Social media users 'may not need to visit homepage'

Advertisers may need to rethink their strategy if people begin to use social media homepages less, says a sector commentator.

An industry insider has advised marketers that social media users may not need to use traditional homepages to check their accounts in future.

Andrew Girdwood, head of search for bigmouthmedia, made his remarks following the release of Google Social Search, which allows people to search for content on social networks.

He pointed out that this application could have a far-reaching effect on the current social media landscape.

Mr Girdwood explained: "For example, there are desktop clients now that allow you to access your Twitter account without visiting the site and social search engines may have a similar impact."

As a result of this, customers may not need to visit their Facebook or Twitter page to read messages and updates, so banner adverts on these sites will become less effective, he added.

For example, Mr Girdwood noted that Google and Bing have made deals with Twitter to have access to the social network's content for use on their search engines.

09/11/2009