Social Media Fun Facts and Figures for 2009

Revolutionizing the Internet, 2009’s Social Media Revolution has attributed thousands of interesting factual statistics, pulled from leading scientific data; subjective towards the growing influence of new-age social media — returning figures to reflect social media is far more prominent than just a fad or trend; but a newly accepted way of life for millions around the world.

FACEBOOK:

→ During Barack Obama’s rise to the White House, in 2009, more than 5.4 million users clicked on Facebook’s “I voted for Obama” button

→ Weekly, Facebook shares 3.5 billion unique pieces of social media content.

→ More than 6 billion minutes are wasted each day on Facebook, worldwide.

→ More than 2.5 billion photos and 14 million videos are uploaded each month

→ Facebook is accessed by more than 65 million, active, mobile phone users.

→ Facebook integration extends to more than 15,000 sites → Psychologists has identified Facebook as a new disease, dubbed FAD; Facebook Addiction Disorder.

→ According to Forbes, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is the youngest billionaire; founding the networking giant in 2004 at a tender twenty.

TWITTER:

→ Twitter’s political influence pinnacled mass media headlines, taking unprecedented measures to report on the 2009 Iran elections.

→ Coverage of the Iran Elections took the summit of Twitter’s longest Trending Topic duration, in 2009.

→ Social media carried political influence, nobility used during the United States presidential campaign in 2008, its use continued through 2009 by President Barack Obama; as a result Twitter gained grand exposure.

→ $3,000,000 worth of Dell computers were sold, on Twitter

→ In 2009, Twitter experienced the longest downtime due to a denial of service attack, effecting millions of users.

→ Twitter gained mass popularity in 2009 by mass mainstream media sources, yielding free marketing to a start-up company of limited funds; due to this it’s profitability soared.

→ More than 200 Twitter social media “clones” exist, many country based; another 80+ are based within the United States

→ In 2009, Twitter successfully incorporated a variety of words into household terms, such as tweet, Tweepie, Tweepole, and Twittertainment

GENERAL:

→ eBay found that those active in social media spend 54% more money.

→ 61% of 12-17 year olds are active in social media, 42% of them check the accounts daily

→ Second Life allows users to engage in social communication, while earning money playing its virtual world role-playing game.

→ Rivals, Microsoft and Google have attacked; Microsoft releasing its popular Bing search engine, later in 2009 Google would release its Chrome operating system days following Microsoft’s Windows 7 release.

→ Google opened 2009 with listings exceeding one trillion unique sites and continued to take headlines with released new innovations.

→ “How to Boil an Egg” is consistently one of the most popular articles on eHow

→ Youtube is ranked at the second most popular search engine

→ Yahoo attempted to purchase Facebook for $1 billion, an offer turned down; yet it would later team up to provide integration to its users

→ More than 300 social networks are currently functional, each offering a different concept for its users.

→ Digg remains the most popular social bookmarking site

(Copyright © Social-Media-News 2009)

www.MessageMakers.co.uk

Online gaming is the future, says EA

EA's chief executive officer, John Riccitiello, said he believes the emerging online and mobile phone-based gaming business models will overtake traditional boxed products for video game consoles in the next year.

In an interview with Reuters, Riccitiello said: "When people think of games they traditionally think of the Xbox, the PlayStation and the Wii, and they forget about all these online services that are out there – subscription, microstransactions, games they find on Facebook or if they go to Pogo.

Video game publisher Electronic Arts predicts the rise of online and mobile gaming in 2010.

"If you add all that stuff up, it's almost half of the industry now. It's about 40 to 45 per cent. Next year it's likely to be a larger share of the total industry and it'll be bigger than the console games all put together."

Riccitiello's sentiments explain EA's acquisition in November of the social network game developer Playfish for $275 million. The EA chief executive also said the publisher plans to reduce the number of boxed games it releases next year. EA released around 50 video games sold in boxed format in 2009 but plans to cut that number to 40, and Riccitiello said that number could be reduced even further.

