Social Networks Help or Hurt Social Interaction?

Facebook Logo - Large SquareImpact of Social Media on Real Life Social Interaction

The impact of social media on actual live social interaction really cuts both ways. Yes it does open a venue in which people can hide behind their computer, interact through online personalities, and perhaps under-develop their social abilities. It’s so much easier to comment or like someone’s post or post up updates about your own life. But in the same time, it does open a venue in which friends can interact more often which in itself can lead them to hang out more in the real world and keep up with one another when you probably wouldn’t have done so in the real world to begin with. There are many arguments and reports that go both ways, and I am certain it’s not black and white as many arguments on both sides are valid.

Social Mythbusting Report

One such study was released by ExactTarget and CoTweet, which showed the large social networking sites are not having a negative effect on face-to-face relations. Note the claim is face-to-face relation, not necessarily negative effects in social ability or personal development or any other topics that are tempting to drag into the conversation.

The study consisted of studying a series of focus groups of 44 people as well as a survey of 1,506 US citizens. The research showed that among people who report they’re using Facebook more than before, 27% say they hang with friends in person more often as well. 13% say they hang out less. A full 60% said there is no significant impact whatsoever. The trend is even greater amongst Twitter users showing 46% say they hang out with friends more while 7% said less.

Issues with Social Media Report

Of course let’s keep a few things in mind before we just consume anything and everything media tells us. If we didn’t we wouldn’t be Clean Cut Media!

First, the CoTweet is a social media management tool, meaning it benefits from good press for social media. If Facebook came out with a report saying users of Facebook tends to have more friends and happier lives, you would take it with a grain of salt right? Same here. I am not questioning their validity of the data, but when you conduct experience but are hoping for a specific result – it can have an impact on the methods that are used to carry it out.

Secondly, the data was gathered from people who are using Facebook and Twitter more than before. Let’s say you love watching NFL football, and over time you watch it more and more because you are getting more invested in your favorite team. Let’s say a study was conducted to determine if you have become more violent because you watch more NFL. Let’s be honest with ourselves, most likely, we wouldn’t be inclined to agree to that. Why? Because we like the NFL. We want to do more of it. We don’t want something to say what we do is bad for us. This is a huge factor in the discussion over violence with video games. If you like playing violent games, you are less likely to agree violent games make it more likely that in a strenuous situation that you may resort to violence. Seems like the same argument can be made for social media. You love facebook? You’ve been using it more and more? Your mom questions that it’s making you a social fart, that your skin color is getting pale, and you are becoming more distant – you would argue that point. “I am more aware of what my friends are going through.” “This let’s me grow closer to them.” “It gives me stuff to talk about.” “It’s fun.”

What are your thoughts?

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This is obvious an interesting discussion. What are your thoughts on this matter?

  • Does Social Sites like Facebook, help or hurt social interaction?
  • In what ways?
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How is Twitter Doing? What is it For!

How has Twitter Evolved Over the Years?

Twitter is still a hot thing, just not the hottest thing.
Twitter still has major potential and worth a whole lot of money, but it got a lot of work to do and must do it quickly to capitalize on it’s current fame.

A new study from Barracuda Labs studying 19 million Twitter accounts show that only 21% of Twitter users are active users. Active was defined as having at least 10 followers, following at least 10 people and have at least tweeted 10 times.

Let’s just get some statistics out of the way here!

  • 26% of Twitter users had 10 followers or more
  • 40% of Twitter users were following 10 people or more
  • 51% of Twitter users were following less than 5 people
  • 34% of Twitter users have not tweeted at ALL
  • 73% of Twitter users tweeted less than 10 times
  • This means that almost all of tweets come from 27% of the users.

What is the Point of Twitter?

For the majority of internet users, if they were asked what the purpose of Twitter was, they would draw a blank. No worries. You are not alone.

Twitter still hasn’t found a unique and clear identity, however, what we do know is this:

1) Social Media is Growing: Social Media continues to grow at a rapid rate. Also Facebook is carefully and strategically integrating itself throughout the web through Facebook Connect and those seemingly everywhere – “like” buttons. Trust me, it is more significant than you think. Something perhaps worth sharing in a different post.

Social Networking Growth

Firmly in the middle of this is twitter, the leader of micro-blogs. This is why they are valued so highly because no matter where the web heads, they are on a premiere position to capitalize on their huge user base.

2) Twitter is being used in several unique ways that are becoming more firm and established.

Here are a few.

  • Breaking News
  • Customer Service – saves $
  • Thought Leadership / Personal Branding
  • Humanize Corporations / Customer Learning
  • Viral Marketing

Twitter Awareness Statistics

Edison Research and ARbitron Internet recently surveyed 1,753 Americans revealing that awareness of twitter has grown tremendously in the last few years.

