Social media is online content created by people using highly accessible and scalable publishing technologies. At its most basic sense, social media is a shift in how people discover, read and share news, information and content. It's a fusion of sociology and technology, transforming monologues (one too many) into dialogues (many to many) and is the democratization of information, transforming people from content readers into publishers. Social media has become extremely popular because it allows people to connect in the online world to form relationships for personal, political and business use. Businesses also refer to social media as user-generated content (UGC) or consumer-generated media (CGM).

Social media are distinct from industrial media, such as newspapers, television, and film. While social media are relatively inexpensive and accessible tools that enable anyone (even private individuals) to publish or access information, industrial media generally require significant resources to publish information. Examples of industrial media issues include a printing press or a government-granted spectrum license.

"Industrial media" are commonly referred to as "traditional", "broadcast" or "mass" media.

One characteristic shared by both social media and industrial media is the capability to reach small or large audiences; for example, either a blog post or a television show may reach zero people or millions of people.

The properties that help describe the differences between social media and industrial media depend on the study. Some of these properties are:

1. Reach - both industrial and social media technologies provide scale and enable anyone to reach a global audience.

2. Accessibility - the means of production for industrial media are typically owned privately or by government; social media tools are generally available to anyone at little or no cost.

3. Usability - industrial media production typically requires specialized skills and training. Most social media does not, or in some cases reinvents skills, so anyone can operate the means of production.

4. Recency - the time lag between communications produced by industrial media can be long (days, weeks, or even months) compared to social media (which can be capable of virtually instantaneous responses; only the participants determine any delay in response). As industrial media is currently adopting social media tools, this feature may well not be distinctive anymore in some time.

5. Permanence - industrial media once created cannot be altered (once a magazine article is printed and distributed changes cannot be made to that same article) whereas social media can be altered almost instantaneously by comments or editing.

Community media is an interesting hybrid. Though community-owned, some community radios, TV and newspapers are run by professionals and some by amateurs. They use both social and industrial media frameworks.

Next week I would like to talk about Social Equity in collaboration and social networking

Chat soon

SWN

Threats/Risks

There is a requirement to recognise factors that potentially impose a threat or risk during the trial and implementation of a blog/wiki. The most apparent risk surrounds key business issues.

The following areas highlight issues surrounding the business, changes in technology, internal capability, skill sets and changes in organisational structures:

Recognition of key business issues:
• Human resource requirements
• Training requirement encouraging knowledge exchange and collaboration across organisation silos
• Development and implementation of an innovative Information & Communications Technology (ICT) change management program that supports ongoing, sustainable adoption and integration of new technologies and processes
• Requirement for the development of an organisation-wide Mandate for Collaboration

Changes in technology:
• Not significant. There is minimal technology change involved for a wiki and blog, with exception to additional capabilities, error fixes etc.
• Relative differences in speed of access to the information which is directly related to the technological challenges and contingencies already in place for the business.

Internal capabilities:
• Information cohesion. This includes how information is used, it is exchanged, its interpretation, feedback (lags), and degree of integration required into other platforms
• Unevenly distributed information. Failure to collaborate with all members within groups. Surrounding this includes possible misunderstandings, offensive behaviour and harassment, formation of online impressions with no supportive direct communicative feedback generally used in conventional face to face or verbal contact communication
• Differences in salience of information. Missing body language clues and with an assumption of knowledge and expertise

Skillsets:
Training of future collaborators on tool implemented
• Ongoing training and coaching on benefits associated to use of blog/wiki
• Provision of continuous guidance for all collaborators in new method of work approach

Workplace documents that need to be created:

• Change management plan
• Training Plan
• Rules of Use of Computing & Communications Facilities
• Copyright Policy
• Collaboration Policy

To overcome the barrier of communication i would really suggest implementing some kind of instant messenger,similair to windows - so people know when others are there, rather than waiting for a response and over analysing in the collaborative workplace!!

Have you implemented a strategy in your workplace? How did you measure it? I have come up with measuring its success through participation levels, how much content is used and uploaded, feedback from its users and decisions that are based off collaborative workspaces...

