It has been a big year in social media  and the relentless evolution of social publishing networks that are transforming how we communicate, market and do business.

The hesitancy to implement social media marketing is dissipating as many CEO’s and senior management have started to embrace the power of the social networks.

Some of the highlights included

• Google+ launched and reaches a user base of over 50 million by the end of 2011
• Twitter continuing to grow despite minimal changes and still no sustainable business model emerging (simplicity is still its number one feature)
• Facebook evolves into a more visual network with higher definition and larger photos featured in its new timeline feature
• Facebook commerce (F-Commerce) becomes established
• StumbleUpon makes a comeback
• Pinterest suprises everyone with it growth after only 12 months
• Tumblr starts to make headlines with its phenomenal user base

In looking at the most popular articles three things are apparent

1. Facebook is “the” social network that occupies most people’s focus and attention
2. Facts ,figures and statistics are always popular
3. Infographics are “hot”

Here are the top ten social media posts from 2011.

1. 50 Fascinating Facebook Facts And Figures

(64,446 views)

The rise and rise of Facebook is producing a scramble by marketers and companies to leverage its huge global database and traffic.

Google is looking over its shoulder as Facebook grows at over 10 million users a month and sits currently at number two on web traffic rankings according to Alexa.com.

Last year Facebook surpassed Google for the top ranking for total time spent online.

2. The 10 Best Facebook Campaigns

(59,911 views)

Facebook marketing campaigns seem to be going all warm, caring and fluffy recently as brands realize that solving problems and helping those in need can be a very effective marketing tactic.

Three of the Facebook campaigns in this list have an altruistic reason behind their campaigns, from donating $500,000 each to 20 schools to raising funds for the “Make A Wish Foundation”.

The marketing goals for the Facebook pages vary but quite often the simple goal of just increasing their fan count to their Facebook page seems to be top of the list as brands have worked out very quickly that being able to communicate to 1,000′s or even millions of fans via a simple status update is very efficient highly leveraged marketing. Companies have also realized that people’s main reason for becoming a fan for the most part is not so charitable, but is about having access to the latest special offers and freebies.

3. 20 Stunning Social Media Statistics Plus Infographic

(45,719 views)

Do you wonder why your productivity has dropped over the past 2 – 3 years?

There is a time sink and it’s not television!

Those of us who are connected to the internet and that is 2 billion of us, have been distracted by social multi-media publishing machines that are pumping out staggering amounts of content with enticing high definition images and videos!

You cannot escape their allure as they tempt you to log in when you are out and about with either with your laptop, iPad or smart phone.

These enticing, tempting distractions are robbing us of time that should be spent doing productive work like washing your car, cleaning the house or doing your tax… and I know how much you all enjoy those activities!

4. The 10 Best Social Media Campaigns

(18,735 views)

Since social media has become an integral part of our lives, marketers have used their creative talents to develop social media campaigns with various degrees of success which can be measured in a variety of ways.

One very successful social media marketing campaign that was run in 2009 was the competition for the “Best Job in the World” which was based on the simple concept of posting a one-minute video application on Tourism Queensland’s Web site explaining why you should be chosen as caretaker of Hamilton Island on the Great Barrier Reef and you might get to blog and cam your way through a six-month gig that paid about $100K U.S.

5. 30 Terrific Twitter Facts And Figures

(16,884 views)

Twitter has always suffered an image problem and is not usually taken very seriously by the general public. Its name doesn’t help with some people even saying that ‘Twitter is for twits’. Despite this glamor and brand problem this has not held back its growth after its humble origins and launch in 2006.

Since then Twitter has gained popularity worldwide and is estimated to have 225 million users, generating 65 million tweets a day and handling over 800,000 search queries per day. It is sometimes described as the “SMS of the Internet” and its 140 character limit keeps the messages short and simple.

Its attraction as a social web media platform is maybe in its simplicity and real time messaging that enables breaking news and information to hit the web instantly without filters and censorship.