"Thirty wouldn't shock me at some point in the future," Riccitiello told an audience at the Reuters Global Media Summit in New York.

"We're the world's leader in packaged goods games, we make more of them than anybody. We're not suggesting that business is going away ... [but] there's this other thing that's growing," he said.

"It's our goal for that [online] business to be as important as, and over time maybe more important than, our packaged goods business."

www.MessageMakers.co.uk
www.telegraph.co.uk

Email to lose place as main communication tool to Social Media

Email will lose its place as the internet's main means of communication within a decade, as users gravitate towards keeping in touch on Facebook and Twitter, according to new research.

The electronic form of contact is already becoming 'grey mail' with the most devoted users being pensioners, followed by middle aged Britons, the study claimed.

Although inboxes are still filling up daily all over the world, experts believe emails are dying out because they are too slow, too inconvenient and simply not fashionable any more.

Email took 20 years to develop into the phenomenon it is now, but could take just half as long to die out again, said the report by social anthropologist Prof. David Zeitlyn.

Internet savvy youngsters now prefer the 'one and done' style of message, which is where a short message like those on Twitter, can be sent to all contacts at the same time.

Other email alternatives, such as instant messaging, texting and social networks like Facebook, are quick and easy and can be done anywhere with modern technology.

The study by the University of Kent professor, for broadband provider TalkTalk, found only 51 per cent of Britons in their teens or early twenties say email is their first choice of communication.

It does not mean email is completely abandoned as 86 per cent of 15-24 year-olds do send out messages this way, it's just they use other methods more often, they say.

Older generations are still more reliant on email, with 98 per cent of those aged 65 or over using it regularly and 96 per cent of those aged 45-64, said the TalkTalk research.

As users get younger, email becomes less popular with only 87 per cent of 25-34-year-olds using it.

Mark Schmid from TalkTalk said: "Email has been the dominant mode of communication over the internet for the past 20 years, but that doesn't mean it always will be.

"Increasingly people want to send quick, short messages reaching many people in one go, and there are now better ways of doing that than via email.

"Based on the trends we're seeing now, email could well be on its last legs by the end of the next decade."

www.MessageMakers.co.uk
www.telegraph.co.uk

Proven Social Media Marketing Headline Formulas That Work...

Ever wondered why no one is following you on twitter, reading your blog or digg articles? Headlines are so important today as we as mere mortals only have enough time in the day to decide what we will read and what we won't read. We use headlines to help us make that decision. A well crafted headline will get more people to read the excellent content that I know you have spent painstakingly long to craft.

This article (original source Chris Garrett) will help you deliver these killer headlines

Take these fill-in-the blanks templates and complete them to create your own compelling, click-getting headlines.

Get What You Want (Health, Wealth, Relationships, Time and Lifestyle):

1. 10 Money/Time Saving Tips for ______
2. The Secret of Getting the Best Price for Your _______
3. How to Find the Best _____ Deals on the Web
4. Top Gadgets for _____
5. Are _____ Worth the Money?
6. Everything You Need to Know About Getting Cheaper _____
7. Top 10 Tips For Hassle Free ______
8. Best ____ For Under [Price]
9. Unusual but Achievable ____
10. 5 Ways to Boost Your ____ Without Spending More _____
11. Ways to ____ on a Budget
12. 5 Ways to _____ and Profit!
13. 21 Audacious and Creative _____ Ideas
14. Who Else Wants to ____?
15. Now You Can ____ for Free!
16. How to Get _____ in Half the Time
17. 10 Stars and their ____
18. _____ Life Styles of the Rich and Famous
19. How to Look and Act ________
20.Now You Can Have Get More and Better ____ With Less Effort
21. ______ like a Movie Star
22.9 Ways You Can ____ Better Than You Deserve
23.How to ____ in 10 Seconds
24.Have a ____ You Can Be Proud Of
25. 21 _____ Conversation Tips
26.Finding Your Perfect _______
27. Plan a Perfect ______
28.What ____ Really Want
29.7 Signs You Are/Can _______
30.Get ____ Now

