Last week was a major week for the social network Facebook.  Not only did the social network celebrate it’s 6th year birthday, but also officially announced there are more than 400 million users. 

That means in just over two months, the company has gained more than 50 million users.  It took more than 4 years to get 100 million users, and since then Facebook’s population has been increasing and the speed that it’s growing is increasing as well.  (more…)

This report actually surprises me a bit.  Pingdom, a web monitoring site, has announced that Facebook is the “most engaging social network.”

“Figuring out how engaging a site is can be tricky,” said Pindgom’s blog post.  “We could look at the number of page views per visit, but that number alone doesn’t really tell us much. We also need to take into consideration how often visitors come back to a site. After all, if we return frequently to a site and also view many pages when we do, it’s likely that find the site engaging.” (more…)

When there seems to be some type of major catastrophe anywhere in the world, it seems like everything else just stops and everyone wants to help.  Yesterday’s 7.0 magnitude earthquake in Haiti is just the latest example.

And many people are finding that social media sites are the best way to get involved.  With the use of social media, the citizens of Haiti can tell the story, if they are actually able to get an internet connection.  Many have however.  Jonathan A. Lusma, a victim of the Haiti earthquake, posted the picture to the left on CNN’s citizen journalism site, iReport.  Katie Hawkins-Gaar, a CNN iReport producer, talked to Lusma and said that he, “shot these photos on the morning of January 13, the day after the earthquake struck. Because of the multiple aftershocks, he said many people spent the night outside of their homes.”  Lusma’s photo’s are just one of many that are being used in CNN’s continuing coverage of the Haiti earthquake.  (more…)

Twitter has by far become a great marketing and advertising tool for businesses around the world. By offering exclusive deals, or being able to help solve an issue nearly immediately, the use of the social network has been a success, but it is for everyone? Do you need Twitter to keep your business afloat it’s today’s technology friendly and social networking world?

Matt Bailey from SiteLogic told WebProNews reporter Abby Johnson, “No.” And while many have has success with Twitter, Bailey says that “you need to have a consistent marketing strategy of how to use that social media to your benefit.” (more…)

10 years ago at this moment, the world was relieved that nothing that they had feared about, regarding Y2K actually happened.  People were now placing their money back into the bank, while others had an endless supply of food they had stocked up on just in case.  It’s crazy to think that if someone would have said “Facebook”, “YouTube”, “Digg”, or just the words “social media,” we most likely would have given them a funny and strange look. 

It was in 2004 when social media was created.  Linkdin & MySpace took to the web and since then there has been explosion of “social media” & “social networking” sites.  When I graduated high school in 2005, if had ever wanted to share a video with the class for a certain project, I’d have to visit the library, maybe a video store, and rent the video, while worrying about some return date.  Today, my brother who is in his sophomore year of high school is able to use YouTube to share a video with just the click of a mouse.  Our world has advanced so much in the past decade, and social media has played a significant role! (more…)

Online videos have become part of our everyday culture.  Within the past two weeks, the latest viral video, which features a 5 year old Japanese boy, playing the ukulele while attempting to sing Jason Mraz’s “I’m Yours”, has had more than 9 million views.  While we will never get tired of watching videos like that, watching live events on our computer’s is becoming increasingly popular. 

Over 10 million people tuned in to watch U2′s live YouTube concert in October, the first ever concert to be broadcast live on video site.  President Obama’s inauguration in January was one of the largest live online viewing events in history.  According to NewTeeVee,  69.8 million people watched the President’s inauguration streamed live online, while only 37.8 million watched on television.  (more…)

There is always that age old question, why do people watch the Super Bowl?  Many watch for the game itself, while others just tune in for the half time show.  And others tune in just for the commercials.  Commerial airtime during the Super Bowl is always   the most expensive time for advertisers to advertise since it is the most viewed event on television.  One commercial you don’t see in the next Super Bowl, Pepsi. 

The company has announced they will not be making a commercial for the 2010 Super Bowl, instead they will focus on a $20 million social media advertising campaign.  ABC News reports that the company will launch the Pepsi Refresh Project on January 13, where online users can submit ideas to help ‘refresh their communities to make a better world.’ (more…)

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…)

The Internet and social media has started a new boom of celebrities.  It used to be that if you wanted to act or sing, you had to go to audition after audition.  If that didn’t work, it was your connections through the industry that got you in.  Today, you don’t even have to leave your home to get fame.  We’ve seen it over and over again.  Both Sean Kingston & Lily Allen gained their fame through posting their music on MySpace.  YouTube has also been the birth of celebrities.  We’ve seen the success of Fred, who just wrapped up filming his first motion picture over the weekend, while bloggers like iJustine continue to have millions of followers.

As of early this morning, thanks to the power of YouTube there is a new celebrity in town.  His name is Fede Alvarez and you likely won’t see his face everywhere.  Alvarez, who is from Uraguay, likes to make videos behind the scenes.  Just last month, Alvarez posted a 4 minute movie, which he had shot on a $300 budget.  Less than 4 days after publishing the video online, Alvarez says he started getting offers from Hollywood to film and direct a similar sci-fi thriller. (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…)