6. 10 Top Small Business Facebook Page Designs to Inspire You

(16,732 views)

Facebook pages is the place where a lot of inspiring innovation, marketing and design is happening on the social web.

Major brands are often worth checking out as they can wow you with the the latest in innovation such as Facebook stores, inspiring embedded videos and designs that look like they cost a fortune. If you want to obtain some good ideas it is a good business practice to emulate elements of the most popular Facebook pages in the world such as Lady Gaga or one of the top company Facebook pages StarBucks.

7. Social Media Marketing – 10 Inspiring Infographics

(16,130 views)

n 2011 social media marketing continued to make its impact on business and brand promotions. Google+ was launched (with an investment of over $500 million in development costs), Twitter became embedded in the new Apple iPhone 4s and Blogging didn’t die.

Some surprising results and unexpected networks and social media platforms have made their mark this year .

• Tumblr is now attracting over 90 million unique visitors every month
• StumbleUpon driving over 50% of all social network traffic
• YouTube is attracting 50% more views than 2010 and threatening traditional TV advertising and marketing

8. How To Take Your Company’s Facebook Fan Page from Zero to 40,000 Fans

(15,761 views)

It was last year that I met a Facebook marketing specialist, Mike Watkins at a marketing event. I was impressed by his story about how he had taken the SUPRE’s fashion brand’s Facebook page from zero to 40,000 fans shortly after Facebook released the “Page” option to add to its “Profiles” and “Groups” membership options. I met him again recently for a video interview that I will be publishing in the next few days, in the meantime I would like to share his story.

9. 50 Awesome YouTube Facts and Figures

(15,322 views)

YouTube is a modern phenomena. The social media platform’s original concept is rumoured to have been inspired by the idea of being a video dating site with the unlikely title of “Tune In Hook Up”. In the end it launched as a simple video sharing site that has helped reinvent the web from a one way static channel to an interactive web eco-system (along with social networking channels such as MySpace, Facebook and Twitter) that has enticed and compelled us to engage globally with other internet users using a variety of rich multi-media and social sharing platforms.

10. 50 Amazing Facts and Figures About Google

(14,154 views)

Google has become an integral part of our lives and the word has even become a verb as we are often heard to say let’s “Google” that. I have even heard the web giant referred to in hushed tones during heated discussions and when a controversial fact or figure is being debated across a dinner table or at the local bar as to whether it is true or false and a person will pull out their iPhone and say “let’s check Lord Google”.

What type of articles and topics do you want to read in 2012?

Read More:

Image by yoppy

It is projected that Facebook will have one billion users by 2013. The world has just over two billion internet users globally which means that nearly one in two people on the web is a Facebook user.

Facebook as a marketing medium cannot be ignored despite the misgivings of senior management (who grew up in the analog world of Print, TV and Radio) to commit marketing dollars to something their daughter uses to post Saturday night party photos on!

Many CEO’s do not know the difference between a “Brand” Facebook “page” and a personal Facebook profile!

The penetration of the digital social web world into our lives is not a fad that is going away, it is here and it must be embraced.

Bricks and mortar retailers are bringing down the shutters while online shops are feasting on their carcasses and going global with the viral marketing power of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Some Revelations

• 93% of Facebook users share shopping suggestions
• Brands are only responding to 50%  of brand page posts
• 80% of users who received a response to their post made a purchase as a result of the interaction
• 47% of companies have generated leads from Facebook
• 41% of companies have closed deals from Facebook
• Average cost of  obtaining a fan is $1.07
• Almost two-thirds of businesses surveyed use Facebook as their main marketing tool
• 87% of Facebook fans said they are satisfied with a particular brand. Only 49% of non-fans said they did
• The cost per click using Facebook advertising for e-commerce is 31 cents