Crystal Ball and History:

31. The History of _______
32.How _____ Will Impact _____ in [Year]
33._____ Then and Now
34.40 Predictions on the Future of ____
35. The Modern Rules of ______
36.___ Lessons from History
37. The _____ Story
Problems and Fears
38.Are _____ a Dying Breed?
39.How to Beat the Fear of _____
40.10 ____ Scams and How to Avoid Them
41. How Secure Are Your _____?
42.7 Most Frightening ____
43.Top 10 Scary _____ Facts
44.Outrageous _____ and How they Could Impact You
45. Get Rid of Your _____ Once and For All
46.Could Your ______ be a ________?
47. What Your ____ is Not Telling You About _______
48.Beware ______ and How to Spot them
49.10 Good Ways NOT to ______
50.How to Safely _______
51. The Unseen/Biggest Dangers of _____
52. ______ Do's and Don'ts
53. 21 Ways to Screw Up _____
54. 10 Reasons Not to _____
55. 7 _____ Danger Signs
56. 7 things _____ Should Never Do
Fact, Fiction, Secrets, Truth and Lies
57. What Everyone Ought to Know about ______
58.____ Personality Test: What Your ____ Says About You
59. _____ Lies and How to Spot them
60._____ Facts and Myths
61. The Real Truth About ______
62.21 Secrets the _____ Experts Don't Want You to Know
63.101 Most Popular _____ Myths
64.10 ______ Facts You Need to Know
65. The Secret of Successful _____
66.Little Known Ways to _____
67. Truth and Lies in _____
68.All You Need to Know about _______
69.10 Lies We Tell Our _______
70.101 things Not to tell _______
71. Revealed: Why _____
72. How to Spot a Fake ______

How To Tricks of the Trade:

73. When is it Smarter to ____ or ____?
74. Little Known Ways to ________
75. 10 Reasons it's Better to ______
76. How to Plan the Ultimate _____
77. How to _____ Like a _____
78. ____ Jobs You Can Do Yourself
79. Here is a Method That is Helping _____ to _____
80.Here’s a Quick Way to _______
81. 7 Creative Ways to ______
82.How to be a _______
83.9 Surprising Things You Can _____
84._____ Like an Expert in 10 Easy Steps
85.21 Expert ____ Tips
86.5 Reasons You Should ______

Best and Worst:

87. Top 10 Worlds Cheapest/Best/Most Expensive _____
88.The Worlds Best _____ You Can Actually Afford to Buy
89.The Worlds Worst Ever _____
90.The World’s Most Unusual _____
91. Funniest ______ Stories
92.Sexiest _______ in the World
93.The Top 10 Best and Worst _____ in the World
94.Top 19 Most ____ Friendly ____
95. 100 Useful or Beautiful ____
96.5 Reasons _____ is Better than ______
97. The Worlds Top 10 Most Important ______
98.Top 20 Clips About _____ in Films and Television
99.10 ____ We Don't Want to See ____
100.21 Most Hilarious _____
101.The Worlds Worst _____ Advice
102.10 Reasons ____ is the Worst _____

This special report was for Authority Blogger Course members but is offered free for a short time to Social Media Workbook readershttp: //socialmediaworkbook.com/

www.messagemakers.co.uk

7 Ideas for Social Media and Business

I don’t think you can put a dollar figure on social media to prove ROI. You’ll have a hard time showing what the revenue increases were from your blogging or other social media efforts. The medium has not advanced far enough for that. I also don’t think that the medium is wide-spread enough that you can justify ROI with only subscriber count and number of comments. Many senior executives wouldn’t know what an RSS subscriber even means.

With that said, I think this is a very viable form of corporate marketing and there are a number of ways the medium can be sold up the chain and measured throughout the year:

Don’t Isolate Social Media: Position social media as a component of your overall marketing plan. If you engage in print advertising, you’re used to making the case that print advertising is a branding component that is used to support your overall marketing messaging. Like social media, the ROI from print advertising is very hard to measure. Social Media should be one medium you’re using among many in your communication with your audience and customers.