2008: 5% were aware of Twitter
2009: 26% were aware of Twitter
2010: 87% were aware of Twitter

Awareness of Twitter Statistics

Twitter vs Facebook Usage Statistics

Though Twitter is now as well known as Facebook, it continues to lag behind in actual usage.

Twitter Facebook Usage Comparison

More Twitter Usage Statistics

Twitter Usage Statistics

Twitter Demographics Statistics

I am not using Twitter. So who is using Twitter anyway?
Is it just a bunch of kids tweeting away?

People might be surprised to know that twitter has an older demographic than one may initially think. Twitter is actually not adopted amongst the teenagers as much as people initially would have guessed. In fact 71% of Twitter users are 25 and older. Much of Twitter is also used by business professionals, marketers, corporations and quickly becoming a great medium for businesses to engage their customers.

Twitter Demographic Statistics
Twitter Ethnicity Statistics

Twitter Users are Educated

You may look at Twitter and say how pointless it is, however Twitter has very high adoption rates with educated individuals and those with higher incomes. It has become useful for networking and connecting to other professionals as well as a great source for reading up on the news.

Twitter Education Statistics

Twitter Users are Mobile

25% of Facebook users access Facebook using a mobile app or browser. Twitter, probably due to it’s simplicity and a long list of third party apps, show 63% of users have accessed the service with their mobile phone.

Twitter is an Exchange for Products and Services

Twitter is also becoming a key way to engage consumers, customers and networking with other professionals. Over 40% of users use Twitter to learn about products and services. 28% are using  Twitter to find discounts and special offers. 20% seek customer support. On the business end, over 30% have used it to poll their customers and users and many corporations have adopted Twitter as a way to serve their customers (while cutting down customer service costs!).

Twitter Follow Brands

More Stats for the Twitter Business Mind

Interesting Data on When Twitter Users are most Active. Useful if you are a twitter marketer trying to determine the optimal time to reach your users.

Highest Usage Days: Thursday & Friday
Lowest Usage Days: Saturday & Sunday

Twitter Usage By Day Statistics

Twitters are Night Owls

Twitter Hour by Hour Statistics

Other Rule of Thumb Advice:

  • More you tweet links, the less likely people are going to click those links
  • Know when your user are most active and tweet during those times to maximize engagement
  • Highest click thru rate tends to be early evening right after work hours.
  • Weekend has lowest volume but has shown highest click rates
  • Fridays have the highest % of retweets

Share your thoughts on Twitter

  • So Are you a Twitter User?
  • Do you think Twitter is useful?
  • Do you think Twitter is a fad or is it here to stay?


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The Social Network – Business Ethics in Movies

The Social Network Movie Image“…virtually all of the practices that nearly wrecked the global economy back in 2008 were legal—all of which goes to prove that just because something is legal doesn’t make it ethical or right… So the question isn’t “why?” but “why not?” If the only thing standing between you and millions, even billions, is other people’s disapproval, why not do what you want to do?”

Social Network the Movie- Business Ethics

The following is an excerpt from Breakpoint discussing Business Ethics. The question that is asked is:

If it is legal – does that make it ethical?

Thought it was interesting so wanted to share here. Enjoy.

Facebook’s Beginnings in The Social Network

Even before the critically acclaimed film The Social Network opened in theaters, there was one big financial winner: Newark, New Jersey’s public schools.

While critics were screening the movie, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg donated $100 million to the struggling school system. Not only that, he made the announcement on Oprah.

Apparently, Zuckerberg was looking for a little bit of good PR. He’s concerned that people who see the film may question his personal ethics. The more important concern ought to be, however, what the film says about business ethics in our culture.

I personally don’t have an opinion on whether the $100 million donation was a PR move versus perhaps something he wanted to do all along. Maybe his PR people told him to do it now versus later. Either way, I do want to acknowledge that this is a very nice gesture on his part and definitely hope to see more of it in the future.

  • What are your thoughts?
  • Do you think it was a PR move? Or do you think it was intended all along? or both?

The Social Network - Justin TimberlakeThe Social Network, based on the book The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich, tells what’s been called a “creation myth” about the wildly successful Facebook. The “myth” alternates scenes from Zuckerberg’s days at Harvard and depositions taken in connection with two lawsuits filed against him by former schoolmates.

One lawsuit alleged that that Zuckerberg stole the plaintiffs’ idea. The other lawsuit was brought by Zuckerberg’s best friend, who accused Zuckerberg of cheating him out of his share of Facebook.

