BREAKING: Facebook Intentionally Took Site Down
Facebook has issued a statement saying they intentionally took the site down to see how everyone would cope in a non-Facebook world. The results so far aren't looking good.
How are you coping?
*Please note that this is of course a complete lie and I have no idea why Facebook is down. Now, go outside!
Interesting Twitter Facts & Figures
Twitter's growth has always amazed me. It seems like overnight everyone knew what Twitter was and most of them were tweeting. Truth is Twitter has been around since 2006 and didn't really see growth until the South by Southwest festival in 2007 where they won the Web Award. Before that they had only 100 user accounts. After winning the award by that December more than 500,000 Tweets are being posted quarterly.
There are a number of amazing facts like this contained in the infographic below.
Twitters New Embeddable Tweets
Have you tried out Twitters new embeddable tweets yet? I'm not very impressed with it. The system seems like it's a bit buggy and I'm not sure picking up some of the styling from the site it's being embedded on is the best idea. As you can see in my comparison below it doesn't look too great. Have you tried it out yet? How have your experiences been?
Twitters Embeddable Tweet
Why Your Company Should Use Social Media
Statistics like the ones in the video below always amaze me. I've been a proponent for social media since it first hit the web. I've been telling clients for years that they need to get their business on Facebook and Twitter, that they need a blog, and that engaging with customers on these platforms will increase their business.
On of the biggest concerns newcomers to Facebook have is that it's just kids posting photos from parties. My response to them is supported by this video: The fastest growing segment on Facebook is women age 55-65. I knew this was true because both my mother and my grandmother are on Facebook and log on daily. I've gotten wall posts from my grandmother and been tagged in photos by my mother. It's a great way to stay in touch with my family that I don't get to see that often.
For businesses it's really a no brainer as to why they should be on Facebook. With Facebook surpassing Google for weekly traffic in the US, it's now more important to get your ranking on Facebook up than it is on Google. There are over 200,000,000 blogs on the Internet today and 25% of search results for the worlds top 20 largest brands are links to user-generated content. With 78% of consumers trusting peer recommendations why wouldn't you want a solid social media presence?
It's time to stop wasting your money on ads and create a social media presence for your company. Only 14% trust advertisements and only 18% of traditional TV campaigns generate a positive ROI. Over 90% of people - including myself - skip TV ads with TiVo/DVR!
Watch the video below and think about what you need to do to enhance your presence on the web.
My name is James Shiner and I'm a PHP developer, internet marketer and serial entrepreneur who also loves speaking, teaching, writing and consulting. I have a passion for social media and basically anything related to the Internet and technology.
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