Sales Tool: When is the last time you created a brochure and were asked to measure the ROI from that effort? You created the brochure to support the overall success of a product or service. The brochure helped to position and describe your product development effort. Blogging as a social media medium could be considered along the same lines. With every piece of content we create for our company blog, we make sure our sales people are aware they can share that content with interested customers. It essentially becomes a unique and innovative tool they can use to spread the word. As long as you’re providing useful content for your audience, they’ll appreciate your effort and most likely visit again.

Feedback: We’re also finding success in using blogging as a method for gathering customer feedback through surveys, new product ideas and product feedback forms. Social media is supposed to be a conversation, correct? Well, treat it as such and allow your audience to participate in the future of your products. We’ve already received valuable feedback that rivals that of an individual order placed.

Promote Realistic Expectations: I think many marketers who are into social media and blogging are a bit misguided as to the affect blogging will have on marketing efforts. In the marketing blog community, you can start a blog, link out to 50 other bloggers in your first week and pick up traffic and subscribers that are fun to measure. Not all niches have that opportunity. Many communities lack a large enough niche in which to socialize. What then? I encourage people in less sociable niches not to pump the benefits of thousands of subscribers, millions of page views, or hundreds of comments. It could take years to develop that following in some online communities as the medium matures. Focus less on expected statistics and more on how social media will be integrated with the rest of your product marketing efforts.

Multipurpose Content: As a small business marketing manager, it’s always music to my ears when someone says that we can use content we’ve created for multiple purposes. If you’re blogging, you should be creating valuable content. Have you thought about using portions of that content for an eNewsletter creation or the beginning of a white paper? Make sure you have a plan to have multiple purposes for your efforts.

Go Find Your Customer: One easy case I was able to make for blogging was the ability for our company to more easily go meet our audience where they begin most online searches that lead to our website - Google. Most of our website traffic originates on Google so it only makes sense for us to continue our efforts to get in their search results. Blogging platforms are very solid ways to optimize content for search engines - especially if you’re updating often and using the right methods.

Stats: I know, I know - stats are important. I just didn’t want them to be the focus of this post because not all social media efforts should be measured with analytics. Believe me, I do follow our stats, but I pay more attention to subscribers, comments, and from where the visits originate. These are important statistics to gauge how well your audience is receiving your content.

In two years, I’ll guarantee that there will be measurements in place that prove ROI from businesses engaging in social media. This method of conversing with your audience is growing by the day. But right now we need to focus on social media as a tool in our marketing toolbox that supports all the other tools we’re using in our marketing plans.

By Patrick Schaber

Apple and Google have got it right....Common sense dictates that the easier something is to accomplish, the more readily it will be passed along. What information do you ask your customers to submit? And of that, which is really necessary? Less is more.

IPhone Mania Spreading...

Everywhere you go these days, you see them: distracted looking people staring into hand sized oblongs of glass and stabbing at them with their fingers. These gadgets are almost like religious icons. They are mobile phones – but not the ones we once used merely for calling people. The Apple iPhone, launched in Britain only two years ago, does far, far more than just that.

Indeed, thanks to the iPhone’s revolutionary ‘Apps’ – applications – which users download from the internet for, mostly a few pence to a pound or two, an iPhone can be converted into 85,000 different devices – some useful, some entertaining, and some downright bizarre.

Apart from being a phone, an internet-surfing pocket computer, a camera, a video camera, a tape recorder and a device that stores and plays songs, films and TV shows, your iPhone can also be a satellite navigation system for your car; pockets tenpin bowling alley; a spirit level; a scrabble or chess opponent; and a barcode reader that tells you if you can buy an item cheaper elsewhere.

No wonder the iphone has become a cult unlike any gadget before. Indeed, many experts regard it as the greatest electronic gadget ever made.

More than 50 million iPhones have been bought worldwide, almost two million of them in Britain. And that number is bound to explode now that mobile operators Orange and Vodaphone have agreements to sell the iPhone – previously, O2 had the exclusive deal.