Well, regardless of the legal merits of the allegations, Zuckerberg has reason to be concerned: His actions depicted in the film ranged from merely duplicitous to outright treacherous.

While the filmmakers have acknowledged taking some creative license, Zuckerberg’s ruthlessness is well-documented, which prompts the central question of the film: Why? In the film, the answer is that he’s an insecure outsider who wants to be one of the “cool kids.” Others have speculated that he suffers from autism spectrum disorder, which is unfair to autistic people: They may be socially awkward, but they are the farthest thing from ruthless.

The Social Network Movie ClipPersonal Failure or Broken Culture or Both?

This is where it get’s interesting. Everything Zuckerberg did was very legal. His lawyers made sure of that. but does it make it right? But if it’s legal why not? Interesting to think about.

Focusing on Zuckerberg’s foibles misses the point: The most important failure wasn’t personal but cultural. Every one of the actions depicted in the film was arguably legal: You don’t have a proprietary interest in an idea. Zuckerberg’s friend signed away his interest in Facebook because he wrongly thought that Zuckerberg’s lawyers were looking after his interests as well.

Similarly, virtually all of the practices that nearly wrecked the global economy back in 2008 were legal—all of which goes to prove that just because something is legal doesn’t make it ethical or right. Any lawyer worth his hourly billings can find a way to exploit weaknesses in the system.

So the question isn’t “why?” but “why not?” If the only thing standing between you and millions, even billions, is other people’s disapproval, why not do what you want to do? Especially since you can subsequently buy their approval with a check and an appearance on Oprah?

Of course, if this becomes normative, then the kind of trust that makes free markets possible would dry up, which is exactly what happened in the aftermath of sub-prime crisis. Lenders have money to lend—what they lack is confidence in borrowers’ ability or willingness to repay.

What is your take? Thoughts?

  • Love to here your thoughts on this matter?
  • Are you going to watch the movie? If you have, how was it?
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Facebook Video, Photos Getting Bigger & Better

Comscore Statistics LogoFacebook Video Surpasses Yahoo! Video

Facebook has officially passed up Yahoo! to become the second largest video viewing site in the United States behind Google. Google owns YouTube & Google Videos.

ComScore reported that 58.6 million unique viewers on Facebook had 243 million viewing sessions. This still sits far behind Google which has 146.3 million viewers with 1.9 billion viewing sessions. Again Google owns YouTube, the clear number one in video views. Yahoo is not at third with 53.9 million viewers.

US Online Video Views (in millions)
Website Unique Viewers Viewing Sessions
Google Sites 146.3 1903.2
Facebook.com 58.6 243.2
Yahoo! Sites 53.9 229.1
VEVO 45.4 205.8
Fox Interactive 43.1 153.9
Break Media 42.4 167.1
Microsoft 39.3 219.3
NBC 32.8 65.1

Most companies are still making minimal amounts of money off of their video properties. Hulu, which is relatively small (not in the top 10 in terms of viewers) leads the industry in video advertising. Google is in fifth. Facebook and Yahoo! don’t even register in the top 10.

Facebook Photos get a Huge Upgrade

Facebook announced several upgrades to their photo product. As Facebook already has more internet traffic then Google and with 500 million active users they have tons and tons of potential in the photo space. With these new changes, Facebook is slowly positioning themselves to be a bigger player. Photo-sharing is currently dominated by sites like Flickr (Yahoo! owned).

List of Facebook Photo Improvements

Support for High Resolution Photos
The resolution for photos on Facebook was increase from 720 pixels to 2048 pixels

Facebook Photos High Resolution

New Album Layout to support High Resolution Photos
The new viewer makes it easier to view and navigate through all your photos without leaving the page. A new “light box” feature darkens the background, making it easier to focus o your photos.

Facebook Photos Viewer

Easier Facebook Photo Tagging & Uploading
Facebook has made it easier to tag multiple photos in the same album all in the same time. It is also easier to tag a person in multiple photos more quickly. Photo uploading has been rebuilt to be much more stable and reliable.

Photographers, Hobbyist, and semi-professionals can now consider sharing their high resolution photos on their facebook profile as opposed to linking out to flickr or other photo sharing sites.

Questions about Facebook Photo Policies

There are still some pending questions that aren’t very clear. Here is the biggest:

Did you know Facebook Owns You!: Or more accurately your photos. According to Facebook policies Facebook claims copyright rights to all the images you upload.

Actually Facebook has the right to license ANYTHING you upload onto Facebook.

Share your Facebook Thoughts

  • What do you think about the massive growth in Facebook Video?
  • Do you think Facebook Video will ever surpass youtube?
  • What do you think about Facebook Photo’s new pictures?
  • Will you be using it more? In what way?
  • Did you know Facebook Owns You!?