1. Anatomy of a Killer Facebook Ad Campaign

Source: AES Connect

2. Social Media Makes the Sale

Source: AllFacebook

3. Digital Marketing Report

Source: Webmarketing 123

4. The Cost of Marketing on Facebook

Source: Flowtown

5. The Importance of a Fan Base

Source: KISSmetrics

More Reading

• Social Media Marketing – 10 Inspiring Infographics
• 6 Fantastic Facebook Marketing Infographics
• 20 Stunning Social Media Statistics Plus Infographic
• 11 New Twitter Facts, Figures and Growth Statistics plus [INFOGRAPHIC]
• Past, Present and Future of Blogging: 3 Infographics
• How Do You Use LinkedIn [INFOGRAPHIC]
• How Do You Use Twitter [INFOGRAPHIC]

Image by _tar0_

If you are  marketer or a business owner then insights into trends and consumer behaviour can give you an advantage over your competitors.

If you are selling to a female demographic you need to know where they are hanging out on-line. If you are marketing a product to the over 50′s it is important to know if they use Facebook or social media. Where are those teenagers with that high disposable income playing online?

Understanding the digital landscape and the social web and how it is being used by consumers provides brands with the knowledge they need to increase sales and improve customer engagement.

If social media was horse race then you might as well put down the glasses as the race has been won. The dominance of Facebook is well known but it is the scale of its growth, market share and time it takes from its users is what is intriguing.

According to the latest study by Nielsen (which was conducted in May 2011) there are ten insights that are both expected and surprising.

10 Insights into Social Networks and Blogging

1. Facebook is the Top Web Brand  by Time Online

There is no need to count users (as a lot of users register and never go back). The real measurement of engagement and use is how much time is spent on-line. Facebook dominates time on-line by a ratio of  more than three to one compared to its next closest web brand competitor Yahoo.

2. Social Networks and Blogs Dominate Time Spent Online

Social networks and blog sites are where Americans spend most of their time (22.5%). In fact it is more than twice as much as the closest category which is on-line games at 9.8%

3. Females Dominate

The majority of visitors to social networks and blogs are female and are aged 18-34. (calculations show unique audience composition index)

4. Men Like LinkedIn

Of the top 10 social networks, women are in the majority on eight of the ten. Men use LinkedIn more than women which would be due to the imbalance of management roles of males compared to females.

5. Top Site By Unique Visitors is Facebook

According to Nielsen, this past May, Facebook logged 140.336 million visitors, dwarfing the second-place finisher on the list, Blogger, which tallied 50.055 million.

The rest of the list:

• Twitter (23.617 million)
• WordPress (22.417 million)
• MySpace (19.25 million)
• LinkedIn (17.786 million)
• Tumblr (11.87 million)
• Six Apart Typepad (8.578 million)
• Yahoo Pulse (8.397 million)
• Wikia (7.601 million).

6. Mobile Social Media is Booming

The growth of smart phones is changing our media consumptions habits and social media use on mobiles is the second most used feature after downloading and playing music.

7. Social Networking Apps Growing at 30%

If you use an app on a smart phone then it likely that you will be using a social network app. Social network apps ranked third on the most used app category with Games and weather apps holding positions one and two. Facebook ranks as the most popular app across all mobile operating systems.

8. The Over 55′s are Using Social Media on Mobile Phones

Many people think that if you are over 50 you are not using social media on a mobile. In fact the fastest growth of social media use on smart phone is the over 55′s with 109% growth. The 35-54 age group growth rate stands at 68% year on year and 18-34 year olds are increasing their visits to social media  sites on their mobile by 61%.

9. Social Media Users are Influential Offline

Social media networks have given influencers a platform to spread their ideas. Influencing your peers on these platforms can drive increased sales to on-line stores.

10. Tumblr Triples its US Audience in 12 Months

Tumblr is a social network that combines elements of blogging and Twitter. It is now the 8th largest social network and blog site in the US with over 11 million unique visitors in May compared to only 4.2 million in May 2010.

As these statistics were collected by Nielsen’s survey in May 2011, they do not include Google+ which launched a couple of months later. So it would be interesting to look at this landscape in a few months and see how it is developing.