The iPhone has its faults. Battery life is not fantastic. Your voice can be sound tinny when you call on one. And a lot of people find the digital keyboard rather tricky to type on.

The Apps have made up for such shortcomings. More than two billion have been downloaded worldwide – 500 million in the past three months.

But are iPhones and their ubiquitous Apps insidious diversions that are wasting a generation’s time? Well, there are plenty of truly moronic Apps – and a lots of game Apps that are worryingly addictive. But the iPhone’s sheer usefulness has made it a global sensation whose history is only in its early stages.

BEST APPS FOR....

Consumers:

RED LASER: Came out a few weeks ago and could change the way we shop. It reads the barcode from almost any product and tells you if and where it is available cheaper. Ideal for taking to John Lewis to test its ‘never knowingly undersold’ claim.

Commuters:

NATIONAL RAIL ENQUIRIES: Updates the departure and arrival boards at any station in Britain every few seconds.

Motorists:

TOMTOM: One of the most expensive apps available at £60 – but much cheaper than a real car satnav system.

Travellers:

LONELY PLANET: Converts your iPhone into a speaking Chinese, Japanese, French, Spanish or Italian phrase-book.

Pedestrians:

GOOGLE EARTH: Pull up an aerial view of where you are, and go into Google Street View to match the address you’re looking for with the streetscape as photographed by those mobile Google camera cars.

Children:

SMACKTALK: Big in Japan and now big over here. This oddly named app converts your voice into an adorable, lip-synched hamster, puppy or kitten. Once children get their hands on it, they will do all they can to run down the parents’ already over stretched iPhone batteries.

Foodies:

QYPE RADAR:Want to know where to eat? Qype lists all restaurants and cafes and bars close by. Features restaurant reviews from real people – and if you disagree, you can log your own criticisms from your iPhone while you’re still eating.

Music Lovers

SHAZAM: Can identify any song you hear when you are out and about. Shazam needs only to hear a 20 second snatch of pop or classical music. It sends this to its central computer, which contains most of the world’s music. It matches what it’s heard with its records and sends you a text within a couple of seconds identifying the track. If you then want to buy the music, it will download it to your iPhone.

Book Lovers:

STANZA: Turns your iPhone into an electronic book. There are thousands of books to download, and many classics are free. You turn the ‘page’ by touching the bottom right-hand corner of the iPhone’s screen.

Star-Gazers:

STARMAP: Using satellite technology, this locates exactly where in the world you are and helps you identify stars and constellations precisely as they appear in the night sky.

Radio-Fans:

WUNDERRADIO: Converts your iPhone into an internet radio. You can listen to your local station when you are hundreds of miles from home – or to any one of thousands across the world. The App works by using the 3G phone network to connect to the internet. The result is that you can be walking along a British street nonchalantly listening to a live radio station broadcast from Sydney or New York.

Game Players:

SCRABBLE: A proper, official Scrabble game that pits your wits against your iPhone’s – or you can play with a friend who is thousands of miles away, live.

DIY- ers:

ihandy LEVEL: Converts you iPhone into a spirit level for carpenters, people putting up shelves – or those just fussy about getting restaurant tables level.

Lovers of Peace and Quiet:

DECIBEL: Transforms your iPhone into a noise meter that registers red when sound around you is at a harmful level.

AND FINALLY – Perhaps the iPhones’ biggest market.

People with Nothing to do:

OCARINA: Converts your iPhone to an ancient form of flat flute. Phone flautists hold the iPhone horizontally while blowing into the microphone and fingering virtual holes on the screen.

The sound is quite pleasant, and your tunes can be heard as you play, by fellow flautists around the world.

ISTEAM: Turns your iPhone into a simulated steamy window on which you can write messages with your finger.

KALEIDOSCOPE: Makes your iPhone a kaleidoscope. Shake it and the coloured but reform, just like the real thing.

www.MessageMakers.co.uk

Daily Mail, Wednesday, September 30, 2009