Sources of information

http://lgwebnetwork.org/

www.une.edu.au/policies

http://www.futuremelbourne.com.au/wiki/view/FMPlan

http://switchedonmedia.com.au/2009/social-media/australian-social-media-statistics-2-million-more/

Motivational tweeters are in the twit space giving value to their followers… but that plan can backfire if you’re not careful.

The problem motivational Tweeters face is coming off as fake, preachy, saccharin, syrupy, or just plain one-dimensional.

When you communicate that you’re a REAL person, that’s when you start making connections that create incredible impact on Twitter and beyond.

Havent got a twitter account yet? www.twitter.com - sign up its quick and easy!


5 Tips for Motivational Tweeting

1. Make sure your Tweets are not ALL motivational quotes. First it appears as if you are not really on Twitter or you are faking it somehow. Do mix it up with real time replies.

2. Be creative and show you are personable! (a joke, a smile, or some wit) can be just as motivating as a platitude on goal setting/achieving. Be creative in how you inspire others.

3. You can’t FORCE everyone to be happy. I’ve actually witnessed “positive” people berate others for Tweeting about life’s ups and down. Instead of forcing someone into happiness, how about brightening up their day through other means? That human connection can be way more powerful than another Tony Robbins quote!

4. Recognition is motivating too! Retweet other tweets you have found to be of interest – pushing it out and pulling you back in

5. Lead by example. There are some people I see on Twitter who have such great dispositions, I can’t help but feel good reading their Tweets. They’re not one-dimensional computer bits either. Just real people appreciating the present moment that Twitter has us focused on, sharing that present moment with the rest of us.
What are your tips for being a force of positivity on the web? (Think outside of the motivational quote box.)

If you are a motivational Tweeter, how do you mix it up so you don’t sound like a trip down the greeting card aisle?

Tweet with us - search for sociallywired!

Twitter Support :: What is retweet? (RT)

Twitter Support :: What is retweet? (RT)

Pump it up with your profile pictures – best practise dimension speak

Here are a few basics:

Facebook Picture (Profile or Page)

Profile Picture: 200 pixels wide (100 dpi).
Height can vary substantially. Facebook will convert to a JPG and will shrink images wider than 200 pixels so your page looks best if you save as a JPEG and have an image exactly 200 pixels wide. Since the image spans two colour fields trying to match the background is pointless – in fact, it looks better if you use a third colour as the background, to add some contrast (the blue is #EDEFF4 and the white is standard #FFFFFF).

(Another good idea is to put a 1 pixel border around your photo using colour #D8DFEA. This matches the menu border colour – have a look at the Avid Reader page for an example.)

Facebook Thumbnail
You cannot upload a separate thumbnail image for Facebook, you must zoom into a 110×200 pixel area of your picture that looks good. Think about this when choosing your picture image.

Twitter Picture

Twitter picture: 73×73.
People are able to view a larger image by clicking on your face (or logo)- you may want to do a larger image – still keep dimensions around a variation of 73×73 (i.e. 146×146 or 219×219). Twitter accepts and does not convert a PNG, so use a PNG.

Twitter Background
Because the Twitter website is not fixed in position background image option on Twitter is a design nightmare. Avoid trying to make things line up perfectly on the right side of your profile – rather, put anything important on the left side or have a subtle tiled image. Important: make sure background image colour is the exact match of an HTML colour, and define the rest of the background with that HTML colour. If you do not apply this step the image will look appear as an invisible box.

YouTube Account Image

YouTube account image: 88×88 pixels
Scaling throughout the site at 60×60 (Make sure your image looks good at both) and upload in JPEG format (other formats are just converted to JPEG).

YouTube Channel Background
YouTube backgrounds that are not tiled are centred (and, thus, look ridiculous behind your channel info). If you do a background at all (a solid colour is good), make it something subtle that you can tile nicely. (Note: YouTube is rolling out new channel designs, so stay tuned)

LinkedIn

Profile: 80×80 pixel JPEG works best for the profile image
Company Page: 100×35 pixel JPEG (Other image formats are converted to JPEG automatically even if they are the correct dimensions.)