What is obvious and pleasing is the continuing growth in blogging in all its formats with Blogger.com and WordPress continuing to make their presence felt and Tumblr being the surprising result and the social network to watch.

More Reading:

• 30 Terrific Twitter Facts and Figures
• 50 Awesome YouTube Facts and Figures
• 50 Amazing Facts and Figures About Google

Image By Will Lion

The effects of September 11, 2001 are still reverberating across the world. The grief, pain and impact on the souls of those who lost friends and family is almost impossible to fathom and has continued to destroy lives and families.

There are many untold stories that have been buried in the traumas that will continue to bubble to the surface as time heals the wounds for some.

The effect on the 3,051 children left behind will be with them forever including the seventeen babies who were born later who never saw their fathers.

Many awful truths are being discovered such as the 1,200 fireman and police officers that have died of respiratory diseases in those 10 years from the effects of  the dust and toxins released in the aftermath of the world trade centre’s collapse.

Some Awful Truths by the Numbers

• 2,992 people died on September 11, 2001
• 6.75 years it took to build the World Trade Center
• 102 minutes it took to destroy both towers from impact to collapse
• 12 seconds it took each tower to crumble
• 343 Firefighters who died at the WTC
• 23 NYPD officers who died trying to save others

It has changed the world in many ways from security to travel. The world has lost part of its innocence and stolen some of its joy.

These 5 infographics look at what has changed 10 years after that fateful day on September 11, from travel to security and the buildings that are rising from the ashes that display, commemorate and celebrate the spirit of the American people.

Something we should ponder as we remember.

“Violence will prevail over violence, only when someone can prove to me that darkness can be dispelled by darkness ” Gandhi

1. 9/11 Ten Years Later

When the Towers collapsed they fell nearly 1/4 of a mile and reached speeds of 120 miles per hour. Two thousand fireman, policemen and volunteers were the first responders to the attack. 18,000 small businesses in Lower Manhattan were destroyed or displaced.

Source: Custom Reusable Bags

2. The Post 9/11 Effect on Travel

Visas became more difficult for international visitors immediately after the attacks on the US. Car related deaths increased as people changed their travel plans from plane to road and rail. Researchers estimated that there were an additional 344 car-related fatalities during the 3 month period directly after September 11.

Via Travel Pod

3. Airport Security Before and After 9/11

After the plane hijacks all knives were prohibited, passengers were forced to remove shoes and all jackets had to be removed and x-rayed. In 2010 full body scanners became mandatory, resulting in a further loss of privacy.

Source: Criminal Justice Degree

4. World Trade Center Reborn

Out of the ashes a new World Trade Center and site is being reborn which will include the tallest building in the US at 1,776 feet. The structural steel for the new building contains 6 times more steel than is in the Eiffel Tower. The building will include 71 elevators and will take 45 seconds to reach the top.

Source: History.com

5. Rebuilding New York’s Ground Zero

The iconic tower that will arise from the “Ground Zero” site will be named the “Freedom Tower”. The WTC memorial will open on September 11, 2011 and will include 400 oak trees and plaques with victims names.

Source: Infographs.net

Where were you on 11th of September, 2001?

Image of South Tower of the WTC after being struck by a plane on 11th September, 2001 at 9.03 am: Courtesy of New York Times Files

Do you wonder why your productivity has dropped over the past 2 – 3 years?

There is a time sink and it’s not television!

Those of us who are connected to the internet and that is 2 billion of us, have been distracted by social multi-media publishing machines that are pumping out staggering amounts of content with enticing high definition images and videos!

You cannot escape their allure as they tempt you to log in when you are out and about with either with your laptop, iPad or smart phone.

These enticing, tempting distractions are robbing us of time that should be spent doing productive work like washing your car, cleaning the house or doing your tax… and I know how much you all enjoy those activities!

20 Social Media Statistics

These figures reveal the huge black hole that our time disappears into when we visit Facebook, Twitter or YouTube or other social media sites.

