If the world can twitter, you can do better

Nowadays, there's much being said about Twitter and on Twitter. You try and keep with up the former, but what about the latter? You can mine the twitter stream for insights and here are 8 ways/tools to help you do so.

[Pic courtesy: comicbase]

Brands to emulate

Mashable's list of the 10 smartest big brands on social media.

[Illustration by Matt Hamm]

Demographic breakdown of Social Networking sites

Although widely quoted, this demographic breakdown of social networking sites by sex and age (originally located here) lists no references or antecedents. Take it with a pinch of you know what.

Got a question?

Head across the Social Marketing Marketing FAQ to find the answers to all the questions you had and to some you didn't.

[Pic Courtesy: jakedobkin]

Why most online communities fail

A short post from the Wall Street Journal blog that nails the three reasons why most online communities built by businesses fail.

[Via Noah Brier/Pic courtesy kellan]

The Pew Internet Report On Adults and Social Networks

According to Pew's new report:

• 35% of online adults now have at least one profile on a social networking site, more than quadruple the amount that did in February 2005, when the figure was 8%.
• The number of grown-ups jumping on the social media bandwagon has roughly doubled every 18 months over the past four years.
• 60% of adult social network users restrict access to their profiles so that only their friends can see it

You can read/download the whole report here.

[Cartoon by Geek&Poke]

Social Networks Analysis - by Geography and Demography

A comprehensive analysis of the geographic and demographic data of all the major social networks.

[Mosaic by Genista]

DIY Guides for Social Media

How to do almost anything with Social Media has a comprehensive collection of how-tos about social media - leaving us to deliver one instruction only: click on the above link, pronto.

[Picture courtesy brycej]

The Very Best of 2008

A comprehensive compilation of the very best internet marketing posts of 2008 - covering SEO, social media strategy and posts about specific social media sites.

[Pictures courtesy : Spell with Flickr]

Online advertising to weather recession and grow in 2009

Busineeweek reports on why this slowdown will be unlike the last one - at least for online advertising, which is set to grow 6 to 10% next year.

[Original pic by gruntzooki]

What does 2009 hold in store?

Fourteen social media experts gaze into their crystal balls and tell us what's in store for social media in 2009.

[Original pic by Rigmarole]

The Don'ts and Don'ts Of Social Media

A superlist of lists on what NOT TO DO if you're dabbling in social media.

[Original pic by badbrother]

Where do advertising agencies fit in the social media future?

Adrian Ho of Zeus Jones writes in Adweek on the likely end of the road for advertising agencies unless they undergo a radical transformation.

[Original pic by Stuck in Customs]

The new brand graveyard

If you are a brand preparing to jump on to the apps bandwagon read on to find out why exercising caution may not be such a bad idea after all.

Companies/Organisations Powered by Social Media

As adoption of social media proliferates, it gets more difficult to keep track of who's doing what. No worries for the time being though - here's a superlist of lists of companies who're using social media. That's a lot of conversation going on out there.

[Original image by b_d_solis]

Where to go for statistics on social media?

Social Media Statistics is a wiki that aims to put in one place all the facts and figures around social media. So, if you don't know how many users Facebook currently has, this is the place to head to. On the other hand, if you know how many users Facebook currently has - it's also the place to head to and share it with others.

[Original pic by Bright Tal]

Facebook Chart3: Users by Age Group

Given it's root, it should hardly be a surprise that Facebook has more college-age (18-25) users in the US as in the overseas.

Facebook Chart 2 - Apps count

... continues to grow while the usage stays flat. The top 10% of apps account for 98% of total usage - and only about 6% of apps average at least 500 active users per day.
Via O'reilly Radar.

Facebook Chart - Growth by Country

In the last four weeks, while Facebook grew double-digits in Asia - it did so from a relatively small base (approx. 3.7 million users). Except in Chile, Hi5 and Orkut remain the dominant social networks in other parts of the Americas. [Via O'reilly Radar.]

Visa 'Friends' Small Businesses on Facebook

... with it's The Visa Business Network application on Facebook. Current estimates put 80,000 small businesses on this social networking site - and to grease the wheels, Visa is offering a $100 "Facebook ads" credit to the first 20,000 businesses that join the network.