Online Real Estate Technology

If you were ever in any doubt about the growing power of social media, then it’s time to think again, new stats released by Nielsen Online show just how powerful a tool social media is becoming within the online space. Some stand out points from the report include the fact that 66.8% of internet users around the globe had accessed “member communities” at some point during 2008. When you then compare email usage at 65.1% in 2008, the growth is even more staggering. Now if you think that research just applies to the US, then lets have a look at how social media is impacting the internet user here in Australia. In December 2007, the share of time spent on social media was 6.9%, in December 2008, that had grown to 10.9%, a change of 58% in 12 months. The biggest change in usage of sites was in Switzerland, with a change of 207% in just 12 months.

Time spent on community and blogging sites is growing at over 3 times the rate of overall internet growth. In 2007, social media sites accounted for 1 in every 15 online minutes globally,in 2008 it now accounts for 1 in every 11 minutes. In real terms, in 2008 users spent 63% more time on social media sites than they did in 2007.

Facebook grew by 566% in time spent on it by users worldwide and the fastest growing demographic is the older users, with an additional 12.4 million people aged 35 to 49 using the site in 2008 according to the Nielsen report.

Whilst I’ve concentrated on the stats with this post, I don’t believe there is any doubt of the impact that community based sites are having on internet usage, and real estate businesses in Australia need to really embrace social media and integrate it into their corporate communication strategy.

Social media sites provide significant opportunities for businesses to interact with community sites by tapping into the consumers increasing desire for good quality content. Real estate is a networking business and the better you network, the more opportunities that are created for you.

However, one consideration is how you use social media sites and what content is provided to the users, if you do it wrong, then you as a company, will not realise the potential it has as a network tool, so it’s vital to your companies success that you design a comprehensive strategy that is consistent across all networks, yet employs each ones strengths to their up most potential for your business.     

If you’d like to read the full report, I’ve included a copy for you on the link below.

nielsen_globalfaces_mar09