1. One in every nine people on Earth is on Facebook ( This number is calculated by dividing the planets 6.94 billion people by Facebook’s 750 million users)
2. People spend 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook
3. Each Facebook user spends on average 15 hours and 33 minutes a month on the site
4. More than 250 million people access Facebook through their mobile devices
5. More than 2.5 million websites have integrated with Facebook
6. 30 billion pieces of content is shared on Facebook each month
7. 300,000 users helped translate Facebook into 70 languages
8. People on Facebook install 20 million “Apps” every day
9. YouTube has 490 million unique users who visit every month (as of February 2011)
10. YouTube generates 92 billion page views per month (These YouTube stats don’t include videos viewed on phones and embedded in websites)
11. Users on YouTube spend a total of 2.9 billion hours per month (326,294 years)
12. Wikipedia hosts 17 million articles
13. Wikipedia authors total over 91,000 contributors
14. People upload 3,000 images to Flickr (the photo sharing social media site) every minute
15. Flickr hosts over 5 billion images
16. 190 million average  Tweets per day occur on Twitter (May 2011)
17. Twitter is handling 1.6 billion queries per day
18. Twitter is adding nearly 500,000 users a day
19. Google+ has more than 25 million users
20. Google+ was the fastest social network to reach 10 million users at 16 days (Twitter took 780 days and Facebook 852 days)

Source: The Growth of Social Media: An Infographic
What is your favourite statistic?

More Reading:

• 30 Terrific Twitter Facts and Figures
• 50 Awesome YouTube Facts and Figures
• 50 Amazing Facts and Figures About Google

Sources:

• Facebook Statistics
• Royal Pingdom
• Twitter
• Techcrunch

Image by Irish Typepad

Hype and fad are terms that are kicked around as buzz about the latest trend hits the media and the social networks.

Questions are asked …..will the trend in killer high heels last one summer or two, will the fad to wear low hanging jeans become adopted by baby boomers (I wouldn’t like to see that), are tablets about to replace laptops and is the hardcover book about to become a souvenir reserved for the coffee table?

The answers to these billion dollar questions affects and disrupts industries sometimes for months, years or maybe forever. Nokia is fighting for survival after dominating its industry because it ignored a trend for to long. The once dominant Borders bookstore is closing its doors because carrying tens of thousands of printed books in bricks and mortar stores with expensive rented real estate and is a business model that doesn’t work anymore.

Google+ Moves to “Kids and Cabernet” Users

Adoption cycles, trends and innovation are what drives our modern economies and predicting when to join or leave a Hype cycle can be the difference between a winner and a loser.

Hitwise an online competitive intelligence company has found according to its research that the sequential adoption of Google+ has moved beyond the initial innovators and early adopters stage according to Everett Rogers “Diffusion of Innovation” model and is now being adopted by “early mainstream users”

Some of these new Google+ users can be categorized as the  ”Kids and Cabernet” segment and are described as “Prosperous, middle aged married couples living child focused lives in affluent suburbs”

Here is the word cloud describing their lives!

Do you like the words, Sport car – upper premium, Hybrid, Theme parks, exercise at private club and cycling? (Just keep those words in mind next time you are playing in the Google+ ecosystem)

Google+ Users are Creating more Content than Twitter Users

You Gov recently announced the results of a survey done jointly with Bloomberg which examined the social media trends and usage one month after the launch of the Google+ network and here are some of the results

• 13% of US adult internet users have signed up for a Google+ account
• 9% plan to sign up in the next 12 months
• 45% read content once a day or more (only Facebook is higher at 62%)
• 46% of Google+ users report creating content at least once a week (this is on par with Twitter at 42%)

It must be noted that many social networks  have members checking in less than once a month!

How Will Google+ Impact Facebook and Twitter?

Google+ became the fastest growing social network reaching 25 million users in less than one month (Twitter took 780 days to reach 10 million users and Facebook reached that number in 852 days).