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Experts Say Gen Y Will Not Grow Out of Social Networking

Child Internet Usage Study Statistics

Social Network Youth Usage Study

Will Social Networking continue strong among the youth as they enter adulthood?

Is social media a fad? or will it continue to grow!

A new survey released by the Pew Internet and American Life Project shows that the majority of technology experts and stakeholders firmly believe that social networking and online sharing is here to stay among today’s youth or Generation Y.

Over two-thirds of these technology experts agreed that the youth will continue to utilize social networking tools well into adulthood. They agreed that “By 2020, members of Generation Y (today’s ‘digital natives’) will continue to be ambient broadcasters who disclose a great deal of personal information in order to stay connected and take advantage of social, economic, and political opportunities. Even as they mature, have families, and take on more significant responsibilities, their enthusiasm for widespread information sharing will carry forward.”

Social Network Benefits Outweigh the Costs

They key is the their attitude towards social networking. There has been great debate in the online circles regarding the privacy issues and the dangers of sharing information online. However for better or worse, those who are part of Generation Y tend to focus more on the social benefits of sharing personal information and personal communication. They are more than willing to trade their privacy for the social tools to communicate and share.

Some Argue Social Networks Will Fade

There are however almost 30% of the group that believed Generation Y will lose interest in social marketing over time.

This survey was conducted as part of a greater study of the “Future of the Internet”.

Social Networking Usage Study

Teen’s Social Network Use Study by Roiworld

In a separate study by online gaming site Roiworld, 600 teens were were found to spend two hours a day online, 80% of whom spent time on a social network. The study showed there are signs of “Facebook Fatigue” as 1 in 5 were no longer visiting Facebook or using it significantly less than they did before. The teens cited losing interest or leaving because parents are there. A small segment mentioned privacy issues.

Facebook Popular Among Teens – 70% Use it Regularly

Yet Facebook continues to be extremely popular among teens. 70% of teens use it in some form. Nearly 80% have a profile. Youtube ranks second at 64%, MySpace is at 41% and Twitter is 4th at 20%. The study also revealed part of the reason teens spend so much time on Facebook is to play Facebook games.

  • Do you think Generation Y (the youth) will continue to use social networking as much as if not more as adults?
  • Or do you think there will be “social networking fatigue” and social network usage will fall as they get older?
  • If willing, state your AGE in your comment below so we know who the perspective is coming from!

Answer the Social Media Ques above & Take some Polls!

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News: Delete Facebook Page Original Admin

Delete the Original Admin on your Facebook Page

Quick News for those in work in the social media world.

For over a year, Facebook Pages have been used by businesses and organizations to connect and communicate with their users. However one grave oversight was that whoever created the Facebook Page would be locked in as an admin for life.

This means if someone got fired, or left the company, the company Facebook Page would still be linked to their profile. You could add more admins, but the original administrator had the most “power” as the longest standing admin.

For over a year Facebook users were asking that this be updated through the Facebook forums but has been ignored thus far. However Facebook has finally added the ability to remove the original Facebook Page admin. Small change, but big news.

Remove Facebook Page AdminHow do I Delete the Original Admin?

  1. First make sure there is a 2nd administrator!
  2. Go to your Facebook Page
  3. Hit “EDIT PAGE” found on the top left sidebar beneath your logo.
  4. Scroll Down and look at the bottom right. You’ll see a list of administrators. Just hit “Remove Admin” as seen in the image on the right.

That’s it! Hope that was helpful!
Let us know your thoughts about this recent change in the comment section below.

Be sure to visit our own Facebook Page Links.

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Youtube Statistics – 2 Billion Views Per Day [Infographic]

Youtube Views Per Day Statistics

YouTube has surpassed 2 billion views per day. Check out this cool little YouTube infographic that summarizes some of the astounding numbers.

YouTube Highlights

YouTube History:
February 2005 – Founders register YouTube domain name.
April 23, 2005 – First video uploaded
May 2005 – Beta Launch of YouTube
June 2005 – YouTube embeds enabled
December 2005 – Official Launch – 8 million videos watched a day
July 2006 100 million video views per day
October 2006 – Google acquisition of YouTube – $1.65 billion
June 2007 – YouTube mobile site launched
December 2008 – 720p HD launched
May 2009 – 20 hours of video uploaded every minute
October 2009 1 Billion views per day
November 2009 – 1080p full-HD launched
May 2010 YouTube exceeds 2 billion views per day

Other Interesting YouTube Facts & Statistics

19 seconds – The length of first video uploaded
1.96 million – Number of times the first video has been played
185.39 million – the number of times the most popular video on YouTube, Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” has been played

2 billion views = double the prime-time audience of all 3 major US Broadcast networks combined
24 hours of video uploaded every minute
Average person spends 15 minutes a day on YouTube
More video is uploaded to YouTube in 60 days than all 3 major US networks created in 60 years.

