Since that time, the “Social Media is a Fad” debate has faded to the background. It’s become clear that we’re experiencing a shift in the way we communicate. And it’s essential that individuals and organizations don’t get left behind in the social media revolution.

It’s amazing how fast social media changes. Every day. It’s one thing to have a Facebook account or search for YouTube videos, but it’s another thing entirely to understand how to use social media to communicate effectively.

Why is it so important? To give you an idea of the size and scope of social media’s impact on communication, we’ve compiled a list of important social media stats. At Verve’s Social Media Bootcamp, we’ll do more than wow you with statistics, we’ll show you how to use social media effectively to meet the goals of your organization.

10 Surprising Social Media Stats

1. Social media accounts for one out of every six minutes spent online in US. (Journalism.co.uk)
2. Facebook tops Google for weekly traffic in the U.S.
3. 95% of companies are using LinkedIN to search for job applicants
4. There are 200,000,000 blogs in existence today
5. AOL’s newsroom is now bigger than The New York Times’ (Business Insider)
6. Users say they’re more likely to buy if a business answers their questions on Twitter (NYTimes.com)
7. Twitter reported that the network saw more than 4,000 tweets per second at the beginning and end of Obama’s speech [re: death of Osama Bin Laden] (AllTwitter)
8. The fastest growing segment on Facebook is 55-65 year-old females
9. 78% of consumers trust peer recommendations
10. Social media advertising spending will increase from $2.1 billion in 2010 to $8.3 billion by 2015.” (BIA/Kelsey via Direct Marketing News)

Sources: AdAge, Kyle Lacy, Socialnomics

But Facebook has several useful implications for your business and your personal life. Yesterday, Facebook introduced its new Groups feature, which allows you to share pictures, posts and chats with pre-specified groups of people: family, friends, co-workers, etc. Have pictures you only want to share with family? No problem. Want to keep a conversation among a select team at work? Groups allows you do that. To learn more about Groups and explore its features, check out this post on the Facebook blog.

Facebook has also been in the news this week because clothing company Gap is using it to ask customers what it should do about its logo. Earlier this week, Gap unveiled a new logo that was met with much criticism from people online. On its Facebook page, Gap asked fans to submit other designs and said that, while the new logo will be used in its holiday campaign, they are open to considering user-submitted designs. Read more about Gap’s dilemma and its Facebook crowdsourcing in this Mashable post.

The Social Media Examiner blog offers some tips for companies that feel they’re getting lost in the “abyss” of Facebook – being upstaged by bigger companies that have more money and manpower and whose Facebook pages have thousands, if not millions, of fans. They explain that it’s all about creating a Facebook experience for fans. This post offers examples of companies that have successfully created experiences and a step-by-step guide to doing it yourself.

The Oxford University Press recently announced its new additions to the dictionary. If there needed to be more evidence that social media is on the rise, the OUP just gave it to us; several new social media-related words and phrases were part of the new addition.

You can take a look at the full list of new words and phrases here (bromance is also making its dictionary debut), but a look at social media’s influence on the dictionary follows:

hashtag n. (on social networking websites such as Twitter) a hash or pound sign (#) used to identify a particular keyword or phrase in a posting.

social media n. [treated as sing. or pl.] websites and applications used for social networking.

social networking n. the use of dedicated websites and applications to communicate informally with other users, or to find people with similar interests to oneself.

unfriend v. [with obj.] informal remove (someone) from a list of friends or contacts on a social networking site: she broke up with her boyfriend, but she hasn’t unfriended him.

friend noun – a contact associated with a social networking website.?verb – add (someone) to a list of contacts associated with a social networking website.

poke (on the social networking site Facebook) – attract the attention of (another member of the site) by using the ‘poke’ facility.

tweet

- a posting made on the social networking site Twitter: he started posting ‘tweets’ via his cell phone to let his parents know he was safe.

- make a posting on the social networking site Twitter.

That’s right – “friend” is now a verb and the word “tweet” is no longer just inside lingo for die-hard Twitter users.

Beyond being a fun story for social media enthusiasts (who now have the dictionary to back them up when friends make fun of them for using “tweet” in a conversation, the addition of these phrases and terms to the OUP dictionary is indicative of social media’s dominant presence in our lives. People everywhere are using social media for everything imaginable: sharing photos, commenting on interesting stories, catching up with friends from high school and more.

