Clean Cut Media » Social Media

Experts Say Gen Y Will Not Grow Out of Social Networking

cleancutmedia — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 14:00:04 +0000

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”.

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!

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.
Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

News: Delete Facebook Page Original Admin

cleancutmedia — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 18:06:45 +0000

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.

How do I Delete the Original Admin?

First make sure there is a 2nd administrator!
Go to your Facebook Page
Hit “EDIT PAGE” found on the top left sidebar beneath your logo.
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.

Top 10 General Security Tips for Facebook

cleancutmedia — Thu, 27 May 2010 14:00:35 +0000

Top 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!).

[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.

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[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?

Complete Facebook Privacy Settings Checklist

cleancutmedia — Thu, 20 May 2010 14:00:24 +0000

Facebook Privacy Concerns Overblown

There 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?

It 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:

Personal 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.

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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?

Growth of Social Media Statistics Video: Socialnomics

cleancutmedia — Tue, 11 May 2010 16:00:46 +0000

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!

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?

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Social Media Statistics Video – Growth & Impact

cleancutmedia — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 18:28:11 +0000

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.

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.

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.
Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

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?

Teens Don’t Use Twitter, What the Tweet?

cleancutmedia — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 18:11:35 +0000

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.

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.

Adults are twice as likely to try Twitter than Teenagers

Why aren’t teens using Twitter?

Some plausible possiblities.

More adults use twitter, so more adults are inclined to try it out as twitter is inherently a social network dependent on social relationships. Less teens on twitter means less spread.
Teens are already heavily dependent on texting as a quick form of communication.
But the biggest keypoint…

Twitter vs. Facebook – Two Completely Different Animals

Though social media sites seem very similar on the surface, they often serve very different purposes.

Twitter is inherently different from MySpace or Facebook. Twitter is not about connecting with friends, but a medium to connect with new contacts, whether that be those with similar interests, consumers, companies, celebrities or even corporations. It has also become the fastest medium to get up-to-date news. When news breaks out, it spreads throughout twitter like a storm. Connecting with thinkers, industry leaders, and others with similar interest is not something teenagers generally seek out. Twitter thus caters to an older demographic. It is all about the online discussions and conversations over topics and issues.

Facebook is about being in touch with friends and connecting with local groups. Teenagers (and adults alike) are more into connecting with friends, not about connecting with strangers or brands or keeping up with the news. So by default, there is more engagement among the youth with Facebook.

What are your thoughts and opinions?
Why do you think teen engagement on twitter is not as widespread?
What does this mean for twitter’s future, will teens eventually adopt it?
Do you use Twitter?

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Power of Images in Media & Iran’s Twitter Revolution

cleancutmedia — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 17:18:34 +0000

Powerful Influence of Images in Media

When I say Tiananmen Square Massacre, what is the first thought or image that comes to your mind? For the vast majority of people it is the image of the young man making a stand in front of the rolling tank.

There are many such images or photographs out there that has forever influenced public perception. One can cry all you want about starving children, but nothing moves a person emotionally until they see a picture of precious young child starving without food.

This is the power of images. Whether an image of news, or the images we see on TV.

The Iran Twitter Revolution

As you may or may not know, everyone has been following the news of the turmoil in Iran through the Internet. As journalists are not allowed (or more like afraid) to officially transmit news out of that country, all the recently events have been followed through YouTube videos and twitter updates. It has been one of the most interesting phenomenons of late.

Hundreds of Thousands of Iranians have been protesting the recent elections between Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Mir-Hossein Mousavi and 2 other candidates. The crowds are crying fraud due to multiple suspicious figures and the bias way the government conducted the elections. The following demonstrations are now being captured on YouTube videos and being twittered all around the globe. The Tehran’s leaders had taken down telephone systems, took down websites, confiscated tapes from journalists and dispatched police to beat and arrest anyone who dares to protest. The leaders have done everything they could to try to control the news coming out of Iran. Yet they completely underestimated the power of the citizen journalists and the use of social media. Iran, as a highly computer literate country, had citizen hackers working to keep media lines open while the government continually try to shut them down.

One example of Iranian Twittering about the Demonstration: Tehran Bureau

YouTube Videos of Recent Demonstrations

Protest News Coverage from Different Parts of Iran

Power of a Images in Turning Public Opinion

Recently a young woman named Neda Agha-Soltan (Neda means “voice” or “the calling” in Farsi) was shown on video being shot by a sniper’s bullet during a demonstration. As she fell to the ground, she instantly became the face of “freedom”, the symbol of the entire opposition. As this video, which was caught on a cell phone camera, spread quickly around the globe, it has strongly impacted the view of the world’s public opinion.

“[Neda] has become a global symbol of innocence destroyed by evil.” – Times Online

Below is an excerpt about the power of images by Breakpoint
Note: The Book referenced here called “How Now Shall We Live?” is one of my favorite books of all time.