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YouTube Infographic

  • Share with us your thoughts on the astounding stats in the comments section!

Share your thoughts on the YouTube Statistics!

  • What statistics is the most surprising or the most astounding?
  • How many videos do you think you watch per week?
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Top 10 General Security Tips for Facebook

Facebook Logo - Large SquareTop 10 General Security Tips for Facebook

Facebook is growing at a rapid rate, and now with Facebook open graph, they are looking to “socialize” all the world’s large webpages to be custom to your profile and social network.

So how do we protect our privacy?

[1] The #1 Facebook security tip is to set your Facebook privacy settings.

If you don’t know how just visit this step by step Facebook privacy settings post.

Once you have your privacy settings set – consider the following tips:

[2] Think carefully about who you allow to become your friend

Once you have accepted someone as your friend they will be able to access any information about you (including photographs) that you have marked as viewable by your friends. You can remove friends at any time should you change your mind about someone. Remember by making someone your friend, you are now giving them full access to majority of the information you post on Facebook.

[3] Use Your Friend Lists

You can organize your friends into different lists (church, co-workers, friends, family, monsters etc). Then you can create different accessibility and privacy options for each one meaning specify what they can and cannot see.

[4] Careful What You Share On Your Profile!

Avoid putting in any info you don’t need to share! No Address, no Phone Number, no Email. If you choose to do so make sure in your privacy settings ONLY friends can see it. (then be selective about who you friend).

[5] Careful What You Share – Photos & Videos!

Careful what photos or videos you post. Once it’s on the web, it’s on the web. Also be sensitive to the pictures and videos you share of your friends. It is embarrassing? Incriminating? Immature? Or just a really bad picture of them? Save your friend the drama and don’t post it. Imagine if someone posted such a picture and tagged you for all the world to see.. (or just friends if you diligently went through the privacy settings!).

Door Lock - Old Lock Image

[6] Careful What You Share – On your Facebook Wall

Depending on your privacy settings, lot of people may have access to your wall, so becareful what you post. Examples:

  • Don’t declare your entire household will be off to vacation for a specified time. Burglars would love that info.
  • Don’t say anything potentially embarrassing

[7] Want to Avoid Old or Bad Connections?

  • Remove yourself from facebook and public search results (in privacy settings).
  • Use an unidetifiable picture. So they can’t tell whether you are the right “John Kim”.. easier to ignore as well, then they assume it’s the wrong one.
  • Don’t put identifiable info on your profile (address, IM, email, work..)
  • If all fails, just get off Facebook and regain hours of your life

[8] Avoid Useless & Random Apps

Facebook application sometimes requests information, others automatically posts things to your wall. You may get invitations to try out apps from others – but unless you know what it is just avoid it altogether. By nature, Facebook apps are made to utilize your profile information and social connections.

[9] Leave out Full Birth date

Do not leave your full birthdate (your birthdate is valuable information) leave out the year.

[10] Monitor Your Children

If your children use it, you need to monitor what they say. They are not educated in what kind of info is bad to share. (ex. “i am home alone”, “we are leaving tonight to go for a 2 weeks vacations”). You should also be weary about who is talking to them and vice versa. You should setup their privacy settings and then “friend” your children. Even better – just make it a rule you have their password so they can login whenever they want.

Do you like this article? Please “Like” our Facebook Page!

[Bonus #11] Conclusion: Better Safe than Sorry

It’s simple. Don’t say, write, post up anything that is even slightly embarrassing. When you put info up on the web, there is always the possibility someone will find it. Your friends, your co-workers, your boss, future recruiters, your mom, your arch enemy, your political opponent, the guy 10 years from now try to sue you, some stalker, some guy planning to rob your home, guy looking for more identification for identify theft and so on. Yes some of these are ridiculous – but again, better safe than sorry. Save yourself potential future headache by playing it safe and thinking carefully about what you post.

Hope this was helpful.
Facebook is looking to simplify their Privacy Settings again so we’ll see what happens next.

Please let us know your thoughts!