Flickr

Buddy icon: 48×48 pixel JPEG
Group icon: 48x48 pixel JPEG

Yes, you are able to measure the success of your social media. It has been said that it is not measureable, but there are some ways you can cross reference to validate the success of your social media campaign. All these measures may or may not be suitable to every social media campaign.

A few include:
Number of fans
Number of friends
Number of followers
Rate at which you get fans, friends and followers
Mainstream media mentions
Asset popularity (video/image views)
Like/Dislike
Embeds/Installs
Uploads
Downloads
Ration of embeds or favourting to views

Ratings
Social bookmarking
Subscriptions (RSS, Podcasts, Video Series)
Effective Click Per Minute
Page views

Increase in search due to social activity
Change in search engine rankings for the site linked through social media

Influence of consumers reached
Influence of publishers reached (Eg Blogs)
Influence of brands participating in social channels
Demographics of target audience engaged with social channels
Contest entries
Wiki Contributors

Customers assisted
Impact on online sales
Impact on offline sales
Discount redemption rate
Costs saved from not spending on traditional research
Volume of customers feedback generated

Savings generated by enabling customers to connect with eachother
Products sampled
Leads generated
Visits to store locator pages
Conversion change due to user ratings, reviews
Change in market share

Demographics of audience reached through social media
Social media habits/interests of target audience
Geography of participating consumers
Sentiment by volume of posts
Sentiment by volume of impressions
Languages spoken by participating consumers

Clicks
Percentage of traffic generated from earned media
Number of interactions
View-throughs
Polls taken/votes received
Brand association
Tags added
Responses to socially posted events
Attendance generated at in-person events
Employees reached (internal programs)
Job applications received

If you would like any additional information on the above mentioned measures of success, please contact us via reply post or admin@sociallywirednow.com

Good luck in the journey of social media marketing!!!

What is a blog?
A blog is a website in which items are posted on a regular basis and displayed in reverse chronological order. The term blog is a shortened form of weblog or web log.
Authoring a blog, maintaining a blog or adding an article to an existing blog is called “blogging”. Individual articles on a blog are called “blog posts,” “posts” or “entries”.
A person who posts these entries is called a “blogger”. A blog comprises text, hypertext, images, and links (to other web pages and to video, audio and other files).
Blogs use a conversational style of documentation. Often blogs focus on a particular “area of interest”, such as Washington, D.C.’s political goings-on. Some blogs discuss personal experiences.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog

Effective Blog Tips
The user experience of a blog is determined by two factors – author activity and reader activity. Ultimately the goal of a blog is to increase the activity and create discussions; provoke thought – create a knowledge base.
The below points highlight areas that can be focused upon in order to achieve a successful blog. .

Accessibility
Give the readers an ability to receive posts via email – you cannot assume that users understand RSS feeds.

Controversy!
Most successful blogs create conversations on the web about topics that have yet to be discussed in detail; topics where people have definitive opinions. Think about intense discussions in a physical sense – and relate it to an online environment. Same principal. Topics that are controversial are great for blogs as they start conversation.
Why would someone want to get involved in an outdated topic that has been solved, proven, or talked about from all angles?

Voice
You as a blogger are an author. People read specific books because of writing style, opinion, (subject) and personality – the same principle applies to a blog. Test out your writing styles to match your readers.
Which one works best? The one where you get replies!

Become a Subject Matter Expert (SME)
Do not be scared to discuss on other blogs in the same topic. Others will see your posts, and consequently want to know your back ground and see how much you really do know!
If someone goes to a blog with zero comments for every post, sometimes that can give the impression that no-one reads it.

Link Link Link
A smart idea would be to link various viewpoints – which will keep readers coming back for more conversation. This will also help in getting people linking back to you.

