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Amazing Social Media Growth Statistics 2011

Ankush Kohli — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 07:52:05 +0000

During weekend, I read this article on jeffbullas and it was brilliant. It’ll tell you why & how social media is the future of Web. Here we go:

There are 2 billion of us who are connected to the internet and have been distracted by social multi-media networking sites that are generating astounding amounts of content with alluring high definition images and videos.

One cannot run away from their charm as they entice you to log in when you are out and about with either with your laptop, iPad or smart phone.

Have a look on stats below at the steep curve of the user growth rate in all age ranges and demographics, and the increasing popularity of social networking into every facet of work, play and life in general. One can’t disagree anymore that social media hasn’t changed forever how we interact and connect online.

One in every nine people on Earth is on Facebook ( This number is calculated by dividing the planets’ now 7 billion people by Facebook’s 750 million users)
People spend 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook
Each Facebook user spends on average 15 hours and 33 minutes a month on the site
More than 250 million people use Facebook through their cellphoness
More than 2.5 million websites have integrated with Facebook
30 billion pieces of content is shared on Facebook each month
300,000 users helped translate Facebook into 70 languages
People on Facebook install 20 million “Apps” every day
YouTube has 490 million unique users who visit every month (as of February 2011)
YouTube generates 92 billion page views per month, excluding those videos viewed on phones and embedded in websites
Users on YouTube spend a total of 2.9 billion hours per month (326,294 years)
Wikipedia hosts 17 million articles
Wikipedia authors total over 91,000 contributors
People upload 3,000 images to Flickr (the photo sharing social media site) every minute
Flickr hosts over 5 billion images
190 million average Tweets per day occur on Twitter (May 2011)
Twitter is handling 1.6 billion queries per day
Twitter is adding nearly 500,000 users a day
Google+ has more than 25 million users
Google+ was the fastest social network to reach 10 million users at 16 days (Twitter took 780 days and Facebook 852 days)

Source: The Growth of Social Media: An Infographic

Are We Over with Facebook?

Ankush Kohli — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 12:05:25 +0000

As soon as a brand name turns out to be famous, we assume it’s there to stay. So for years now, we’ve been Googling to show we are well-informed, Tweeting to remain through what’s occurring around us, and Facebooking for exhibitionism and voyeurism.

Nevertheless, with Facebook bringing new policies, and Google trying to surmount yet another aspect of our lives with Google+, there seems to be a sense of discomfort among netizens. The question rises, ‘How much do these networks know about us, and how will they use that knowledge?‘ is at last becoming significant.

So why should we get worried now? It is a known fact that Google has been privy to the content of supposedly private emails ever since they began to display targeted advertisements on our sidebars.

The adverse effects of Facebook become a topic of debate every time a post has a drastic effect. Earlier, the site was held responsible for ramifications ranging from divorce to denial of medical benefits.

The Facebook debate intensified when it was discovered that Facebook was using cookies to keep track of sites a user visits even after s/he logs out of the network. A huge number of Facebook friends began to post on each other’s walls, cautioning that the network was going to start charging money for its use, except one spammed all of one’s friends with the notice. Others began to sending notes on the dangers of Timeline – such as, that people will be able to see you’ve ‘unfriended’ them. Just in case they didn’t get the hint, now they can rub their faces in it!

It was also assumed that the amount of information and connections one has on Facebook will keep one ‘locked in’ for decades made everyone disgusting at the idea.

Do we recall that Mark Zuckerberg and his buddies didn’t bang on our doors with guns and forced us to sign up. Neither did they make us update their friends with every bit of detail of their lives. Also, they haven’t deprived anybody from the freedom of deleting posts, or even deactivating their accounts.

There appears to be a long-lasting fear that Facebook will expose undisclosed stalkers by allowing stalkees discover the people who are checking out their profiles. Every once in a while, one finds a wall post linking to a page that will allow one to “see who’s viewing [one's] profile!”. Never mind the fact that a user can block people from finding him or her, and filter what people see even if they do find him or her.

Also, users appear annoyed by Facebook’s decision to prioritize updates from people they interact with the most. Why does Facebook get to decide whom we want to see updates from? Thus people would like to be updated on the lives of people they don’t remain in touch with?

As soon as Google made an effort to seize Facebook’s grip on social networking by launching its e Google+, Facebook reacted by replicating its one attractive feature – circles to determine the visibility of each post.