  • What other potential dangers are there by sharing your info?
  • Any other general tips about safe facebook use?
  • Parents! How do you monitor your children?
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Complete Facebook Privacy Settings Checklist

Facebook Privacy Concerns Overblown

Facebook Logo - Large SquareThere has been a lot of news about Facebook Privacy concerns in news lately. However in my opinion, it’s being overblown by the media because it is a juicy subject to talk and write about. It capitalizes on the new big fear of privacy in the rapidly growing online world. But recent history shows that privacy concerns are short lived. Privacy issues always come up whenever large companies like Google or Facebook launches something new and different (i.e. Google Buzz, Facebook News Feeds etc). Usually the companies respond with a new set of privacy features and within weeks all the clamoring dies down as people accept it as the norm.

The last Facebook uproar was more legitimate as it was a demand from the public that Facebook provide privacy options so the user can better control what gets shared. Facebook responded by providing more privacy settings. Facebook doesn’t have it right just yet and needs to provide more functionality, but all the concerns about sharing information shouldn’t be blamed on Facebook because we have the settings control to limit what get’s shared. By nature Facebook is a social site – meaning it is meant to be able to share information so it shouldn’t be alarming that Facebook makes it easy as possible for information to be shared.

So what can we do to protect ourselves?

Facebook - Privacy SettingsIt boils down to two things:

1) Use privacy settings to be safe and limit who has access to what on your profile.

2) Be very careful about what you share. Once it is out on the net it is OUT.

Ok that makes sense. But let’s break it down below step by step as well as some of my personal recommendation to help you get started in protecting your Facebook account. By all means you should tailor the accessibility to your info to what you are comfortable with. I only share my own “minimum recommendation” as a starting point since it may be helpful for some.

Minimum Recommended Settings in [Brackets]

COMPLETE LIST OF PRIVACY SETTINGS ON FACEBOOK

[Located on the top right nav bar under “account”. Select Privacy Settings]

Adjusting your Facebook privacy settings is a must to help protect your identity and to prevent mass sharing of personal information. GO THROUGH EACH LINE ITEM. I’ve listed all the settings but only highlighted the more important or confusing ones below. Where relevant I’ve also added my personal recommended “minimum” setting in brackets. Hope this helps.

The Privacy Settings page is organized into the following sections:

Facebook - Privacy Settings ScreenPersonal Information and Posts:

Covers personal details like your birthday, email address and political views. It also covers your content and content others have posted to your Wall. You control who is able to see each type of information.

  • Bio: About Me – Don’t put sensitive info in your profile ever. If you want to put private info, use this to block people from seeing your bio.
  • Birthday: [Friends of Friends] – Recommend leaving out birth year. Birth Date is important piece of info useful for stolen credit cards and identity theft.
  • Interested In & Looking For
  • Religious & Political Views
  • Photo Albums – You can pick and choose who has access to what album. Don’t put up potentially embarrassing photos of you OR your friends!
  • Posts by Me [Friends of Friends] – Best to keep your posts amongst a smaller circle.
  • Allow Friends to Post on my Wall [yes] – Shouldn’t be a problem unless you have some immature friends.
  • Post by Friends [Only Friends] – Entirely up to you. You know your friends and how they behave.
  • Comments on Posts [Only Friends] – Who do you want to enable to comment on all your posts?

Contact Information:

Covers contact details like your mailing address and phone number. We recommend you make this visible to friends only.

  • IM Screen Name
  • Mobile Phone – I would not post this at all. Don’t put sensitive info on the web.
  • Other Phone
  • Current Address – I would not post this at all.
  • Website
  • Add me as a friend – Everyone is fine. Unless you don’t want people to befriend you.
  • Send me a message – I would limit to friends of friends so you don’t get spammed by random people.
  • Email Address – Friends Only or None!

Friends, Tags and Connections:

Covers information and content that’s shared between you and others on Facebook. This includes relationships, interests, and photos you’re tagged in. These settings let you control who sees this information on your actual profile.

  • Friends [Friends] – Do you want everyone you connect to know who else you are connected to? Up to you.
  • Family [Friends of Friends]
  • Relationships [Friends] – Do you really want the world to know your relational status update? Think about it before posting anything.
  • Photos and Videos of Me [Friends] – I would limit this as well as someone “tagging” you in a photo is out of your control. What embarrassing picture might your friends have from the past or some event you were at? If someone else TAGS you in a picture, this privacy setting limits who can actually see those pictures from your profile. Remember, it’s really easy for recruiters or executives to look you up on Facebook. What will they see?
  • Current City [Everyone] – Posting your current city will help people identify your profile especially if you have a generic name. However do not post anything more specific then this.
  • Hometown
  • Education & Work – Remember, anything you post that is identifiable allows more people to find you through that connection. If you want people to find you, post your college & high school. If not, then leave it all blank.
  • Activities
  • Interest
  • Things I Like

Be very careful about what you post and keep in mind who can access it. If you have odd activities or interest that you don’t want your co-workers, your mom, or your children to know… then… actually you probably shouldn’t be doing those things!.. But you get the idea.

