60 Minutes

A new report by Sysomos has found that when you send a tweet it will mostly likely be retweeted within the first hour of posting. After that it likely will not be retweeted. Apparently, after an hour it’s old news and you can use it to line the bird cage.

Are you measuring how people are retweeting your own tweets? Do you find that they retweet it within an hour? Are they only retweeting after work hours or on certain days of the week? In the comments section, let us know when people retweet your posts. If you need help seeing when people retweet your posts, check out our past post on tools that can help you post to social media. These tools allow you to see retweets, too.

You've only got 60 minutes - image from Sysomos

Social Media and Privacy v.8/2010

Recently I gave a presentation on privacy and social media for ACHIEVA’s free webinar series. Privacy is a major issue for families and individuals we serve. Posting private information on social media sites takes that to a whole new level.

A copy of the recording should be up shortly but in the mean time here are the slides from my presentation.

93 or 7?

Did you know that 93% of charities have a Facebook page? A new study by the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research also found that 97% of large charities have a Facebook page as of 2009. The study found that charities adopted social media faster and the adoption was more widespread than for-profit use.

Other facts uncovered in the study:

1. 90% of charities had Twitter accounts
2. 65% had blogs
3. 36% had LinkedIn pages
4. 30% had MySpace pages

So are you part of the 93% with a page or 7% without?

Time

A new report from Nielsen finds that social networking is now the #1 thing people do online. Almost one quarter of time spent on the computer is for social networking. That’s a 43% jump in time spent on social networking in just one year.

How much time have you spent on social media yourself? How much time do you spend managing your agency’s social media presence? This should be a wake-up call to make sure you’re connecting with your current and potential constituents who go online for information.

Social Network Sites Dominate Web Visitor Results

According to Google’s ad planner, social network sites now account for more than 50% of all unique website visitors. This list, which is based on April 2010 data, “excludes adult sites, ad networks, domains that don’t have publicly visible content or don’t load properly, and certain Google sites.” The certain Google sites that were excluded were Google.com and Youtube. Orkut is a Google owned site and it made the list. Still, at more than 50% the majority of web visitors visit social network sites.

Of the top 100 websites, 7 are social media sites. In order they are

1. Facebook 35.20% of all visitors (#1 overall)
2. Myspace 4.70% (#26 overall)
3. Orkut 2.90% (#45 overall)
4. LinkedIn 2.50% (#56 overall)
5. Hi5 2.20% (#63 overall)
6. Renren 2.00% (#70 overall)
7. Vkontakte.ru 1.70% (#81 overall)

Sites like Twitter, which ranked #18, were classified as an email and messaging site.

Age of Social Media Users

When speaking about social media, often I am asked ‘aren’t young people the only ones using social media?’

I’ve come across a great blog entry from Pingdom.com that answers this question in great detail for people in the US who use social media. The majoirty of social media users are in the 35-44 age group. However, the answer to the aforementioned question is…it depends on the social media being used.

How do your constituents fit into this chart? Are you reaching the right age group with the social media platforms you are currently using?

Stats on State of the Internet

Here’s a video on the newest stats related to the internet. Are you adding to it these numbers by creating content, creating stick webpages, and encouraging open communication?

Video Fridays #20 – Seth Godin

Seth Godin is considered a marketing guru. We discussed him in a previous post. His book about tribes looks at how the internet has ended mass marketing. He contends that it has empowered people to make big changes. Here’s a video of him describing this in more detail. How has the internet empowered you and the people you serve?

Megaphones

Seth Godin, a marketing guru, wrote a post recently titled “The Problem With Non”. It details the noticeable lack of nonprofit organizations that are in the top 100 list of Twitter users. As nonprofit organizations, we should be at the absolute top of the list. Social media tools, such as Twitter are free resources that allows you to post information, news, comments and links in real time. It’s a free megaphone that has been handed to you! So why are you broadcasting?

Are you using your megaphone?

Here are some key questions to consider when looking at how you use social media -

Why are you using social media like Twitter, Facebook, etc.?
What is the goal of each of your social media tools?
What information is being posted?
How often do you update your posts?
Who is your targeted audience?
Have you engaged the people who are commentators, followers or fans on your social media sites?
Have you seen any outcomes or changes as a result of your social media efforts?

If you have additional questions that should be on this list, please let us know in the comments section.

Video Fridays #11 – Social Media Isn’t a Fad

Erik Qualman, Global Vice President of Online Marketing for EF Education, has written at great lengths and spoken to many groups about socialnomics. He is a leading international expert on social media.

Video Fridays #10 blog post showed a video highlighting some of his ideas. Now here’s a video of him discussing his ideas in person.

Do you feel that Social Media is a fad? Please let us know why or why not in the comments section.