social media statitistics

Social Media Use Up 82% from one year ago

Despite Facebook privacy changes and serious cases of Twitter Fail Whale, social media use has increased astronomically since this time last year: During December 2009, global users spent an average of five hours on social networking sites, up from three hours in December 2008. That’s an 82% increase.

Nielsen just released a report on its blog detailing increased social media use, and the results are impressive, while not exactly shocking. Some highlights:

– Social networking sites are the most popular online destinations globally (based on the amount of time people spent there in December), with games and instant messaging coming in second and third, respectively. (Side note: As gaming becomes more popular on sites like Facebook, it will be interesting to see how this affects time spent.) (read more)

Six Social Media Trends for 2010

With the popularity of social media ever on the rise, it’s no surprise that industry experts are weighing in on SM trends for 2010.

Things to look for: Increased popularity in mobile and sharing functionality, tighter workplace regulations on employee profiles and a continuation in companies looking for cost-effective ways to serve their customers through access to online support – further proof that companies are looking to social media for cost-savings and optimal monetization.

Read on for David Armano’s full article on the Harvard Business blog Six Social Media Trends for 2010.

Latest Facebook facts from Tom Chisolm, Midwest Director of Ad Sales for Facebook

Howard Brown of Circle Builders attended a presentation last evening from the Midwest director of ad-sales for Facbook – Tom Chisholm

He covers 5 Midwest states and accounts for advertising like 3 autos, PG, Kellogg’s, Compuware, Quicken Loans

Social graph (you at center then family, college, work) of connection, sharing and conversations:

•92% of ALL college students have a FB account
•1 million new registered user a DAY (1/3 US / 2/3rds International)
•74 languages (more native tongues on the way
•324 million total users up 100m this year (1/3 US / 2/3rds International) (intense infrastructure to handle this never been done before bandwidth, storage, processing power…)
•70 million photos posted a day (largest photo sharing site in the world – all others combined do not equal FB)
•4 times the amount of events than evite
•Avg stay time (stickiness) 19.6 minutes
•Analytics – 200 data points per user profile (data is Trojan horse to revenue with advertisers)
•40% of all user profiles public ally list cell phone #
•FB connect has been a game changer
•Best advertisers – Virgin, Addidas, Starbucks
•No plans to charge users – FB will monetize by acting as ad agency:

national accounts
regional / small biz
online

FB considers:
Web 1.0 = static
Web 2.0 = interactive
Web 3.0 = sharing

Just became cash flow positive last month

FB is content to become the worlds largest monopoly / utility