We Love Our Facebook
OnlineSchools.org released a great infographic this week, detailing the ways that people use (or sometimes over-use?) Facebook.
It’s interesting to note, but not too surprising, just how far Facebook’s reach extends: 1 in every 13 people on Earth are active on Facebook.
The one statistic to which I turn a crooked eyebrow is that “57% of people talk to people more online than they do in real life.” Saying “in real life” when meaning “offline” is a popular turn of phrase, but a misguided one. Online communication and activity is just as “real” and can be equally as meaningful as what we do offline. I’d also be interested to see how this factor was measured – is real life just face to face? Where do phone conversations fall?
Nonetheless, there’s no denying the remarkable impact and reach of this platform. Do the statistics outlined here indicate “obsession?” Or just that people like to communicate with one another, and this is the popular tool du jour?
Social Media Trends for 2011
The folks over at Focus Research have published their 2011 Trends Report on Social Media Marketing. This is a targeted, concise guide to what experts like Jay Baer, Stephanie Marx, and our own Maggie Fox predict for the year ahead. Be sure to check it out!
Surprise! Your Airline Wants to Do Something Nice For You!
This week, four members of the SMG staff got stranded in various airports around the U.S., thanks to the wintry weather, myself included. As we can attest first-hand, waiting for a flight can be a stressful, long and incredibly boring process. KLM Royal Dutch Airlines wanted to make it a little more fun for a few of its passengers. Using their checkins on FourSquare and mentions on Twitter, KLM identified a few select passengers to receive small gifts, personalized to them (based on information available in their public profiles). Check out the results!
Social Media Monitoring Platforms – How to Choose?
There are a lot of social media monitoring platforms to pick from out there, and it can be hard to cut through the clutter and pick one that’s right for you and your business. This week, J.D. Lascia and Kim Bale at Socialmedia.biz put out a great resource to help you compare and contrast all the different choices, including tools like Radian6 and Sysomos.
Cat Face – He’s Got a Big Cat Face
And finally, the video we can’t get out of our heads this week: Cat Face.
In terrible news for my productivity both at work and at home, it seems that there are 23 more Cat Face videos. I will be watching them all.
I’m going to go so far as to turn a crooked eyebrow at that stat regarding the increase in “liking” drugs (or liking “drugs,” if you prefer), too.
A 1131.9% increase makes me expect to see people shooting up on the quad at my local university, but I’ve only seen a few cigarette smokers, so I took a look at how many people actually liked “drugs” (or “liked” drugs) and there is no massive page for the topic. There are several, but the biggest I found had 1,917 fans. Granted, this page seems to have been created in April, which makes me suspect that Facebook occasionally deletes these pages, but it still makes me really curious about the methodology they used to find that 1131.9% increase.
Great point, Daniel. I would be interested to see how these figures were gathered. Might not be as visually interesting as the infographic, but it would provide us with some very important information/context.
Connie, if my experience is any indication, Cat Face’s power of replay suggestion is very, very strong. 🙂
Did you notice the subliminal “play again” at the end of Cat Face? I wonder how strong that power of suggestion is?
I quite enjoyed the KLM story–thank you for pointing it out!
Cheers,
Connie