Twitter spreads like wildfire, but MySpace still on top

Nielsen has released numbers for its estimates on the biggest and fastest-growing social media sites in the U.S. for the month of September, and there are a few surprises.

10 fastest growing social-networking sites for September 2008
Site	Sept. 2007 (000)	Sept. 2008 (000)	YOY growth
Twitter.com	533*	2,359	343%
Tagged.com	898	3,857	330%
Ning	842*	2,955	251%
LinkedIn	4,075	11,924	193%
Last.fm	850	1,879	121%
Facebook	18,090	39,003	116%
MyYearbook	1,422	3,056	115%
Bebo	1,299	2,418	86%
Multiply	592	941	59%
Reunion.com	4,845	7,601	57%
*These Web sites do not meet minimum sample size standards. Projected and average measures for these sites may exhibit large changes month-to-month as a result. Source: Nielsen Online

The biggest social network in the U.S. is still News Corp.'s MySpace, Nielsen's numbers found. But the bad news is that its traffic has only grown by 1 percent since September 2007, keeping it just under 60 million visitors, and second-place rival Facebook has grown by 116 percent in the same time period.

Rounding out the top 10 social networks are (in order) Classmates Online, a mainstay that gets little press but a lot of traffic; business networking site LinkedIn; Microsoft's Windows Live Spaces, which Nielsen says has shrunk by eleven percent since September 2007; Reunion.com; kiddie site Club Penguin, now owned by Disney; AOL Hometown, which the service plans to shutter soon; Tagged; and the AOL Community site.

Nielsen's ranking of the fastest-growing social sites is a little more interesting. At the top of the list is Twitter, fueled by loads of press and tie-ins to coverage of the hotly contested presidential election, with 343 percent growth since September 2007. Following in second place is Tagged, which clocked in 330 percent traffic growth and which Nielsen says is most popular with the 35-49 age demographic. In third place is Ning, which is actually a service for creating community sites, followed by LinkedIn, music site Last.fm (owned by CBS Interactive, which publishes CNET News, Facebook, teen site MyYearbook, and then AOL's Bebo.

In ninth place is Multiply, a social network for the nongeek set that recently announced that it had partnered with Microsoft to absorb the MSN Groups service. And in tenth place is Reunion.com, which Nielsen says counts the 55-64 age demographic as its biggest.

[tzeigler]

If my account is any indication, the growth in Twitter is due solely to the explosion in Mad Men related accounts over the next few months.

[Harrison912]

Thanks, Caroline, for this update. I'm currently on FaceBook, MySpace, Twitter, LinkedIn and many Ning site for the main purpose of socially marketing my safety and security web site and raising awareness for it's products. Of all the social sites, Twitter is my least favorite. I guess I'm a litte too chatty to stay within the word limit. FaceBook is my favorite as it gives me lots of options for interaction with people. I can clearly see why it is so popular and doing so well.

[rrasmussen]

social media is growing at viral rates, which explains most of the data shown. twitter which is so easy to use, addicting and fun shows viral growth at it's best.

[AlbertFang]

Social Media is mainly growing because of the rapid use of them of teenagers and also adults. Not only is it publicized in medias and magazines, but famous people also have their own page that they like to publicize like having Twitter/(blablabla)

Albert
http://www.mooladays.com