So with that growth the question of the impact on the other major networks does need to be asked.

According to this research Google+ is well placed  to become the second largest network within 12 months and is likely to negatively impact Facebook with 30% of Facebook users who already use Google+ plan on cutting down the time spent on Facebook this year.

What is not factored into these surveys yet is the impact of two key factors

1. Google+ games (which have just been announced and are now live)
2. The imminent arrival of the Google+ for business and brands (the equivalent of Facebook’s pages)

Both these two vital synergistic  elements had a major impact on Facebook growth and engagement when they were introduced.

I think the predictions for Google+ are conservative and will be exceeded because of the impact of the games and Google+ for the enterprise.

What do you think? Will Google+ pass Twitter and LinkedIn in the next 12 months?

More Reading

• 7 Reasons Why Google+ Drives Hyperactive Engagement
• How to Increase your Google+ Followers
• Google+ Sets New Growth Records
• 50 Fascinating Facebook Facts and Figures
• The 10 Best Facebook Campaigns

Image by KEXINO

Records were made to be broken. The Guinness World Records publishes an annual bible documenting all sorts of  amazing feats from the fastest pie eater in the world to the quickest man on a bike.

They even published a recent article on their website highlighting 10 social media world records

These included

• The fastest person to reach 1 million Twitter followers – Charlie Sheen in 25 hours and 15 minutes
• Most Followers in Twitter – Lady Gaga with over 12 million followers
• Most Likes on a Faceboook Page – Facebook currently holds this record with nearly 50 million ‘likes’

Google+ Sets Social Network Records

The one record that was not published (due to the fact it didn’t publicly exist then) was Google+ as the fastest social network to reach 10 million users at 16 days. (Facebook took 852 days to reach that mark and Twitter did it in 780 days)

Thanks for the image Leon Haland

Since that record was set Google+ has pushed on and it has recently been announced that it has now reached 25 million users on July 24 according to Andrew Lipsman from the tracking firm comScore when speaking on a panel hosted by Wedbush securities. This is only 27 days since the Google+ launch on June 28.

More Google+ Facts and Figures

In its first 21 days on July 19, Google+ had about 20 million users. This represents

• An increase of 82% from the previous week
• 561% increase from 2 weeks prior
• US audience passed 5 million visitors up 81% from the previous week and 723% from two weeks earlier

This is extraordinary growth partly driven by Google’s 1 billion users on its on-line and mobile properties that include YouTube, Android and Gmail as well as having a design and user interface that Apple would love!

Google+ Top 10 Countries

This growth has not been restricted to the US but has included countries such as India with 2.8 million visitors and the UK with 866,000 users

The US has always been an early adopter especially of home grown technologies

Where are the Google+ Women?

After an initial scare that Google+ may have been a male only domain with early figures suggesting a large gender gap with 90% male dominance, the latest figures show a healthier demographic of 63% men and 37% women. On the age demographic it is certainly appealing strongly to the younger crowd with a vibrant showing in the 25-34 age group and the 18-24 age brackets.

Also according to comScore the number of average usage days has increased by 30% indicating that the network effect is starting to take hold as the Google+ network begins to populate in a global village square that has activity and buzz.

The next 12 months will be fascinating to watch, to see how and if it effects Facebook’s growth.

Will Google+ do to Facebook what Facebook did to MySpace?

More Reading

• 7 Reasons Why Google+ Drives Hyperactive Engagement
• How to Increase your Google+ Followers
• Google+ Sets New Growth Records
• 50 Fascinating Facebook facts and Figures
• The 10 Best Facebook Campaigns

Image by The Daring Librarian

Brain surgery takes many years to perfect. Most of the people that require it are thankful that the surgeon has to pursue a rigorous course of learning.

Just imagine the problems that would occur if you were able to obtain  the right to operate by filling in a survey on the back of a cereal packet.

It would not create a more intelligent nation but I am sure the lawyers would be happy!