Other photos have moved entire nations. As I wrote in my book, How Now Shall We live?, I’ll never forget the first time I saw the famous 1972 photo of a little Vietnamese girl, Kim Phuc, running away after a bombing, her skin burned by napalm. That photo broke my heart and the hearts of countless others, and as I would later write, it “became an emblem for an entire nation questioning its reason for being in Vietnam.”

Another photograph from Vietnam had a similar effect: the photo of South Vietnamese General Nguyen executing a Viet Cong prisoner in February 1968. The picture has often been cited as the image that “as much as any, turned public opinion against the war”—even though the photographer, Eddie Adams, who saw both sides of the story, had not intended it that way.

Adams later wrote, “The general killed the Viet Cong; I killed the general with my camera. Still photographs are the most powerful weapon in the world.”

Adams was right. For better or for worse, images shape our thinking, our emotions, and our responses to the world around us. Context is always important, for sometimes images can mislead, as Eddie Adams discovered. But sometimes images can show us the truth about ordinary people, people just like us, fighting for the same rights that we so often take for granted.

Could the video of Neda’s lifeblood pouring out on the streets of Tehran be the image that changes everything for her country?

That I don’t know. But I do know this. No matter how hard the Iranian government tries to silence the calls for freedom, Neda has given her fellow Iranians a voice that the world can’t help but hear.

What is your opinion about the power of images in media?
What does this tell us about how we should approach the intake of all media such as tv shows and movies?
What is your reaction to Iran’s Twitter Revolution and the role of social media?

Facebook vs MySpace vs Twitter Statistics: Raising $200 Million

cleancutmedia — Sat, 30 May 2009 15:00:49 +0000

Facebook vs Myspace vs Twitter Growth Statistics

Facebook vs Myspace vs Twitter Visitor Statistics (via ComScore)

Facebook started off as a small social network popular among some college students. Then in the past few years Facebook’s users have skyrocketed as Facebook went mainstream. First among college students, then once it was open to the public, it blew the gates open as millions of new users young and old joined to check out this new social network. In April 2009, the social network passed 300 million unique visitors a month according to ComScore. 160% increase from April of 2008. Facebook also has 225 monthly active users. Twitter continues strong as it jumped 70% in March with 32 million worldwide uniques, while MySpace has flat lined at 123 million uniques a month. MySpace has recently shaken up their leadership in order to rejuvenate their stagnating figures.

Click Here to Follow Clean Cut Media on Twitter!

Facebook the Big Gorilla of Social Networks: 60 Million+ Users

Though twitter is getting a lot of attention these days, Facebook continues to be the big gorilla in the social network space. The network is widely used to connect with friends, old and new. It has become a primary source to email friends and make contact with old lost friends. Easy to use and with a simple interface it continues to grow at a furious rate.

Facebook Growth has slowed down a bit since the beginning of the year from 11% per month in Feb and March to 4% in the last 2 months. Facebook unique users has now surpassed 60 million. There was a surge of new users ages 18-25, while a sudden exodus of users over 55 after significant growth earlier in the year in this demographic. 18-25 users make up 33% of users but what is less known is that 33% of the users are also over 35.

Facebook Statistics: Demographics

Facebook Raises $200 Million from Digital Sky Technologies

Facebook just raised $200 million from a Russian firm Digital Sky Technologies in exchange for 1.96% of it’s company! That is a $10 billion dollar valuation of the Facebook. However Facebook still has not found a viable revenue model. Though there are plenty of ideas such as an ad network or a payments platform, these funds will help buy more time as they determine the best path to take.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Facebook’s Revenue Model: “One of the most interesting things about DST’s portfolio is that they’ve invested in several social networks, each with different monetization models. Facebook is still growing and experimenting with a number of different business lines, which we hope will grow and become big in the future… In the long run there will be multiple businesses. For the next few years, advertising will be the biggest part of our revenues. There are other areas that we think could be really interesting over time, like virtual gifts and user transactions.”

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Other Social Network Related Posts:
Social Networks in Asia: Korea, Japan, China, India, Hong Kong, Singapore
Social Network Takes over Email
Viral Video: ‘Twouble with Twitter’ & Flutter the New Twitter
Twitter Growth Statistics

Twitter Statistics: Visitor Growth

cleancutmedia — Wed, 13 May 2009 18:08:14 +0000

Twitter US Visitors Growth in 2009

Twitter Statistics

60% Abandonment Rate

There was some recent news about Twitter having a whopping 60% abandonment rate. This means that for every 5 people using twitter, 3 people decide not to continue using it. This makes sense as Twitter perks curiosity but not many people can maintain or want to maintain a continual feed of “tweets”. This is the same reason there are millions of blogs that are never updated. It is simply a lot of work! We can vouch for it!

17 Million Unique US Visitors in April

However despite a large abandonment rate, ComScore released Twitter Statistics for April and it showed Twitter reaching 17 million unique visitors in the US. That is a whopping 83 percent increase from March! In March Twitter had already doubled it’s user base from the month before.

