I am NOT Maverick Marketing Sydney

Plenty of media is devoted to Facebook and Twitter. But here is a lesser known, but equally important social networking website that moseys along just below everybody’s radar. Everybody, that is, except for its 17 million+ members.

The website is Skyrock – and, in case you were wondering, it’s where European young people play.

Despite being ranked by comScore as the world’s 7th biggest social network with 21 million visitors worldwide (2008 figures), Skyrock.com is less known than other social networks on an international scale. This is largely due to its origins as a French-language network, but also the fact that its target is young adults aged under 25.

Alexa consistently ranks Skyrock among the top 10 sites in France, in Belgium and in Switzerland.

Skyrock started life as a blogging site, Skyblog.com, founded by Skyrock CEO Pierre Bellanger in December 2002. Then, in May 2007, after abandoning the Skyblog.com brand, Skyrock.com was launched as a full-scale social network.

And to the stats (and they’re impressive) :

(as of today)

26,498,117 blogs.
17,024,403 profiles.
2,807 chatters online.
Visitors in the last 30 days: 28,232,000 (Traffic Estimate)
Ranked #1 in kids and teens websites (Source: Alexa)
Global rank # 58 (Source: Alexa)
Average dwell time on website: 30 minutes (Source: Alexa)

The Skyrock platform has been massively embraced by the younger generations. In fact, if you want to get really technical about the demographics of the website, here they are:

Its penetration into the youth market has led to commercially driven usage of the website.

For example, French politicians, from both sides of politics, have created Skyrock Blogs to stay in contact with the young generation. In addition, a few prominent French political institutions have opted to create a Skyrock Blog as a preferred tool to communicate with this group.

So check out Skyrock. If you’re part of an international brand looking to connect to young people in Europe, it is one platform that most definitely should be on your radar.

RELATED POST: How Skyrock made Social Media Profitable.

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Big Game Bargain Hunters shop at eBay. So says the advertisement of the world’s largest auction house. Not to be outdone, you can “search for cars and other bargains” at Trading Post. So says eBay Australia’s runner-up, the Trading Post (which also added auction to its selling methods in response to eBay moseying into town and pinching the majority of its potential buyers and sellers.)

The marketing strategists employed by Sensis ought to read the original paper on positioning by Al Ries and Jack Trout. What was written back then still stands today. If you are the challenger, you need to position against the leader, not copy them. You either position against them or check out other job ads.
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It’s happening. Gloves are strapped on tightly. The crowd has gathered as the battle has been notched up a level. We all draw a breath. Who will win the fight? We each have our favorites. We’ll place our bets. The stakes are high.

In the left-hand corner, the challengers have gathered, flexing new found muscles. They have pooled their resources. There is no other way for them to contemplate taking on the champion. On their own, they can’t make a dent in the armory.

Over in the right-hand corner, the champion has already ratcheted up the game plan.

It’s going to be a long drawn-up bitter battle between powerful, well-resourced opponents that have each squared up to fight the fight of their lifetimes for the mantle of the world’s greatest.
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