Obtaining more Interaction is not Brain Surgery

A recent survey by Momentus Media discovered a fact that is not brain surgery and increases your interaction rate by 216% on your Facebook page!

They analyzed 49,266 Facebook page posts to compare interaction rates for for posts containing

• “Like” calls to action
• “Comment” calls to action
• No calls to action

The results revealed something which is essential but often not done by many marketing professionals and that was that a “call to action” (or CTA) will increase your chances of interaction over not asking at all!

The survey also observed that only 1.3% of status updates analysed even had a call to action.

Why the Correct Call to Action is Important

The results for no call to action as being the most likely to elicit very little interaction was not surprising but what was surprising was that asking for a “like” increased your chances by 216% over asking people to “comment”.

The results by the numbers for average interaction rates for the 3 types of updates

• “Like” calls to action received 0.38% interaction
• “Comment” calls to action received 0.14% interaction
• No calls to action received 0.11% interaction

So just by using a ‘better’ word in the call to action more than doubled your interaction rate.

It ain’t “Rocket Science” but it is good to know what works and what doesn’t.

For me I am going to ask people more often to “like” me, are you?

More Reading

• How To Take Your Company Facebook Page From Zero To 40,000 Fans
• 50 Fascinating Facebook facts and Figures
• The 10 Best Facebook Marketing Campaigns
• How To Advertise On Facebook In Ten Minutes For Less Than $10 A Day In 10 Simple Steps
• 5 Ways To Improve Your Facebook Page Engagement with Fans
• How to Create a 5 Step Facebook Marketing Strategy for Your Blog

Image by Sean MacEntee

Shortly after announcing Google+, Google removed a feature that went almost unnoticed and that was “RealTime” search. This feature provided users with a search capability that included tweets on Twitter that provided breaking news and other links  in real time.

Google’s response via a tweet was

“We’ve temporarily disabled google.com/realtime. We’re exploring how to incorporate Google+ into this functionality, so stay tuned”

Google also said that it hadn’t renewed its agreement with Twitter (which had originally been struck in 2009)  that enabled this feature to be offered. So if you want “real time” search then Twitter is where you will have to take your keywords and phrases for the moment.

The Battle for Social

This small change to Google’s search features reveals an evolution of the web that is an early indicator of the growing battle for social that will over time produce winners and losers but will also create a web that will surprise you with its speed and capabilities. The announcement and launching of Google+ saw Zuckerberg respond with a a Skype feature offering free video calls and promising more to come.

The survival of the social species is a digital battle that will create opportunities and disrupt traditional business models for decades to come.

Social is about Sharing

All marketers know that if you can make something so shareable that it goes viral then you will produce results for brands that will sell products, make people famous and maybe even position your agency as part of marketing folklore.

You only have to look at viral videos such as the Old Spice YouTube videos to see the results of that.

Marketers also know that sharing by peers and friends creates more traffic and trust than brand advertising so motivating sharing is the holy grail of social marketing

Where is all the Sharing Happening?

Google proudly announced 2 weeks after the Google+ launch that it was sharing one billion  items per day. Mark Zuckerberg revealed at a recent announcement that on Facebook

• Users are sharing 4 billion items on the Facebook social network everyday
• This is double what it was a year ago
• This trend will continue and predicts that it will double again in 12 months
• The new apps they are developing will make sharing easier

Where does Twitter Fit in this Sharing Social Web?

Twitter revealed (via a tweet of course) that it is sharing 350 billion tweets a day that makes the Google+ announcement seem rather dismal at only 1 billion.

The amount of sharing and traffic that Twitter drives is not always obvious from your referral traffic when you check your Google Analytics or WordPress stats. In fact there are now 1 million registered Twitter apps that are sharing every day

Twitter Drives 4 times as Much Traffic as you Think

According to data collected from Awe.sm over the last 6 months the referral traffic you see on your website or blog is less than 25% of the traffic actually driven by Twitter.

