits in April, 2006.

• Bebo members spend nearly 24 minutes more on the site
• Audience under age 18 is 54% on Bebo (1.17 million) and 31% on MySpace (0.89 million) - 40% of the MySpace audience is over 35
• Bebo members tend to be more female (56%) than MySpace (46%)

Another site noted by Ypulse is Bolt, one of the original tween and teen networking sites, which was relaunched in March for 18-34 year-olds and includes integrated photo and video sharing capabilities. Bolt2 has been added as the new social networking site for tweens and teens (and already has ads for the new truth anti-tobacco campaign on it).

Finally, TechCrunch highlighted TagWorld as another social networking site to watch as it signed up its 1 millionth member in less than 3 months.

Technorati Tags: Audience Profiles, Social Networking, Targeting