A great deal has been made of Twitter‘s role in coordinating relief efforts after bomb blasts and natural disasters. Many of us are grateful to Orkut, and later Facebook, for enabling us to get in touch with long-lost school friends. Blogs and websites have done for intelligent people what shopping malls and reality shows did for beautiful ones – authors and journalists have got unprecedented publicity through their web forums, and cartoonists, humorists, and even artists have been discovered.

How to Create Fan Pages on Facebook

Ankush Kohli — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 05:14:43 +0000

Some people create Facebook Fan Page for branding, entertainment, representing their business etc. Brands today have the incredible opportunity of interacting with consumers on the social network & marketing plan in the world of Facebook.

It is the public’s wish and feedback that will decide the brand’s fate in the end. Creating relationships with them that are long lasting, personal and relevant.

Let’s Decide a Group or a Fan Page?

Groups are grand for organizing on a personal level and for smaller scale interaction around a cause. Unlike a Group, developers who build applications have some of them available for your Page. This means that you can elect to have an RSS feed box to show your latest blog posts on your Page.

You can develop & grow fan page as per your wish with updates to an unlimited number of people, and keep the focus on the organization without revealing the administrator (unless you want to).

Simple Steps to Create a Fan Page:

Login to you facebook account and if you don’ have account create an account on facebook.
Look a little end of your home page at the right and click the “Create a page” link
It will now ask you demographic information. Choose suitable category for your page, it will show you options like product or service, country wide or worldwide?
Fill this out, and type in desired info, contact details & the name of your Facebook Page. Choose wisely, because you can’t change it.
Proceed as prompted!
To activate your page, you will need to “Publish” it. There will be a link to prompt you to do this.
Next steps will be adding different applications to the page to jazz it up a bit.
To manage it, a link called “Ads and Pages” will always be on the left under application. Follow these same directions to create one of those Facebook social ads. You can use “Share with friends” link also.

Define Your Purpose, here are three questions to consider:

Why Do You Want a Fan Page?
How Will Your Fan Page Differ From Your Website?
What is Your “It” Factor?

Answer these questions it will help you figure out what you bring to the table that’s different from your competitors and uniqueness build on that within your Fan Page strategy.

Once you’re clear on why you want to create a Fan Page, you’re ready to create a plan of action. The Fan Page is part of your business strategy and you should approach it just as you would any other business endeavor. Here are Some Tips:

Open Page – For the Social Media Examiner Fan Page, although we jump in and engage with our fans at all times throughout the day, we’ve designed time chunks for specific content. Facebook has created Facebook pages for commercial companies to be able to carry on conversations with their consumers. Upload a logo or photo with a web address at the bottom. It won’t be clickable, but fans can see where to go if they want to visit your website.
Use FBML to create a landing page – A landing page is just good direct marketing. FBML is Facebook’s version of HTML, which you can use with an application called Static FBML. The idea is that instead of sending people to your wall, as most people do, you send them to a landing page with whatever message you want to provide. This lets you render basic HTML in a box or tab on your page. You won’t find it in your default applications, or you can search in the application directory.
Content Strategy – When you’re initially building your Facebook page, fill it up with interesting and relevant content buy adding dynamic content. Make sure to regularly upload good content to your so that fans will want to see your page on when they open up their Facebook in the morning. Make sure that before you start inviting people to your page, you’ll have good & high quality of content to show them.
Target your audience – Those brands that have understood this point and are reaching out to their target audience within Facebook . Finding the relevant audience within Facebook and let them know that you’re there, that will take an interest in your brand and in your campaigns.
Conversation awake – Always make sure to be attentive, patient and reply as promptly as possible. Get your fans involved in your discussions, ask for their feedback, and show them you care about what they have to say.
Link your page from sources – Put an icon or link in your newsletter, on your website or blog, in your email footer, everywhere. Email and blog it does an email blast driving subscribers to your fan page. This will increase your exposure.
Create a Welcome tab – Welcome new fans to your home on Facebook. Welcoming to all the new comers and a good opportunity to let them know what they can find on your page. Through a Facebook page that says “Howdy”.
Utilize Facebook’s Insights – How many interactions did you have with fans this week? How many people commented on your posts? Where are your fans located? Are they mostly female or male? The answers to these questions will of course enable you to make better use of your page plan of future activities.

You will see the value of planning out your strategy ahead of time. Building a good, solid Facebook page may look easy and it is the best Facebook pages. Let us know your comments & thoughts.

Upcoming Digital Advertising Trends in 2011

Ankush Kohli — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 17:36:28 +0000

As at the end of every year, we and everyone predict about upcoming trends in the next year so we (Online Marketers) do the same thing.

