An addition to Addiction List

Everyone is "facebooking", tweeting and myspacing(if there is any word like that), and the list goes on and on. Social Networking seems to have become a normal part of our lives, it is like checking ones mail box for letters, it has become what people can not do without in a week, some statistics says an average american uses social networks at least twice in a week, and this statistics seems to be on the rise, with easy access to social networks through smart phones and other platforms. This has put a lot of people at the risk of been addicted to social networking, not doing it, is like not having your phone with you, one feels like a part of one is taken away. Addiction according to the dictionary.com is defined as the state of being enslaved to a habit or practice or to something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming, as narcotics, to such an extent that its cessation causes severe trauma. Many people may not agree that social networking is an addiction but the simple truth is can you do without IT in a day and feel its alright to do that.

The New Google Buzzzzz.....

If you’re a GMail user you have no doubt come across a brand new section of your email called Buzz. Google Buzz is a social networking and messaging tool from Google, it is designed to integrate into the company's web-based email program,Gmail. Users can share links, photos, videos, status messages and comments organized in "conversations" and visible in the user's inbox. Buzz enables users to choose to share publicly with the world or privately to a group of friends each time they post. Picasa, Flickr, Google Reader, YouTube, Blogger, FriendFeed and Twitter are currently integrated in the Google buzz.

The creation of Buzz was seen by industry analysts as an attempt by Google to compete with social networking websites like Facebook and microblogging services like Twitter. Buzz also includes several interface and interaction elements from other Google products (e.g. Google Reader) such as the ability to "like" a post.

Buzz is already creating a stir. There have been concerns over privacy but all in all, the reaction has been very largely positive. For how to use the Google buzz click here

Couples and Social Networks

Imagine you tracking your spouse using social networks, I found this cartoon interesting showing what may happen when couples rely too much on social networks to make it work, Enjoy :)

Facebook to make $1 Billion this year

The Social Network giant Facebook has released some financial numbers showing that it may eventually meet its revenue target of $1 Billion this year.
The company made an upward revenue of $700 Million last year 2009 and its expected to have an increase of $300 Million this year.
The break down for the last year revenue included brand advertising making up to $225 Million and performance marketing adding $350 Million to the company, the details stated that Microsoft adverts alone brought in $50 Million and this will increase.
The company this year is planning to introduce credit the use of virtual currency to purchase anything from games, applications and so on on facebook, the effect of this will definitely increase the revenue of the ubiquitous social network for the current year and other years to come.The revenue growth of Facebook has usually doubled every following year.

Social Networks becomes the life line in disaster situations

Haiti, Peru, China have had there share of earthquake in this year, many people have lost their life and many have been rescued, relief agents have work tirelessly to get help to distressed people, but one platform that is helping the rescue mission is Social Networks, when telephone lines are damaged and the means of communication is cut off, one platform that seems to be reliable is now social networks, people share from text, video and voice to give a clear picture of the situation and that has helped saved many lives, helped get the word out to the world in minutes about the true situation and helping to save thousands of lives which might have been impossible in the past.

Social Networks and Viral Marketing

Social Networks has been around for a while and this medium has become a very significant way of communication between people, Social networks is rated as next to Television in terms of the number of people that are on the platform, this definitely provides a great platform for marketers to explore and use to reach people and this type of marketing is called Viral Marketing the use of social networking to reach current and potential customers.

Many companies have extended their marketing channels to social networks, creating fan page, creating different groups for people to join, starting marketing campaigns and using the platform to get people to be part of it.

For instance recently the Volkswagen corporation started a marketing campaign called the fun theory, it got people involved in created different innovative ways of making people do hard things and still have fun doing it, like cleaning up your room and still have fun doing it. Social networks was one of the way to get people to join and be aware of the concept the company was trying to introduce. To read more about the fun theory go to http://www.thefuntheory.com/

Google's view on Social Networks

I stumbled on a video on Supernova Conference 2008, the conference explores the transformation of computing, communications, business, and society in the Network Age, will like to share the video with you guys, in this videoGoogle's Joe Kraus talks about the future of the social media. Enjoy it.

Social Networks become Marketing Platform

"What we think in marketing doesn't matter, but what people actually do does matter", this was the statement of David Carlick, managing director of Vantage Point Venture Partners who believes that Social Networks such as MySpace is becoming more fun for people than television thus has become a great advertising platform.

More companies are now moving their advertisement and marketing to Social Networks, because this platform can be used to target the intended audience, marketing can be more focused on Social Networks where there are more than enough people to reach at the same time.

The statistics below shows some of the big companies that have turn to Social Networks for their Online Advertisement. The top advertisers on social networks were AT&T (seriously?), with >2B ad impressions, 30% of its online advertising (seriously?). Other top advertisers included Experian (1.25B impressions, 24% of its online ads), Ask.com (950M impressions, almost 47% of its online ads), Sprint (790M impressions, 26% of its online ads), Pangea Media (572M impressions, almost 90% of its online ads) and Microsoft (564M impressions, only 17% of its online ads).

You can read more here

Privacy Problems on Facebook

The dictionary.reference.com website defines Privacy as the state of being free from intrusion or disturbance in one's private life or affairs: the right to privacy, but with social networks it seems this definition does not stand for what it means, several privacy activists have accused some social networks especially facebook of recklessly exposing users data.

With developers having access to the Facebook API in order to develop applications on the facebook platform, researchers have claimed that Facebook is exposing too much of users data to developers which is infringing on people privacy. Some people have claimed that in using these applications their data is not only what is accessible to developers but their friends data too. Can read more about the privacy problem on Facebook here

This cartoon depict what users experience with using applications on facebook.

Social Network Statistics

The Use of Social Networks such as Facebook, Twitter and My Space has grown tremendously over the last decade, some statistics are staggering...

The statistics several years ago compared to now is quite tremendous, some statistics say that now more than four in five US online adults use social media at least once a month. This growth has been attributed to the Web 2.0 technology that has made information sharing a lot easier.

Some statistics are listed below Gender Statistics, Age Statistics, Demographic Statistics

Additional statistics from Nielsen Online shows that: Social networks and blogs are now the 4th most popular online activity ahead of personal email, Member communities are visited by 67% of the global online population, time spent is growing at 3 times the overall internet rate, accounting for almost 10% of all internet time, you can read more here