This Christmas was a merry one indeed for many social media sites.  Fresh stats from Hitwise show that Facebook and YouTube accomplished some impressive things, while social networks as a group attracted an unprecedented amount of traffic in the UK.

Let’s start with that broad view.  Would you imagine that, during Christmas week, people were busy buying presents and looking up recipes and travel plans?  Well, perhaps they were.  But Robin Goad adds, “For the week ending 27/12/08, our Computers and Internet – Social Networking and Forums category accounted for 10.09% of all UK Internet visits, the first ever time it has passed the 10% threshold.”

 Social Media Making Record Strides In The UK
(Credit: Hitwise)

That’s not bad.  Then there are the more specific achievements to recognize, with Facebook also seeing a spike in traffic.  Goad writes, “Traffic reached a new high on Christmas Day 2008, when Britain’s most popular social networking site accounted for 1 in every 22 UK Internet visits.  With a market share of 4.65% Facebook’s traffic was up 69% on Christmas Day 2007, and it was the second most visited website after Google UK (8.63%).”

Finally, YouTube overtook Windows Live Mail for the first time ever, becoming the third most visited website in the UK.  This might not be as clear a victory for social media – email allows people to communicate, after all – yet it at least stands as a sort of Web 2.0 triumph.

A small disclaimer: expect social media to lose a little ground as people go back to work and stop catching up with friends and family.