Facebook Ranks As Top Social Media Destination

Today's Wall Street Journal reports in a story on Google + that users on personal computers are spending a lot more time at Facebook than Google +.

The Journal writes:
"Visitors using personal computers spent an average of about three minutes a month on Google+ between September and January, versus six to seven hours on Facebook each month over the same period, according to comScore, which didn't have data on mobile usage."

3 minutes a month is MUCH LESS than 6-7 hours. By a LOT!

WSJ continues:

"While Google+ has some original features — including "Hangouts," which lets people start a video conference with up to 10 people — analysts and some consumers say the distinction isn't enough to lure Facebook members away and persuade them to build a network of contacts from scratch on Google+."

Seems right to me. Google+ is like a Meetup group you go to once a month to say hi and make an appearance, while Facebook is where you go to lunch with your pals.

Where do you spend your social media time? Why?

Business Insider sums it up with a chart and a post.

The Business of Change - Now Faster than Ever

In a recent blog post, author/consultant Brian Solis writes about the theory of 'Digital Darwinism' - that is, the period when technology and society evolve faster than the ability to adapt.

It's a fascinating and bar-worthy topic, but it isn't altogether new. TIME Magazine was asking a similar question 12 years ago, with its suggestion "Perhaps what civilization needs is a NOT-SO-FAST button." And even just three years ago, "Digital Darwinism" was being used as a headline for a piece that suggested that "companies across the ecosystem have to acquire or develop three dominant traits to survive: relevance, interactivity, and accountability."

In his post, Solis notes a study describing the faster liquidation of companies that once were, but are no longer. He writes:
"The author cited a study published in the book "Built to Change" by Edward E. Lawler and Christopher G. Worley. The study found that between 1973 and 1983, 35 percent of the top companies in the Fortune 1000 companies were new to the list. Over the next decade from 1983 to 1993, churn jumped to 45 percent, and then soared again to an astounding 60 percent between 1993 and 2003.

If the current trend continues, over 70 percent of Fortune 1000 companies will turnover from 2003 to 2013. As the author observes, “In other words, over 3/4ths of the existing captains of industry will fall from their throne.”

That's a swift evolution! Solis maintains that it takes more than jockeying around in social media to keep one's company at the top of its game. His end note is... "It takes courage. It takes persistence to break through resistance. Everything starts with articulating a vision for how your business will invest in customer relationships and experiences. From there, technology, processes, and systems will serve as enablers for that vision. In the end however, it is leadership and an empowered culture that will bring about transformation."

Clear words, solid vision and smarts all around. Now's not the time for dithering. Laser focus and insights, followed by action and momentum, will win the business battle. Rally round the flag, boys!

Trends in social sharing

Mashable writes of a study conducted by digital agency Beyond about the ever-changing nature of social and sharing. And with all these catch-all trend pieces, there's an amazingly long image to accompany the report. See it at bottom of this post.

The report lends credence to certain trends you might be seeing:

"First, sharing to selective lists — the Google+ Circles model — is on the rise. While only 40% of social media users have grouped their friends and followers into lists, the concept appeals to 62% of users.

Second, frictionless sharing — Spotify songs shared to Facebook, for example — is on the rise. Some 67% of social media users have allowed an app to post to their profile, listened to a song that was automatically shared to their profile or read an article that was automatically shared to their profile.

Third, discounts and giveaways will spur sharing of branded content. People are more willing to share content if there are incentives. Some 60% of social media users say they would opt to post about a product or service if they were offered a discount or deal.

Fourth, the rate of social sharing will plateau as Facebook reaches the majority of the world’s population. New users are more excited than seasoned users to share content, and as all users become veterans they will be less frequent sharers.

Fifth, sharing will become personal again, as it was in the early days of social networking for many of us. New apps will focus on personal achievements and actions.

Sixth, the same three factors — informing friends, expressing an opinion and humor — will continue to drive us to share content. Some 88% of users update their status and 85% add photos multiple times per month."

Changes in your Google Life

If you blink, you might miss changes at Google!



It seems that each new day brings a new variation of your online Google experience. Guess what, you're right?

The Next Web is there to make some sense of many of these changes. They write:
"The search giant is slowly but surely getting all of its ducks in a row to become more of a complete solution for consumers. For the first time ever it seems like Google knows exactly what it wants to be when it grows up, which is pretty much everything to everyone. A lofty goal for sure, but since it launched its social network Google+, the entire company has shown a renewed interest in how consumers view and use its products."

Indeed. Google isn't falling behind in social, it's screaming ahead. What did you notice today in Gmail? The new black bar, right? The black navigation bar is being rolled out to users and appears on all of Google services such as Google Reader and Gmail.



While not everyone is onboard with using Google+ on a daily basis, by having Google tie together its offerings with a seamless interface between among its products, it's giving its users a full-on social online experience without leaving the Google universe. I'm OK with that, how about you?

The Next Web adds:
"Think about how fast Google has made the transition from a pretty boring and untouchable entity into an absolute social machine, especially when it comes to its own products. By eating its own dogfood, the company is showing everyone else why Google+ has legs and stands for something more than just a “Facebook killer”."

The social networking race is in full swing - RUN with it!

Use News.Me to 'newsify' your Twitter Stream

I can always depend on Netted by the Webbys to push out news about useful and interesting tools to use in our daily online lives. Today, Netted highlights News.Me - They write:

"Poised to fill the void left by Summify, the service combs your Twitter stream then sends you a daily email with the five most popular stories based on the tweets of people you follow. To give you an idea, high profile tweeters like New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof have made their digests public. News.me originally gained clout with a free iPad app (still available; still awesome) that aggregates full, ad-free articles culled from your Twitter feed and stores them for offline reading.

Thanks, Netted! Signed up to try! Here's how News.Me looks on that iPad

Social Media Pros Podcast launches at Convince & Convert

Jay Baer, head converter at Convince & Convert, today announced the launch of a new podcast for and by social pros. It's called "Social Pros Podcast: Real People Doing Real Work in Social Media."

Episode 1 of the Social Pros Podcast features Taulbee Jackson, CEO of Raidious, the social and content agency that built and is managing the Super Bowl Social Media Command Center.

Click over to the Social Pros Podcast page to listen and read along to the first episode. Or just click to download the Podcast MP3 here.

Next week’s guest is Scott Monty from Ford Motor Company.