Recently Nielsen reported that about 60% of Twitter users do not return to the site after the first month. They said that with only a 40% retention rate, the site could not sustain itself. The funny this is despite the alleged low retention rate, you can’t go anywhere without hearing about Twitter.

While people were surprised and freaking out about Twitter’s low numbers, it seemed totally normal to me. I’d take 40% any day. I was sure that other social networks had similar retention rates. Turned out I was wrong. At this point, Facebook‘s and Myspace‘s retention rates were about double that of Twitter’s.

Then Brendan O’Connell brought up a good point:

@andybeal I don’t think Nielsen considered Twitter apps access http://bit.ly/TdT7r

I was sure this was going to clear up the whole mess. It made sense to me; my Twitter time is spent on Twhirl. I rarely log into Twitter anymore. It turns out that Nielsen hadn’t considered Twitter applications. Yes! Victory was mine!

However, my victory was short lived when Nielsen reported that with the outside Twitter applications, the retention rate was still about 40%.

So it turns out that all of my well-wishing for Twitter’s retention was in vain. However, I really don’t think they’re in trouble. Those who continue to use Twitter after the first month are those who are hopelessly addicted. They don’t know why they are there or why they feel the need to update people on everything they’re doing, but it must be done. I have a feeling those fans aren’t going to peace-out any time soon.

I mentioned that Twitter had about half the retention rate of Facebook and Myspace. Here’s the thing, Facebook and Myspace are the most successful social networks ever. It’s actually amazing that Twitter is able to have the amount of repeat users as it does. So I don’t think we should be sending our condolences to Twitter for their small numbers; we should be congratulating them for their success.

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• Proof That Nielsen is Wrong; Twitter’s Retention Rate is Not 40% (marketingpilgrim.com)

In one of our previous posts we mentioned that Coke had the #2 ranked Facebook page. Just like Nutella, Coca-Cola‘s fan page was set up by loyal fans.

The page was created by Dusty Sorg, an LA based actor, and he maintains it with his friend Michael Jedrzejewski, a writer. Neither of them had any idea that their fan page would become as popular as it is. It’s second only to Barack Obama’s page – pretty good. Sorg started the page in August and by December it had 1.2 million fans.

At the time Sorg set up his Coca-Cola fan page, there were already more than 200 coke related fan pages on Facebook. But for some reason Sorg’s page took off and continues to grow and currently has about 3.3 million fans. So what made this Facebook different from hundreds of others?

Michael Donnelly, Coca-Cola’s group director of worldwide interactive marketing, suggests that the difference could have been as simple as a professional look. “They chose a great image,” he says. “It was a high-resolution picture of a can of cold Coke, and it was just perfect.”

So it looks like Coke’s success in social media was totally accidental. While it worked for Coke, other companies shouldn’t wait for their fans to do the heavy lifting. “It gives us an opportunity we didn’t have in the past,” says Mr Donnelly. “It’s a great way for us to expose a huge number of people to what we’re doing at no cost.” Coca-Cola and Sorg now jointly administer the page.

It’s crazy to see that a fan’s Facebook page has become such an asset to one of the most influential and successful companies in the world. So for those who are still skeptical of the benefits of social networks, specifically Facebook, this is a perfect example of the impact they can have on your relationships with your customers.

Think back about three years ago. You had just set up a MySpace account and were totally addicted to it. You check your account every ten minutes for updates. It was the first time you experienced stalking or asked to be friends with a 50-year-old named Bill whose only friends were scantily clad 12-year-old girls.

Now jump to present day. When was the last time you checked your MySpace account? About 4 months ago? Sounds about right.

MySpace used to be synonymous with social networking but has recently been losing popularity. Facebook‘s traffic is now more than double that of MySpace. “MySpace had 124 million monthly unique visitors last month, a decline of 2%, according to the marketing research company comScore. Facebook, by contrast, racked up 276 million unique visitors, an increase of 16.6%.”

Bebo’s popularity has also threatened MySpace’s dominance and Twitter is claiming more and more users’ attention spans.

MySpace has also lost three key executives recently – Amit Kapur, COO, Jim Benedetto, Senior Vice-President of Engineering, and Steve Pearman, Senior Vice-Presidentof Product Strategy. There is also speculation that the co-founders, Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson, will also be leaving MySpace.

While Facebook, among other sites, seem to be taking over the world of social networking, the battle isn’t over for MySpace. Let’s be realistic, there are still tons of preteens that need to express their angst and sexuality.

And the top Facebook pages are …. #1 Barack Obama (no surprise) …. #2 Coca Cola (of course) …. #3 Nutella (What?). Yeah, that’s right. The Italian hazelnut/chocolate spread.

It’s safe to assume that most of the fans were from Europe but the craziest thing about Nutella‘s high ranking is that they don’t advertise. Well, that’s not true; they spent $300,000 on media last year, which is pretty much equivalent to nothing. Here’s the impressive part: their Facebook page was created by a fan, Nutella has 5 million Google search results, there are 5,000 videos on Youtube featuring Nutella, and there are 17,000 photos featuring Nutella on Flickr.

Despite it’s European base, Nutella has become very popular in the U.S. as well; and the U.S. fans are very loyal. For Americans, it’s probably associated with memories of trips to Europe and then they spread the word about Nutella to their friends and family at home. In some ways, it has become a form of social currency.

It’s interesting to see that a company can have a crazy online presence without even trying. They’re obviously doing something right. So here are 3 easy steps to follow that will create the online buzz we all hope for:

1. Become a European staple so Americans will have no choice but to think you’re cool
2. Gather a cult following effortlessly
3. Be kind of like peanut butter, except use a weirder looking nut and add chocolate