Search:

Facebook Search Results: [Everyone] – If you don’t want your friends and old contacts to find you, you can limit it right here. If you put “Friends” no one will be able to find you, until you invite them to be your friend. Why would I not want my friends to find me? If your friends can find you, so can that old stalker boyfriend, the ex-wife, bad influences from the past, old acquaintance you want to avoid and so on.

Public Search Results: [Disallow] – Just opt-out. Why make it so easy for random strangers, recruiters, stalkers to find you via Google? Unless your goal is to have the biggest friend list in all of facebook, just turn it off.

Application and Websites:

Covers what information is available to the applications you and your friends use.

  • What you Share – Click this to see more info.
  • What your friends can share about you – I would check OFF the following: My photos, birthdays, photos and videos I’m tagged In. Everything else is “ok” but completely up to you. Birthdays because it is usable info for credit card theft & identify theft.
  • Blocked Application – Don’t worry about this. Only useful if you want to block specific applications.
  • Ignored Application Invites – Just an option to stop that annoying friend who invites you to every application he/she tries out.
  • Activity on Applications & Games Dashboards [Friends] – Again up to you. I would limit it to Friends as sometimes you have no idea what your application is broadcasting. When your friend is spamming your profile with their recent Mafia War updates or another “I just planted an eggplant” notification from farmville, most of them have no idea they are doing that.
  • Instant Personalization Pilot Program [Off] – just turn it off for now. it’s relatively new so could have flaws and privacy concerns. This pilot program allows facebook to share basic info with partner sites to customize your experience. This isn’t anything to be alarmed about and it is where internet is headed, but while it is still in development, better to be safe and turn it off until they work out all the details.

Block List:

Allows you to identify specific people who you want to prevent from interacting with you on Facebook.

Do you like this article? Please “Like” our Facebook Page!

Hope this was helpful.
Facebook is looking to simplify their Privacy Settings again so we’ll see what happens next.

Please come back for our follow-up post “Top 10 General Security Tips for Facebook”.

Please let us know your thoughts!

  • Was this helpful for you?
  • What other potential dangers are there by sharing your info?
  • Any other suggestions or comments about any of these sections?
  • Any other general tips about safe facebook use?
  • Parents! How do you monitor your children?
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Growth of Social Media Statistics Video: Socialnomics


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We don’t have a choice on whether we DO social media, the question is how well we DO it,” – Erik Qualman

 

Facebook 3rd Largest Country in the World

In the beginning of 2009, Mark Zuckerberg (founder of Facebook) proudly stated that if Facebook was a country it would be the 8th largest country in the world. As of 2010? It would stand as the third largest country in the world, right behind China & India and ahead of the United States.

Growth of Social Media Video

It wasn’t long ago that Social Media made big news when it overtook Email in terms of online activity. Now, it is the #1 activity online and it continues to grow at a rapid pace both in the United States and around the world. The video below is a follow up to a the first Did You Know Socialnomics Video that quickly went viral due to all the fascinating statistics about the growth of social media. It has a lot of fascinating statistics.

Watch the video and tell us what statistics wowed you the most in the comment section below!

Sorry – The video was made “private” due to copyright issues socialnomics is having. But please do check out the LATEST socialnomics video here!

Some Social Media Statistics

  • More than half the population is under 30
  • 96% of Millennials have joined a social network
  • Facebook has more internet traffic than Google.
  • YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world.
  • Amazon sold more e-books for the Kindle than physical books on Christmas
  • 25% of search results for the World’s Top 20 largest brands are links to user-generated content
  • 34% of bloggers post opinions about products & brands
  • If you were paid $1 for each posted Wikipedia article, you’d make $1,712.32 per hour!
  • 80% of companies use social media for recruitment
  • Social Media is the #1 activity on the web.

Social Media’s Influence on Culture

There is no doubt that social media is increasingly becoming a huge part of our daily lives. Facebook records 60 million status updates that inform people of what friends are doing. Twitter records 50 million tweets a day (source: twitter) and a large number of that is news from around the world. We no longer search for news, the news simply finds us. Also everything on the web is becoming personalized. With the amount of social information now available via the networks, both self-declared or deduced from connections within the networks, – everything from advertising to news is becoming customized to the user whether we like it or not.

When was the last time you were online and saw ads for something you were just looking at yesterday? It’s not coincidence.

How many sites have you been on where you see a Facebook “like” feature and pictures of your friends who also like the site or bought something? (like clean cut media!)

  • Please Comment below with your thoughts on the video
  • What statistics jumped out at you the most?
  • What are your thoughts about what part social media will play in our lives?