Writing Style
Look at the direction of the way your posts are written. Do you want to end your blog post with an open question? Or a closed question?
Having a closed question really ends any conversation. Think about this. If you were talking to someone and said:
“Would you be interested in going to Hawaii?”
Reply: “Yes”
OR
“Why would you want to go to Hawaii?”
Reply 1: “Because of the nice beaches, the surf, the people, the history of Pearl harbour”
Reply 2 “Why is Pearl Harbour so talked about still?”
Reply 3 “Pear Harbour is part of the world history….etc”
This conversation could go on because it is emotion based and gets people thinking and wanting to voice an opinion. Rather than blogging about would I yes/no be interested in going to Hawaii.

Another way is to research and learn from other SUCCESSFUL bloggers.

Another social media web site that is available is Ning. ANY person is able to creat a network based around their own interests and passions. Currently there are 1.6 million networks that are available - with 36 million registered users!!

Interestingly, millions of new users are coming to Ning to both explore AND express their interests, revive old interests and discover new passions. Another advantage to this tool is the social collaboration - by ths i mean building friendships online with others having a shared pursuit.

Ning is based in Palo Alto in California, founded in October 2004 by Gina Bianchini and Marc Andreessen.

Visit Ning now!

WARNING!! Fake Facebook Password Email!

Fake Facebook e-mail contains Trojan | Webware - CNET

Microsoft, Google integrating Twitter

Twitter... it Can Improve your rankings...Twitter is more instant than email or web releases!

Did you Know?
There are now 350,000 publishers from the White House to CNN to John Cleese pumping out almost 600,000 feeds and generating around 5,500,000 clicks to your sites every day.

Google Analytics Integration
Twitterfeed now adds special 'UTM' tags to each post that it publishes. Google Analytics can read these tags and integrate the information into its reporting. You'll be able to understand how people clicking on your posts from Facebook differ from those clicking from Twitter and track the complete path of their visit to your site.

Check out Twitterfeed for your social networking www.twitterfeed.com

Google wave - the future of collaboration?


Can Google Wave Change the Future of Content Management?

Having my own google wave account, I am setting aside some time to share information with others that have an account. I cant wait to see what it offers - and how we are going to use it in the future!

Inside the new Google search - how you need to adapt - Business news, business advice and information for Australian SMEs | SmartCompany: "Internet giant Google has just introduced changes to its searching process that will allow users to refine search terms into narrow categories.

While the new search functions are primarily designed to help users, they will present a number of opportunities and challenges to companies' search engine optimisation and reputation management strategies. The changes also reinforce the idea that on the web, content is king"

An effective online discussion enables the online community to create knowledge in a social environment. A summary of the characteristics of a good online discussion are:

Have an Effective Moderator (person who initiates conversation...ie the blogger?)
Encourage users to introduce themselves
Create a Community of Practice

For a classroom environonment,you can also:
Clearly link criteria for an acceptable response with any grading criteria
Use user-friendly language and humour
Provide helpful directions for technical support
Keep the length of message short (75-150 words, for example)
Develop clear naming conventions (topic or subject lines to help you and students manage the messages-for example, include Message 1, Message 2, etc. in the name)
Lurkers are communicated with directly via personal e-mail

Lagging conversation is re-energised
Supportive e-mail is used by the moderator to supplement online discussion
Activities are designed in order to foster interdependency and weaving of ideas.
Develop directions that will lead users to think about the topics in a way that generates and demonstrates understanding.

Guest discussants are invited
Do provide an alternative space for very informal discussion (Gossip or Coffee Shop)


What do you think?

Google Books settlement to be delayed after US Government objects - Business news, business advice and information for Australian SMEs SmartCompany

How to manage your Twitter and Facebook at the same time - Business news, business advice and information for Australian SMEs | SmartCompany

The wonderful world of the web these days (WEB2.0) enables us to touch base with our customers/potential customers in a soft way, build up trust, get creative with content, have the freedom to add and change information on our websites and blogs plus drive traffic to places we want it most - all for the cost of our own time. Social media is one of the most powerful ways to do this right now.

How do I use social media to shamelessly market my business? - Business news, business advice and information for Australian SMEs SmartCompany

Gen-Y Millionaire - Business news, business advice and information for Australian SMEs SmartCompany

Think you have what it takes to make it!? Just look at who has done what...how they have achieved it!

