Social Networks – Also Known As New Media

You’ve heard the hype around new media and you see the reality.  What drives this movement?  The primary reason I hear is: this is where you’ll find the young professionals and your future consumers; you need to be present to reach them. 

As a young professional and consumer, are you present, and if so, where? 

In today’s world, most members of the younger generations seem to have a healthy skepticism about information posted on the Internet, at the same time they have an appreciation for the volume and methods of information and idea sharing. What forms of new media do you find to be credible and worth-while for information and networking? What forms of new media do you lean on more for fun?  Why?

There’s a great collection of Social Networking statistics, compiled by Jeremiah Owyang.  Feel free to check his posting out for additional statistics and links to the original sources (Posted January 2009).  Just to pique your interest, here are a few statistics compiled on his page:

Nielsen Online shows that: Social networks and blogs are now the 4th most popular online activity ahead of personal email, Member communities are visited by 67% of the global online population, time spent is growing at 3 times the overall internet rate, accounting for almost 10% of all internet time, PDF, Nielsen Online, March

Facebook has 54.5 million monthly unique visitors… Source, Comscore via Techncrunch, Jan 13, 2009

Regarding Facebook, “Women over 55 remain the fastest growing group, and growth among the teen and college-age set has been relatively paltry. In absolute numbers there are now even slightly more members between the ages of 45 and 65 than there are 13-to 17-year-olds.” Wired Magazine, March.

Quantcast data on Twitter indicates that Twitter.com is a top 500 site that reaches over 4.1 million U.S. monthly people. The site attracts a more educated, slightly more female than male, young adult audience. Quantcast, March

 

Surprised?  You may or may not be.  In any case, we welcome you to share your thoughts around new media.   We also invite you to share any of the ways you’re incorporating new media into your branding, marketing or operations.