[poll id=”13″]

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Social Media Statistics Video – Growth & Impact

Social Media Statistics Viral Video

One of the benefits (and detriments) of YouTube has been the proliferation of information. More than ever, it is easy to transmit and share information through a variety of mediums. In fact Social Networking has long surpassed email as the most popular medium of online communication.

One the more popular video genres on YouTube are the what I call the statistical videos. The “Did You Know” videos went viral as the eye popping statistics are always fun to share and read about. Though be aware that some of the newer videos are spoofs and contain fake data (though to their credit they acknowledge it in the end).

Socialnomics Videos – Is Social Media a Fad?

The video below is a similar statistical video covering the growth and impact of social media. It asks the question, is social media a fad? This message probably targets business and companies that often debate whether allocating money to social media is worth the costs. Then it follows by bombarding you with the incredible growth and impact of social media on our every day lives. I’ve also compiled some social media statistics from other sources below.

Sorry – The video was made “private” due to copyright issues socialnomics is having. But please do check out the LATEST socialnomics video here!

What is Social Media?

To be clear, Social Media isn’t just Facebook and Twitter. It includes a whole network of sites where users can interact with one another whether it is by sharing information or discussing various topics. Some of the more popular social media sites that you may not at first consider to be part of this group are sites like Digg (Share Links & News), Stumbleupon (Share & Discover Websites), Delicious (Share Favorites), Wikipedia (Share Information), Flickr (Share Pictures), Blogging (Share Anything), YouTube (Share Videos), Linkedin (Professional Social Network) and so on. As you can imagine, social media has grown tremendously and has changed the landscape of information exchange and communication.

Social Media List - Facebook, Social Networks

More Social Media Statistics

  • 3 out of 4 Americans use social technology
    (Forrester, The Growth of Social Technology Adoption, 2008)
  • 2/3rd of Global Internet Population Visit Social Networks
    (Nielsen, Global Faces & Networked Places, 2009)
  • Social Sites – 4th most popular online activity, ahead of personal email
    (Nielsen, Global Faces & Networked Places, 2009)
  • Time Spent on Social Networks growing at 3x overall internet rate.
  • Accounts for 10% of all Internet Time (Nielsen, Global Faces & Networked Places, 2009)

“Technology is shifting the power away from the editors, the publishers, the establishment, the media elite. Now it’s people who are in control” Rubert Murdock, Global Media Entrepreneur”

  • 13 Hours of video uploaded on YouTube every minute
  • 412.3 years – length of time it would take to view every YouTube video
  • 100,000,000 – # of YouTube videos viewed per day
  • 13,000,000 – # of articles on Wikipedia
  • 3,600,000 – # of photos archived on Flickr.com as of June 2009
  • 1382% – Monthly Growth Rate of Twitter Jan to Feb 2009
  • 3,000,000 Tweets per Day on Twitter
  • 5,000,000,000 – # of minutes spent on Facebook every day
  • 1,000,000,000 – # of content (web links, news, blogs post, photos etc) share on Facebook each week

“The word blog is irrelevant. What’s important is that it is now common, and will soon be expected, that every intelligent person (and quite a few unintelligent ones) will have a media platform where they share what they care about with the world.” Seth Godin, Author

  • 5,000,000 – # of active Barack Obama supporters across 15 social networks
  • 14,200,000 – # of views Obama’s “Yes we can video” got on YouTube
  • $6,500,000 – Amount of money donated online to Obama’s campaign
  • Facebook in terms of members would be the 8th most populated county in the world. (Mark Zuckerberg, Jan 2009)
  • By July 2009, it has risen to 4th (via video)

Hope you enjoy the social media statistics video! Please share your thoughts below.
[poll id=”13″]

  • What is your reaction to the rise of social media?
  • How much do you use Facebook, Myspace, Twitter? Do you Blog?
  • Do you find it helpful?
  • Do you feel Social Media is a fad or it is here to stay?
  • Where do you see Social Media Going?
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Teens Don’t Use Twitter, What the Tweet?

Twitter Logo

Twitter. A Trendy Social Media Site for Kids? No?

Most people I speak to think social network sites such as MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter are new, trendy and hip, but that does not mean it is popular among the youth.

In a study of 250,000 US internet users, Nielsen has released statistics showing that though 25% of internet users are under the age of 25, only 16% of twitter users in the same range.

Twitter Website Growth Age Demographic

Who is the cause of Growth on Twitter?

The 18-24 year old demographic who are normally the early adopters of social networks were the least likely to visit Twitter while the 45-54 year olds were the most likely, followed closely by the 25-34 year old age group.

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