Twitter policies come to workplace: "Twitter revolutionized small talk. Now it's rankling bigwigs. Although the popular social networking site limits each post to 140 characters, there appears to be no limit to the anxiety it's causing major players in sports, media, business, the courts, the military and other fields. Attempts to regulate Twitter's use at work, at school and on government time are soaring, and examples of Twitter jitters abound. Posts, called tweets, are resulting in fines, lawsuits, scolding and shame."

Facebook to investigate “selling” of friends by uSocial - Business news, business advice and information for Australian SMEs | SmartCompany
Never Sell Your Mates!!! Let this be a lesson!!

No better time for market research - Business news, business advice and information for Australian SMEs SmartCompany

The best way to maximise performance on these resources is to:

• Update regularly with quality content – such as knowledge, news updates, media releases, fun stuff!?/upcoming events and specials.

Create a fan base for the groups. The best way to do this is:

• become a fan of other groups – to increase potential client base world wide/nationwide – I can do this
• let people know you are on there – newsletters, website widgets – ie Become A Fan, Word of Mouth, if you have friends on Facebook- get them to join as you never know who They Know.

Social Media effectiveness relies on others to contribute to the resources. The Social Media Marketing really is word of mouth and it is because of this, that the less spam on the resource the better. We don’t want people to think we are there purely for money!

Another good way to increase fan bases is by being a little crazy – I have heard people having slogans such as “If I get 80000 fans I will do….” Or in a marketing world “I will donate/give away such and such if we get 80000 fans”.

Completely up to you, depending on how conservative you would like to be. I have yet to see if the above slogans work for non celebrity’s…you can only wonder!

We are going to work with Michael Massey @ Atmanjai (Detox, Yoga and Wellness Centre in Phuket) to get 80000 fans - and if we do, we will put money towards a sponsorhip for a child in need.

Here's to the sponsorship of a child in need!!

Exploding iPhones spark French investigation - Business news, business advice and information for Australian SMEs | SmartCompany

Change #1
Facebook buys Friendfeed Friendfeed.com (smaller social networking site founded in 2007 founded by a few ex-Google executives). The site was loved for its simplicity and integration of social media activities. Facebook borrowed heavily from some of their applications - such as the live feed feature. It has now been bought out by Facebook. Friendfeed.com will continue to function for now....

This = facebook will get even bigger. That is why users and business' should maintain three main - Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. The small sites will continue to get swallowed up.

Newer and Innovative Change #2: Facebook Search Expanded
Facebook search will now expand to allow you to search status updates and more - up to 30 days (photos, links, videos and notes being shared by your friends and the Facebook Pages of which you're a fan).
If people have chosen to make their content available to everyone, you also will be able to search for their status updates, links and notes, regardless of whether or not you are friends. Search results will continue to include people's profiles as well as relevant Facebook Pages, groups and applications.
To search for a particular term, just enter your query in the search box in the upper-right corner of any page. Once you're taken to the search results, use the filters on the left-hand side of the page to view only posts by friends or posts by everyone.
If you're searching for a specific person, Page, group or application, you also can filter by those results.
This = be patient if you can't search updates yet. It means you have to be even more careful about what you post as a status update. It also means that you are going to have the ability to reach more people that you realize....the next social media Search Engine....will Google buy Facebook?

Update your status.
Update your status regularly and strategically. Use your status update to remind your network what you do and what you know. Example: “David is writing a LinkedIn best practices piece for his blog.” You can also use your status update to share articles with your network. If you provide interesting links the people in your network will be much more likely to pay attention to your updates, which keeps you top of mind and also positions you as knowledgeable in your area. That trust in your ability will make it much more likely that people will consider you as an expert to whom they can refer their contacts. If you plan on doing this, use a URL shortener like bit.ly to save space in your status updates and to track how many click-throughs a given link garnered.

Learn Advanced Search.
LinkedIn’s Advanced Search is extremely powerful. LinkedIn’s Advanced Search helps you find very targeted audiences. LinkedIn’s Advanced Search is your friend.