This is what the data revealed.

• Only 24.4% of clicks on links shared on Twitter had twitter.com in the referrer
• 62.6% of clicks on links shared on Twitter had no referrer information at all (i.e. they would show up as ‘Direct Traffic’ in Google Analytics)
• 13.0% of clicks on links shared on Twitter had another site as the referrer (e.g. Facebook.com, Linkedin.com).

So Google+ has the headlines and the the hype and Facebook has 750 million users but don’t forget Twitter in your marketing, it still is a sharing power house that keeps on giving.

How do your find Twitter for driving traffic to your blog, website or other online properties?

More Reading

• How to Increase your Google+ Followers
• Google+ Sets New Growth Records
• 50 Fascinating Facebook facts and Figures
• The 10 Best Facebook Campaigns
• How to Create a Twitter Marketing Strategy that Rocks
• How To Write A Mind Blowing Headline For Twitter So People Will Read Your Blog

Image by C!…

The growth of Google+ has had statisticians, programmers and apps developers in a spin over the last couple weeks as everyone scrambles to measure and monitor the Google+ second generation social network.

The irony is that Twitter and Facebook are driving a lot of the buzz and growth as the conversations circle the globe. The many to many viral capacity of the social web has driven traffic to social network and social media sites including blogs and portals where comments and shares continue to spread the Google+ story.

Discussions have even emerged about whether Google+ will make life difficult not only for Facebook but also the other major platforms such as Twitter and even LinkedIn.

Google+ Dominates Conversations on Twitter

On Twitter the Google+ tweets have been dominating the Twittersphere with the Pew Research Center reporting that on Twitter the new Google+ social network took top billing, with 35% of news links for the week.

According to their monitoring Tweeters were mostly excited about the new Facebook competitor, especially when it came to the issue of privacy.

At number two and three respectively were Global warming at 11%  and “Hackers and al Qaeda at 9% and at fourth was the European Economy at 9%.

Who is the Top Person on Google+

Who would guess that Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook with a current following of 184,842  would easily lead the list!

The founders of Google Larry Page and Sergey Brin are embarrassingly at positions two and three.

The list is dominated by the top bloggers on technology such as Robert Scoble and journalists such as Leo Laporte. Also in the top 10 apart from some Googlers, is Kevin Rose (the founder of Digg) and now a video blogger and Angel investor and Felicia Day, a professional actress well known for acting in web video “The Guild”

The Top 100 People on Google+

So who are some of the other notables on the top 100 list on Google+?

• Peter Cashmore the founder of Mashable
• Chris Brogan the social media blogger and speaker
• Loic Le Meur the founder of the Twitter app Seesmic
• Gary Vaynerchuk the Wine Library TV video blogger guy
• Michael Dell the CEO of Dell
• Seth Godin the marketing blogger and speaker
• Guy Kawasaki the author speaker and entrepreneur

It will  be interesting over time to see how this list changes as as personalities and stars take a presence on Google+

What is surprising is that organisations such as Mashable are still being allowed to participate  despite Google making it public that brands and companies would need to wait until the the Google+ Enterprise profiles were launched. I would suggest that the Mashable Blog and others such as the Ford Motor company are still being permitted to have a profile so as to continue to drive the buzz about Google+

If you want to view the full list you can visit the social statistics site

How to Get the Google+ Statistics Widget

To add to your widget list on your blog you can embed a Google+ Statistics widget in your side bar that keeps a real time update of your followers and friends ( to get the widget visit this page)

I have embedded it my WordPress blog for a bit of fun and it is easy to do just using the “text” widget feature where you can copy the code once you have entered your Google+ 21 digit ID code.

So who in the top 100 list is a surprise to you?

More reading

• Google+ Sets New Growth Records
• How to Increase Your Google+ Followers
• Why Google’s New Second generation Social Network Google+ Will Threaten Facebook
• 50 Amazing Facts and Figures About Google
• Insights into Google’s New Google+ Social Network