Experian Hitwise Senior Analyst, Sandra Hanchard, used to keep in touch with a lot of her family in New Zealand through Bebo, but over the last few months, she noticed Facebook being used more frequently instead. So that, coupled with some of our own stats on declining visits to Bebo, it came as no surprise when AOL announced their decision to either sell or shut down Bebo.

Bebo attracted 2.16% of visits to Social Networking and Forums websites in New Zealand during March 2010, and still ranks as the third most popular website in this category (behind Facebook and YouTube). Bebo declined significantly in visits by 67% compared to the same month last year. Facebook in contrast grew by 72% year-on-year, and attracted 21.4 times more visits than Bebo in March 2010.

Bebo was the most popular Social Network in New Zealand until May 2008 when Facebook briefly took over; Facebook then went on to gain rapid momentum against all websites from late November 2008 onwards. This was later than in some markets, such as the UK.

What are the demographics of Bebo in NZ?

Bebo has traditionally attracted a strong online following from our Mosaic Lifestyle segment, 'Cultural Ties' which has high proportions of Maori and Pacific Islanders, and continues to be over-represented in this audience. Facebook with its rapid expansion has enjoyed a migration of users from this segment, and has widened its audience base overall.

Social networks in general in New Zealand attract an over-representation in visits from lower affluent Mosaic Groups, including 'Working Fringe', families with stretched budgets in outer suburbs, and 'Family Growth', young families living in cities, which may be one issue that will affect continued efforts in monetisation of Social Networks.

In contrast, Mosaic Group, 'Urban Intelligence', comprised of affluent and tech-savvy households, has concentrated usage on entertainment and lifestyle websites focused on offline activities, such as nightlife, performing arts and restaurants. This may be a reflection of greater disposable spend in this consumer segment.

Migration to Facebook and other Social Networks

Looking at the websites where new visitors go after Bebo throws up little surprises - Facebook and YouTube attracted the highest volume of clicks in March 2010. Interestingly, Twitter attracted a much higher new visitor rate at 44%, suggesting that it is still a novelty for some Internet users in New Zealand.

For the meantime, Facebook offers a good home for Bebo users, who have brought their friends with them and thus kept their network base; the fickleness of users on social networks should however be remembered by Facebook, as it is strives to maintain the attention span of users through continued innovation.

YouTube and Twitter are also prominent social media websites in New Zealand and have taken some market share as a result of Bebo's decline. They both however offer a very different user experience to Facebook and do not appear to pose an immediate threat. As usual, we'll be keeping an eye on the competitive social networking space for any new up and comers.

For more online insights, visit Experian Hitwise Analyst Weblogs.

Experian Hitwise has been in the online space for many years and has learnt through clients and industry experience that there seem to be many 'cowboys' offering SEO services, ultimately promising the world, only to leave clients disillusioned and with no real results in sight.

So to avoid all the heart ache, expense and frustrations, we have put together the top 11 questions you should be asking an SEO agency before signing anything plus the answers they should be giving you!

Following are the second in our three-part series of questions:

Question 4: Do You Focus on rankings or delivering ROI by focusing on the right search terms?

It really does depend on the nature of your business. If you are an e-commerce based business, your agency's focus ought to be on building traffic on top converting keywords. For a lead/quote based business, the emphasis would be placed on building traffic of top converting or lead keywords. Finally, if your business is based on traffic (e.g. a publisher), your agency should be giving the focus and attention to rankings. After all, it is very rare for people to look any further than page one on Google!

Question 5: Which industries have you done SEO work in?

The foundations of a sound SEO practice are easy to find in any decent agency, but experience within your specific industry sector can be more difficult. Each industry has its own eccentricities and it is always ideal to have your SEO provider know and understand these. Different fluctuations in your market, seasonality, market share and growth opportunities in your area of expertise are all elements that your SEO agency should be well versed on.

Question 6: How many clients have you done SEO for?

SEO is an ongoing project which cannot be quickly 'switched on' and forgotten about. While important to acknowledge how many businesses your SEO provider has worked with, it's far more vital to look at how long they have kept these relationships going. The longer the relationship, the better understanding you will have of how satisfied their current clients are.

Question 7: How experienced are the actual people that will work on my SEO?

It is important to look for SEO providers with a team that come from a solid marketing background - so they can understand where SEO will fit into your integrated marketing mix and how to best leverage their involvement to make your business a success. It is also important to keep an eye out for SEO providers who employ people with international experience. While Australians are hot on the heels of our UK and US counterparts in SEO and the Internet in general, these countries have been leading the way in online technology and marketing for many years.

For more information about SEO please email search.csm@hitwise.com or call 0800 448 947.

The following report lists the most popular terms typed into a search engine for the 12 rolling weeks ending 24/04/2010 that resulted in traffic to websites classified by Experian Hitwise within the 'Entertainment - Personalities' industry. For example, the most popular search term was 'tmz' representing 0.93% of all search terms that delivered users to websites classified by Experian Hitwise in the 'Entertainment - Personalities' industry.

In anticipation of the New Zealand Comedy Festival, locals were flocking to the New Zealand Comedy Trust (www.comedyfestival.co.nz) website, which moved 292 places, to rank 166 in the Entertainment category (week ending 24/04/2010).

The festival's website, which contains information about the shows, the comedians, galleries and special offers, increased its market share by 180% (week ending 24/04/2010).

New Zealand Comedy Trust's website was a great driver of traffic for ticket purchases, with Ticketek New Zealand being the top downstream website for that week - 81.85% of this traffic consisted of new visitors to the website (week ending 24/04/2010)

The most highly represented Mosaic New Zealand Groups to the New Zealand Comedy Trust website were: Urban Intelligence, Symbols of Success and Singles & Starters (12 weeks ending 24/04/2010).