Join industry groups.
Search for and join industry-related LinkedIn groups , even if there is no activity within them. The icons for those groups will show up on your profile which tells people at a glance that you are involved in your industry and presumably knowledgeable about it. It also creates a connection between you an anyone else who is a member of that group. If the group is active, join in the conversation where appropriate. This is an opportunity to demonstrate your expertise.

Post news.
Many groups allow you to post links to news articles intended to spark conversation. More often than not, conversations do not arise from these links but that doesn’t mean that no one pays attention to them. Like status updates, this function can be used to position yourself as knowledgeable in your field. But think before you go down this route. Before you post anything, ask yourself if what you’re about to share is truly valuable to the group. If it’s sheer self-promotion don’t do it. Only post content that you sincerely feel will be of value to your fellow group members. I have shared some of my blog posts and, because the pieces were useful to the group members, I got a lot of traffic to my blog because people genuinely wanted to read it. If your article is not going to add value, it’s spam; don’t post it.

Ask and you shall receive.
If you want to make connections with a specific type of person, you can use LinkedIn’s Answer feature to try and attract them by posing a question the LinkedIn audience. Think about the type of person you want to reach and then formulate a question for which you think that person would have an opinion about that they’d like to share. If you’re looking for an open source web developer, for example, you might ask “Which is better, Drupal or Joomla?”

Spread the love.
Answer questions posed by others. This, again, is another aspect of LinkedIn that can be used to demonstrate your competence. Only answer the questions for which you know the answer intimately. If you use this tactic, don’t just do intellectual handstands to show off your knowledge, actually answer the question. Your attitude should be that you want to help the person who posed the question by sharing your expertise. If you are truly helpful to the person, they’ll consider assigning you as the best answer among the group. Your answer but also the fact that it was the best answer will be displayed on your profile.

Install applications.
LinkedIn doesn’t have many apps, but those that they do can be helpful for positioning and to create more contact points.

Free Webinar on social media networking click here to sign up - they are on every Tuesday at around 2pm. Id love to see you there!!

A list of LinkedIn best practices:
1. Find who you know. Start with your existing contacts by letting LinkedIn scan your email address book to find out who you know is on LinkedIn.
2. Personalize your URL. Change your LinkedIn profile URL from the default set of numbers to your name. This helps people find you when they search for your name within LinkedIn as well as in Google and other search engines.
3. Email Marketing Campaign. Include your LinkedIn URL in your email signature.
4. Add a picture to your profile. As I stated above, LinkedIn is about individuals so it looks odd when someone’s LinkedIn profile has a faceless silhouette rather than an actual photograph.
5. Ask to connect. Whenever you have interactions with people, ask them if they’re on LinkedIn and if they’d like to connect. MS Outlook has the ability to integrate LinkedIn which makes it easy to connect once you have a New Contact!
6. The more you give, the more you get. Fill out as much of your profile as you can. The more information you put in, the more connections you’re making and by doing so, you’re creating more opportunities for people to find you.
7. Put yourself in the mind of the user. If they know you or know who you are, people will search LinkedIn by your name in order to find your profile. But if people are looking for expertise, they will likely be using topical searches such as “public relations professional”
8. Use keywords that people will likely be using in their searches. As you put yourself in the mind of the people by whom you want to be found, think about what searches they’d perform on LinkedIn in order to find you. Build up a list of those keywords and search phrases and use them throughout your profile.
9. Don’t hide. All the SEO work will go to waste if you hide your profile. The two things that people do when researching business associates they have not met is Google them and search for their LinkedIn profile. Change the settings on your profile to “Full View” so your profile can be fully indexed by the search engines.
10. Link to your profile. If you have a Web site or a blog or a Twitter account or other social media profiles, link to your LinkedIn profile from them.
11. Link to yourself. LinkedIn lets you link three Web sites on your profile. The drop-down menu offers options such as “My Website” and “My Blog” but you’ll want to choose “Other” so you can use your own text for the link.
12. Recommend. Give and ask for recommendations. But be sincere or it will not sound authentic. When you recommend someone and when someone recommends you, that fact is displayed on your profile for all to see. (Don’t worry, you can control which recommendations appear on your profile). Don’t be afraid to ask people who you think have high regard for you for a recommendation. Recommend those you think are worthy before they ask you to recommend them. They will often return the favor. Recommendations are yet another aspect of LinkedIn that helps to establish trust.
13. Update your status. Update your status regularly and strategically. Use your status update to remind your network what you do and what you know.

