Here’s an interesting article from a website called ‘Web Strategy by Jeremiah’ who writes about Social Networks Site Usage: Visitors, Members, Page Views, and Engagement by the Numbers in 2008.

Have a read of the article. It talks about the huge growth in Facebook – ‘… the 4th most-trafficked website in the world.’ The article also has a number of links off to other sites that talk about the growth of Twitter, Facebook, MySpace etc, and the membership of these sites.

Facebook is the most widely used social network within Australia according to a recent study, but if you’re trying to market internationally, then there are more popular ones. View the map within the article to find out what’s used where.

But, having established that Facebook is very widely used within Australia, it might not be the best marketing tool for attracting students to study here, or anywhere for that matter. At a recent AMA symposium by the Art and Science Group, the role of social networking was talked about for students’ college choice (it’s an American study but I’m sure it would apply here also).

Some of their conclusions were:

  • SNS not a primary or effective marketing/communications tool for prospective students
  • Direct marketing through SNS may be seen as an invasion of private space and become counter productive

We don’t use our UniSA Facebook page as a direct marketing tool for prospective students, but it is a place to share information about latest news etc and the fanbase is steadily growing.