Strengthen Your Niche-works

Published on: Tuesday, April 15, 2008       Comments (0)       Category: Technology & Productivity,  Reality Check, 

Follow the money to online social networks, as the latest Wealth Survey from the Luxury Institute revealed that 60 percent of wealthy Americans with an average income of $287,000/year and net worth of $2.1 million participate in online social networks, compared to just 27 percent a year ago.

These affluent individuals are most likely members of 2.8 social networks, with roughly 110 connections, and membership in social networks increase with earnings: those earning over $300,000/year average participation in 3.4 social networks.

Affluent Americans are not the only ones rubbing online elbows. Global Secure Systems estimates that social networking during business hours accounts for three weeks per year of lost time in the UK, at a productivity and bandwidth loss of £6.5 billion per annum.

That’s a lot of devotion to browsing, connecting, updating, sharing and researching on the 100+ most notable social networking sites listed on Wikipedia, and the countless others devoted to every type of occupation and preoccupation proliferating daily across the web.

The Luxury Institute says that the results of their Wealth Survey indicate that online communities will continue to fragment into increasingly selective and specialized entities of like-minded members, so concentrate on “niche-working” instead and devote time to specialized sites that serve the most needs.