If social media is big and effective enough to get a spot in the dictionary, it’s also important enough to be a part of your business. If you and your business have yet to dive into social media, take a look at some of our past blog posts to find interesting articles and links to the most useful social media resources. Also, if you’re in the Eugene-Springfield area, register for the Social Media Bootcamp on October 22 – you can find out more here.

One

Imagine not having access to any social media sites for a whole week: no Twitter, no Facebook, no instant messaging. Could you do it? How would it affect your life?

These are the questions that Eric Darr, provost at Harrisburg University in Pennsylvania wanted to answer when he instituted a weeklong social media ban on campus. The sites would be blocked on campus computers to prevent students from updating their statuses or sending tweets.

To hear more about the experiment and hear students’ reactions, read and listen to NPR’s coverage of the story here.

Two

If you’re part of a non-profit and you’re not convinced social media can make a difference for your organization, this Mashable article for you. (RED), a brand designed to help eliminate AIDS in Africa, has effectively used social media in a number of ways in order to share its message with the world. For those of you who have been on Twitter since last winter, you may remember World AIDS Day, when all tweets that included the #red hashtag turned red.

(RED)’s story is a perfect example of how social media is changing the way non-profits spread their message; it is a huge “game-changer” for such organizations.

Three

Lastly, have you ever thought about the “value” of each Facebook like and Twitter follower your brand has? According to Emarketer, a report from ExactTarget finds that Twitter followers are more likely to induce future sales for your company than email subscribers or Facebook fans. Twitter followers are also more likely to recommend your brand to their friends.

There are a number of theories as to why this is true, but one is that Twitter is a platform that makes it much easier for people to interact with their favorite brands; it’s easier to build a connection with a brand on Twitter than it is on Facebook, where a brand’s message may get lost amidst a sea of status updates from other friends and fan pages.

You can read more about the report and an analysis of the findings in this Social Media Today article.

What other social media news did you find this week? We’d love to hear about your new discoveries. Feel free to leave a comment with your favorite piece of news!

(Image credit: Mashable)

While young people still dominate social media use, their growth has slowed in recent years compared to the giant leaps of growth seen among Internet users over the age of 50.

According to the study:

• One in five (20%) of online adults ages 50-64 say they use social networking sites on a typical day, up 10% one year ago.

• Among adults ages 65 and older, 13% log on to social networking sites on a typical day, compared with just 4% who did so in 2009.”

• Between April 2009 and May 2010, social networking site usage grew 88% among Internet users aged 55-64. Among Internet users 65 and social networking presence grew 100% in the same time frame. (from Mashable article)

According to the project’s senior research specialist, Mary Madden, email still dominates interpersonal communication among people in this demographic. But, it’s impossible to ignore the huge growth rates in social media.

What do these numbers mean? That social media is here to stay – and it’s important for every business, especially those that seek to attract and build relationships with customers over the age of 50.

Read more about this trend:

You can look at the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project study’s full findings and a report summary here.

This NPR story highlights social media use among seniors and highlights the steps being taken to ensure their online privacy.

Mashable discusses the Pew Center study’s results here.

This MediaPost article looks at the findings from a marketing and advertising perspective.

Mashable’s 26 Essential Social Media Resources You May Have Missed

Mashable is a fantastic resource for those new to social media. It’s updated several times a day with the latest and most important social media news. They often share social media resources – links, lists, applications, and more – that are essential for any user, including those in this list from Friday, August 20.

Facebook Places: A Field Guide

If you’re already an avid Facebook user, you probably know about last week’s launch of Facebook Places, a location-based component of the site that allows you to “check-in” at different places. Here, Mashable explains the ins and outs of Facebook Places and how it can be applied to your business and your social life.

Do You Still Have Social Media Privacy Concerns?

This article from Social Media Today addresses many concerns that new social media users have with regards to online privacy. If you have reservations about using social media for your business, take a look at this article to learn how you can protect your information across various social media platforms.

She offers great tips on:

• Blogging
• Twittering
• Linkedin
• And more…

1. Get personal
2. Visual essays work bet
3. Serve an underserved audience
4. Presentations as media

Click here to read more…

It was developed by Erik Qualman, author of Socialnomics: How Social Media Transforms the Way We Live and Do Business.

My only wish is that they’d slow down the video – some of the statements fly by so quickly they’re difficult to read, but then again – maybe that’s the point!