According to the Wall Street Journal, unique September visits to Facebook fell 12% and MySpace to 4% from August.
The reason for the decline in visitors may be due to the prevalence of spam and fake profiles on these social networks. Marketers are now using MySpace and Facebook more than ever to promote their businesses and products. Hundreds of thousands of fake profiles are being created each month by spammers.
I think spam is a much bigger issue on MySpace than Facebook. Although we may start seeing more fake profiles on Facebook now that it’s publicly open.
Many users of these social networks are starting to get annoyed by spam, fake profiles and random friend requests from unknown people. This is most likely driving away users. In the beginning, it’s exciting to connect with a large number of friends, leave comments on people’s profiles, and even support businesses that have profiles online.
Eventually, users get sick of this routine. I know a few people that got sick of getting MySpace friend requests from profiles that linked to dirty websites.
Even with all the spam and fake profiles, I am sure Facebook and MySpace will continue to see growth. Unfortunately, their steadily growing user-base and “cool factor” will keep attracting advertisers and spammers. However, a majority of users could probably care less at this point. After all, leaving a network that connects you to all your friends is not easy.