There are more best practices...will let you know this week!!

Social media news and business strategies blog | Socialmedia.biz

Shared via AddThis

Twitter really does increase the speed of information sharing. Twitter is instant, more so than the internet..I found an article today about Capitalising on the mistakes of others, Tweeted discounts a success and funnily enough drinking to Twitter.
Swine flu updates are on twitter and are used in Australian hospitals; a prime example that this communication method is instant and obviously works in Government hospitals.
The article discusses ways in which you can market yourself using Twitter - for example: discounting products if you sign up to follow your biz. The more people that do, the higher your word of mouth goes out - which then, increases your advertising at little to No Cost at all. AS Long as you are ethical and maintain a good image and name in the market, this is great. Of course you would not want to have discounting for the entire period - maybe just at launches and special release dates.
http://www.smartcompany.com.au/information-technology/20090804-twitter.html

Tell us how you use twitter...or tweet us on sociallywired

I read (Chronicle Herald Canada)a recent survey comScore revealing that social media are fast becoming a frequent pastime for many consumers.
The last paragraph is the most interesting.
The study revealed that 1.1 billion people went online in May. Three quarters of the web surfers visited social media websites like Facebook.
Canada rounded out the top three in terms of global online presence for the amount of time spent on social media websites. Canadians spent an average of 5.6 hours per month on such sites, having viewed an average 649 pages.
Canadians out surfed their American counterparts, spending nearly two hours more each month at such sites, and averaging more than 150 pages more per person.
Russia topped the list, with 6.6 hours per person per month, averaging 1,307 pages each. Brazil was second with 6.3 hours per person per month, and an average of 1.220 pages. Columbia had the lowest consumption rate for social media, averaging 4.1 hours a month per person online, and 473 pages.
Globally, people averaged 3.7 hours on social media websites monthly, surfing on average 525 pages.
The study also revealed that the number of pages browsed has little to do with the amount of time spent online. Spain and Finland both had higher numbers of page views than Canada did, but their residents spent less time online. Spanish web users logged 5.3 hours monthly, but they visited 968 pages. For Finland, users visited an average of 919 pages monthly, while spending only 4.7 hours online.
Facebook is arguably one of the most popular social media websites. According to Facebook’s own statistics, more than 120 million people around the world log in daily to their Facebook account. Thirty million of those users log in from cellphones and Blackberries, and those who do are 50 per cent more active than those who do not use mobile devices.
These statistics underscore the importance of using social media to communicate with the market, regardless of whether the market is local, regional, national or global.
Social media sites are designed to be electronic networks, linking individuals and other networks, in a dynamic and interactive medium. Users can visit the site as often as they wish. They can engage in on-site discussions, send messages, and invite others to visit or become online friends.
Social media such as Facebook and Myspace, are often updated many times daily. The result is an engaging and highly interactive forum for sharing ideas, concepts, images and videos. Facebook offers the opportunity to create online groups that like-minded individuals can join and can participate in daily.
Facebook statistics indicate that each user has an average of 120 friends who also have Facebook sites of their own. Thirty million Facebook users update their online status at least once a day, and on average, five billion minutes are spent on Facebook worldwide each day.
Social media require different kinds of programming and monitoring than corporate websites do. While corporate websites must be monitored regularly to be sure that information is current and that their designs are appropriate, social media sites must be monitored daily due to their interactivity and dynamic content.
Not all of the information on such websites is positive. While one person might post positive comments about a good or a service, others will be inclined to post negative comments. This ability to express oneself in an open and direct way can create a challenge for firms that do not regularly monitor their social networking sites.
Entrepreneurs who choose to avoid using social media are not necessarily spared negative feedback. The open nature of social networks ensures that free expression is maintained. Freedom of expression means that even entrepreneurs without their own social networking site may be featured in negative online discussion through other sites.
Failure to engage in social media also results in a failure to engage the market. The online market is huge and growing. It is important to consider the Internet to be more than just an advertising medium. The web is a social medium that can be creatively used to link buyers and sellers through more than online sales and auction sites.
The Internet is an opportunity to interact daily with current and potential clients who are seeking information and feedback. It is also an opportunity to build relationships which, unlike face-to-face interactions, have the power to cross borders and oceans.

