As I predicted earlier this month, everyone is pumping out data from the what happened this year.  Last week, I shared with you some of Twitter’s most tweeted words.  Now this week, Facebook has decided to share some of the most talked about topics through status updates. 

“Status updates on Facebook help people understand their friends and the people around them–how they’re feeling, what they’re doing and what they’re thinking,” says Facebook’s Lars Backstrom in a Facebook statement. ”In the United States alone, people on Facebook are sharing hundreds of millions of words every day, thousands per second, in status updates. When taken as a whole, these words offer a unique barometer into the issues, world events and thoughts that are connecting people.” (more…)

This has been quite the year for Twitter.  Becoming the most popular word of the year, according to the Global Language Monitor, and even a source for breaking news, Twitter is just getting started.  

It’s hard to imagine Twitter without a checking out the current trending topics, but the feature was just released in April along with the Twitter search tool, allowing you to type a certain word or phrase and tweets with those keywords will appear.  Using the trending topics has become a great way to stay up-to-date in pop culture, and news headlines from around the world.  In fact, many Twitter users found out that Michael Jackson had died about 45 minutes before those watching the developments on television.  Twitter was also great to watch during the American Idol finale, as it was the first time American Idol winner, Kris Allen, took the top spot beating out Adam Lambert, who was the number one trending topic every week until that night.  As we near 2010, Twitter has decided to take a look at some of the most interesting trending topics of the year.  (more…)

Facebook has always been on top, when it comes to user privacy and keeping their information secure.  On Monday, Facebook announced they were in the process of forming the Global Advisory Board.  The group consists of five organizations including Common Sense Media, ConnectSafely, WiredSafety, Childnet International and The Family Online Safety Institute.

Facebook plans on regularly meeting with the group to get up to date information on security issues, to help protect user information. (more…)

Just the other week, we told that if Facebook were a nation, it’s population would be much larger than the United States.  While that remains true, Facebook’s population seems to be exploding.  Late last night, Facebook CEO & Founder Mark Zuckerberg had sent out an open letter to all of it’s users.  While we reported less than a month ago, that Facebook had 325 million users, Zuckerberg officially announced the site has more than 350 million users.  That is a tremendous increase just within the past month alone. 

Facebook has seen it’s number’s grow drastically this year, more than doubling in population.  Taking a look back, in August of 2008, the popular social networking site had just 100 million users.  It then took nearly 5 months for Facebook to gain 50 million users.  Since then, the site has grown on average 50 million users every 3-4 months.  This year alone, Facebook has gained 200 million users, and there are no signs of slowing down. (more…)

December 1 marks World AIDS Day, a one-day campaign to bring awareness to the AIDS epidemic in Africa.  Known as (RED), Nike, along with Internet powerhouses Facebook, Twitter & Google are all trying to bring awareness to the campaign which was started by Bono & Bobby Shriver in 2006. 

Facebook has an entire (RED) fan page, which includes a video explaining more about the campaign.  One of the neatest features you can do through the site is make a contribution.  It’s not just a donation though, it’s an entire store full of items, ranging from Starbucks gift cards, t-shirts, and even a red Dell laptop.  100% of the proceeds go towards the campaign.  Just by shopping, you could help someone with HIV/AIDS in Africa. (more…)

Results are already pouring in from yesterday’s Cyber Monday sales.  While sales were expected to fall compared to last year, they actually grew 13.7%, a significant increase considering the current economy. 

The report comes from Coremetrics Inc, a web analyst company based out of California.  The report also indicated that people spent more money for online sales Monday, compared to Black Friday. (more…)

It’s hard to believe that today we entered the last month of the year.  This is the time of year where it seems Barbara Walters reviews just about anything and everything from the year.  From news events to the people that made headlines, and I’m sure In the weeks ahead, we will be seeing an abundance of reports and reviews from the past year.  We’ve already started with them.  Just last week, CNN showcased their Heroes of the Year show, while NBC aired ‘People of the Year.’

While the year were filled with high and lows, both Google & Yahoo have released the top search terms for 2009.  (more…)

Every year, it seems many of us wait for the list to see which companies will make it on to the Fortune 500.  Well now, a few of those companies have joined a new list.  The Facebook 50.  The new group was created by The Big Money, an online magazine focusing on the important aspects of economics and money.  The list covers to top ranking companies who are using Facebook to the best of their advantage.

Many have questioned The Big Money, because besides Facebook, there are plenty of other social media platforms companies are using, Twitter for example.  However the website explains, ”social media is highly fickle; there is some reason to think that as soon as a site becomes an effective platform for corporate promotion, its irrelevance is imminent. That could still happen to Facebook, and in the last several months Twitter has gained a lot of momentum and millions of users. For now, however, Facebook still offers several advantages over its rivals: size, return usage, and the depth and variety of what companies can do.” (more…)

Let the chaos begin, the holiday shopping season has officially arrived.  While the world is an economic battle, another battle is brewing between many online retailers, most specifically between Amazon & Walmart.  Last Friday, millions of people started their holiday shopping, lining up to get their hands on some of the best deals around.  It turns out though that many skipped the lines and did their shopping exclusively online.

Data from Experian Hitwise shows that Walmart.com took the top spot for sales on Thanksgiving Day, while Amazon.com had the biggest revenue for Black Friday.  Unfortunately, Experian Hitwise said that among the top 500 online retail stores, the number of U.S. visits were down 15% on Thanksgiving Day compared to  the same day last year.  Online traffic on Black Friday was also down nearly 4% compared to 2008.  (more…)

Blogging on your company website could help you bring in more traffic. At least that’s what HubSpot is saying after a recent survey. The company sampled 1,531 HubSpot customers, most of which were small- to mid-sized businesses.  Roughly 52 percent, or 795 businesses, had blogs on their sites, while the remaining 736 did not. 

The study shows that companies with blogs received 55 percent more traffic than with those without. If you are wondering why it is so important to have more visitors to your site, HubSpot says it’s “because more visitors mean more people to convert to leads and sales.” (more…)