In the latest Mashable post, I’ve seen the “Predictions for Digital Advertising in 2011“. I’m somewhat agree to the upcoming predictions, i.e.:

Local Search Marketing (Specially the Google, Yahoo & Bing Places)
Facebook & Twitter
Celebrities Presence on the Social Web
Mobile Application
& Facebook Like Button.

But what about the videos? We all know the power of videos and they’re the great source of converting these ads into leads / revenues, aren’t they? Anyways, who knows the future. And may be, Google’s upcoming service [Google +1 (Plus One)] will be one of top trend in 2011?

Few Web Updates / Insights – Part 2

Ankush Kohli — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 14:04:00 +0000

Chrome Surpasses Firefox To Become Second Most Popular Web Browser.
“iPhone” topped Yahoo‘s U.S. top searches list for 2011, edging out Casey Anthony, Kim Kardashian and Katy Perry. Previously, it happened in 2002, when PlayStation 2 took the number one spot.
Google+ is rolling out a feature that allows its users to make free conference calls within Hangouts.
According to ComScore, YouTube passed 20 billion Video Views in October 2011.
77% of job seekers are using mobile to look for work in US.
Facebook launched a seamless messaging system. Mark Zuckerberg talked about conversation history and social inbox lists to aid filtering. This new system integrates other messaging systems, sms, facebook, chat in one. An iPhone App is available now.
In addition, you can now get an @facebook.com e-mail address if you want it. Mark Zuckerberg said: “This is not an e-mail killer,”. This will be rolled out over the next couple of months via invite system. For more detail: Facebook Blog.
Yahoo Contributor Network: Yahoo is inviting people to contribute to many of its most popular sites with the launch of the Yahoo! Contributor Network, a new platform for people to publish their creative content on Yahoo!. The Yahoo! Contributor Network is an evolution of the Associated Content platform and will bring contributions from more than 400,000 writers, photographers, and videographers to the Internet’s largest media destinations, including Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, Yahoo! Sports, and even the Yahoo! homepage, among many others.

“The launch of the Yahoo! Contributor Network is a great example of how Yahoo! is executing against its content strategy. In less than six months since the acquisition of Associated Content, we’ve completely retooled the platform in order to bring the people’s voice to Yahoo!,” said Carol Bartz, CEO, Yahoo!.
Ask.com is dismissing search engine and concentrating on question and answer service.
The Internet search engine that media mogul Barry Diller acquired for $1.85 billion to compete with Google Inc., is cutting 130 engineering jobs and conceding much of its search business to competitors. Ask.com, a unit of Diller™ IAC/InterActiveCorp, is dismissing engineers based in Edison, New Jersey, and in Hangzhou, China, and ceasing work on its algorithmic search technology, according to Ask.com President Doug Leeds.

The search unit will consolidate its engineering operations at its headquarters in Oakland, California, and focus its resources on developing its online question-and-answer service. Twenty of the engineers currently working in New Jersey will be asked to relocate to Oakland, the company said. BLeeds said that Google has become too powerful a competitor to justify Ask.com continued pursuit of those search users. More details: Bloomberg
Google entered into fashion based e-commerce Industry with the launch of www.boutiques.com.
Google wrote in their blog: “Today, we’re excited to share with you our first step towards realizing this goal. It’s called Boutiques.com: a personalized shopping experience that lets you find and discover fashion goods, by creating your own curated boutique or through a collection of boutiques curated by taste-makers—celebrities, stylists, designers and fashion bloggers. Boutiques uses computer vision and machine learning technology to visually analyze your taste and match it to items you would like.” See here: Google Blog
Google Hotpot: Hotpot is an online, friends-based recommendation engine that takes scores you give places using Google Maps and uses that information to improve your own place search results and those of your friends.

Will post a detailed write-up on Google Hotpot as it’ll be an upcoming trend for search so be ready for it.

Google & Facebook Shorten URL Service

Ankush Kohli — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 06:07:49 +0000

It’s Shorten URL’s season. First Facebook and then Google launched their own URL shorten service. Facebook shorten URL is fb.me and Google is Goo.gl.

Facebook’s fb.me service will allow you to shorten any link on the site – even if you just want to trim down the path to a specific profile page (http://fb.me/ankush.kohli). No mention of whether or not they plan on providing an API for third-party developers to integrate the service.

Google announce this news through Official blog post says their service is not a standalone offering – at least for now. As this is not new so they’re giving rights to use this service only through Google Toolbar or Feedburner. You can’t use it to shorten links directly.

You can also setup your own URL Redirection service with Google Short Links. Check out the Labnol post for setting up your service.

Expecting huge comments. Questions… Query… Feedback..

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