Have you got an iphone and try to convince others that it is the best phone ever created? Not only can you access fantastic apps, purchase music, videos, search online and Update all of your social media sites...but it is also becoming more secure...they are fixing the security flaw - and will be named the most secure mobile platform available to users.
I recently broke my iphone (well, i dropped it down by the pool), it is being repaired by apple at the moment..i couldnt believe how much I was addicted to checking my emails and updating my 'tweets' and status on my own social media...careless about any of the security flaws...I just wanted to express to everyone i knew where i was and what i was doing...careless...Now I am using my old phone from 5 years ago i had tucked away in my boxes...i have the twitches and feel rather lost and disconnected from technology.. I know other iphone users are much the same...

Check out this article about the secure mobile platform release...
Apple fixes iPhone security flaw
Monday 03 August 2009 10:58 Patrick Stafford

iPhone manufacturer Apple has fixed a security vulnerability in the phone's software that would allow a hacker to take control of the device through a vulnerability in its SMS capabilities.
The company released the "iPhone OS 3.0.1" patch, which iPhone users can download through iTunes, which was highlighted at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas last week.
The two researchers who discovered the flaw, Charlie Miller and Collin Mulliner, gave Apple advanced notice of the flaw before releasing details at the conference so the company could prepare a fix.
The flaw allows a hacker to take complete control of the iPhone via the phone's text messaging features. Miller and Mulliner demonstrated that an attacker could make calls, send text messages and even erase data from a hacked-in phone.
Apple released a statement about the patch, which said that "a memory corruption issue exists in the decoding of SMS messages".
"Receiving a maliciously crafted SMS message may lead to an unexpected service interruption or arbitrary code execution. This update addresses the issue through improved error handling. Credit to Charlie Miller of Independent Security Evaluators, and Collin Mulliner of Technical University Berlin for reporting this issue."
But the problems aren't over for Apple. A poll of 94 security professionals at the Black Hat conference, undertaken by security company nCircle, found that 56% believe the iPhone will be the handset must vulnerable to attacks during 2009.
"Unfortunately, it looks like the security problems with iPhone will continue to grow until Apple makes security a higher priority," nCircle director of information technology , Andrew Storms, said in a statement.
"If there is a silver lining for iPhone users, it's that all of the security research attention it is getting could eventually turn the iPhone into one of the most secure mobile platforms."
Similar vulnerabilities have been found in the Google Android and Microsoft Windows Mobile operating systems. Google has released a fix for the Android vulnerability, while Microsoft currently developing a patch

Are you on twitter yet?? Expect a cosmetic change to its interface!!

The new version places a search box in the middle of the screen, with the words "See what people are saying about..." above it. When a user inputs search criteria, the results are placed on the same page.
Additionally, the site provides a number of "trending topics", giving examples of hot topics that people are searching for on the site. The site also provides a short description of why that particular topic is popular at that time.
Twitter indicates that it will grow its user base rapidly over the next few years, with a goal to reach one billion users by 2014.

Is it time for you to get onto Twitter?

sociallywirednow: Let social media drive traffic to your site - Business - MiamiHerald.com

Someone asked me about search engine optimisation today...and how social media can actually improve rankings. Guess what?? Social Media does increase your search rankings - as long as you are keeping your information up to date through regular status updates, news, events, comments, URL's..it will work.

I read an article from the Miami Herald today which gives us more insight

Let social media drive traffic to your site - Business - MiamiHerald.com