That Twitter Statistics include the launch of Clean Cut Media’s own Twitter Feed in April. Follow us Here.

Twitter going Mainstream: Broad Uses
Twitter is gaining popularity not only for personal uses but for businesses. Businesses use Twitter as a way of keeping their loyal users in touch with what is going on with a particular product or service. It is a tool to humanize the corporation and to build a community. Celebrities and other prominent figures use twitter to speak to their fans or supporters. Twitters are frequently used to do quick news updates during large conferences or events. People can follow the play-by-play commentary just as they were listening to the radio. TV shows like Nightline has used twitter as a way for users to give immediate feedback during their shows. It also allows people to keep in tabs with what is going on with their friends. Recently the public received the first twitter tweets from outer space!

Recent Twitter from Space
I’m going to put my spacesuit on, next stop: Earth Orbit!!

From orbit: Launch was awesome!! I am feeling great, working hard, & enjoying the magnificent views, the adventure of a lifetime has begun!

Personally, I think the longevity of Twitter is still up in the air. Is this a fad or will it stick around? Only time will tell.

Visitors Spend 7.9 Minutes a Day on Twitter
Twice as much as Dec 2007
Pagesviews: 428 Million in April (219 Million in March)

If you haven’t seen seen the hilarious twitter mock videos see them here:

Twitter Mock Viral Videos – “Twouble with Twitter”

Viral Video: ‘Twouble with Twitter’ & Flutter the New Twitter

cleancutmedia — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 15:00:36 +0000

Twitter Fail Whale - Twouble with Twitter

What is Twitter?

Twitter is known as a micro-blogging site. It is a place where a person can create a Twitter profile where one can post entries or “tweets” of 140 characters or less. Friends and Strangers alike can follow your tweets just like anyone would follow a blog. Twitter is one of the most well known social networks today.

Does CleanCutMedia Twitter?
Follow CleanCutMedia Twitter Here! Whopping two “tweets”.

Below are two fun viral videos that pokes fun at Twitter and the type of info that it is used for. Twitter has often been ridiculed for being the medium in which people update each other about every mundane thing they do. “Watching TV with my Cat” “I forgot how much I like my pickles”

“Twouble with Twitter”

This is a hilarious video of two people at work discussing twitter. One person just started to use twitter and is raving about it’s uses while his co-worker adamantly claims that its absurd. More hilarious if you are familiar with Twitter. (Info: The White Twitter Fail Whale is what appears on the screen when Twitter has a problem such as too many users hitting their servers at once. The Fail Whale has it’s own subculture including t-shirts, clubs and sculptures). Warning, little blood at the end.

Flutter: The New Twitter

A new company called “Flutter: The New Twitter” which takes the twitter idea to a whole new level. For the gullible folks, it is a parody.

Defending Twitter

Ok. So to balance out the mockery in this post, Twitter does have some useful functions. Twitter is a great medium to communicate up to date reports on conferences and events live. You can also ask a quick question to your contacts and get quick responses. It can be used to spread important information quickly through the contact network.

What other way have you found twitter to be useful?
What is your feeling and opinion on Twitter? Think it’s useful? Think it’s dumb?

More Viral Videos: Susan Boyle & Ironman vs Bruce Lee

Social Networking overtakes Email

cleancutmedia — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 01:09:06 +0000

Social Network Media Connection

Social Network Moves Up

A new study released by Nielsen has shown that Social Networking has overtaken email as the most popular internet activity. As popular social networks like Facebook and MySpace have features built to stay in communication with friends and connections many people are utilizing those communication mediums to “email” or “chat” or “post” with one another.

Nielsen reports that “member communities” exceeds email participation 67% to 65%. This is in conjunction with the fact that social networking and blogging is growing twice as fast as other drivers of users such as email, search and portals. Two-thirds of internet users visited a social networking site in 2008. Social media sites such as Facebook and MySpace account for nearly 10% of all internet time. Facebook continues to lead the way by accounting for 30% of all internet users in the largest global markets.

Social Network Users getting Older

Also it is common knowledge in the online marketing world that social media reach has long grown beyond the younger demographic. As social networks become more popular and mainstream the audience has become broader and older.

Social Network Growth by Age

Facebook originally started as a college only social network, but now boasts the greatest membership growth rate from 35-49 year olds at 24 million new members from Dec 2007 to Dec 2008. Facebook also is adding twice as many 50-64 year olds at 13.6 million than those under 18. Their current base is one-thirds 35-49 years of age and one-quarter over 50 years old. The way social networks are used is being continually defined by the changing demographics.

Facebook and Linkedin Leading the Growth

Social networks Facebook and Linkedin (the most popular professional network) has accounted for the largest growth rate this past year. Facebook showed 168% change in active reach with a global audience of 108.3 million. Linkedin also showed tremendous growth with a 137% change in global audience growth. MySpace saw a -3% decline.