According to their report the difference in Facebook still dominated the social media market with 78% of the survey participants using the platform. MySpace takes the number two spot with 42% of participants saying they use the site. LinkedIn gets only 17%. Twitter, on the other hand, may may come in last with only 10% market share but is enjoying being known as the social media site that “encourages closer connections.” Twitterers are apparently mostly using the site to connect with friends with other reasons such as updating their status and finding news being secondary.

Despite the fact that social media sites users primarily use them for personal reasons note that it is stilla powerful marketing tool. Anita Watkins, Senior Vice President at TNS, said, “Social media has transformed the way individuals connect and communicate with one another. Smart marketers are utilizing this behavior to their advantage by setting up online communities in which consumers can freely interact, discuss and debate issues around products, services and brands in a natural way. Companies are listening in to these conversations and harnessing the power of influencers to co-create their marketing strategies.”

Compete has just released a list of the top moving sites of 2007.

From the social platform genre, we have CafeMom, LinkedIn, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Squidoo, Webkinz, Six Apart, and WordPress, among others.

Are there any surprises in this list?

The only one that surprises me is LinkedIn, which has never appealed to me although obviously this viewpoint is not shared by the masses.

The one that is the least surprising? Webkinz.com.

If you hang around children below the age of 10 you have certainly heard about Webkinz. It’s a membership site for children that incorporates real-world products and educational learning tools and just plain kid-type of fun. The first time I heard about Webkinz, I thought–”Those folks are geniuses!” Seems like they’re making money on so many levels with that operation and have found a way to bridge an online membership site with products sold in stores.

What do you think–are you surprised by any of these results either on the upswing or downswing of popularity?

Just a warning--be careful when surfing that list of sites in the red and green table–I just went to an innocent looking one trying to see what it was and got an eyeful Yeah, now I see there’s a little warning there, but somehow missed it at first glance. Definitely NSFW!

Via: TechCrunch

My personal favorite on this list is getting your vanity url. You just have to get it. I mean what’s the point of having a LinkedIn profile if you can’t SEO the heck out of it?