Comscore released its June 2009 analysis of Australian Internet users, with a heavy lean towards understanding social network usage. It's a very useful insight, and especially the factual finding that visitors to the top sites in Australia displayed a "strong skew towards also visiting social networking sites".
Though "less than 72 percent" of the total Internet audience in Australia visited social networking sites in June, approximately 90 percent of visitors to the top 20 most popular properties were among this group.
3 out of 4 Australians Visited a Social Networking Site in June - meaning nearly 9 million Australians visited a social networking site in June, making it one of the most popular content categories on the Web.
Here's the big message
"Knowing that the vast majority of a site's visitors are social networking users should be a wakeup call to any marketer trying to understand its audience," said Will Hodgman, comScore executive vice president for the Asia-Pacific region.
"Engaging your audience is not only about how you interact with them when they are on your site, but also about how you reach out and interact with them through other online channels, including social networks. As social networking sites increasingly become one of the Internet’s most popular destinations, it is especially critical for media companies to engage their audience where they are spending the majority of their time online."
Site Popularity
Google Sites ranked as the most visited property in Australia in June with 10.7 million visitors, 78 percent of whom were visitors to social networking sites and 16 percent of whom were heavy social networkers. Microsoft Sites ranked as the second largest property with 9.5 million visitors, followed by Facebook.com at #3 with 6.1 million visitors.Social networking users made up 83 percent of Telstra Corporation visitors, while other local sites also saw their audience base favor social networking, including Fairfax Media (88 percent social networkers) and Commonwealth Bank of Australia (85 percent social networkers). Glam Media and WordPress had the highest composition of heavy social networkers at 35.4 percent each, followed by New York Times Digital (33.4 percent), Viacom Digital (32.0 percent), Amazon Sites (31.3 percent) and AOL LLC (31.1 percent).
