On Google+ success from 5 years ago

One of the benefits of having your own blog is all the archives that are accumulated over time.  Web services, platforms, and social networks come and go, and so does your content when you choose to use them.  But with your own piece of the Internet, you get to keep it all.

It’s always interesting to see what I was into and what I was thinking like years ago.  Especially when it comes to predictions and forecasting.  Especially with the technology, which moves so fast.

Here is, for example, something that I shared 5 years ago (to the day):  On how Google+ will succeed.  Now that never happened.  In fact, almost the opposite is happening:

Horowitz made a point to emphasize, once again, that Google+ isn’t going away. Instead, he reiterated that the company will be offering “a more focused Google+ experience.”

In other words, Google+ has a core set of users that really do enjoy using the service. “Google+ is quickly becoming a place where people engage around their shared interests, with the content and people who inspire them,” Horowitz said.

More specifically, Google plans to continue to offer new features in Google+ and move “features that aren’t essential to an interest-based social experience” into existing products.

This just tells you how “trustworthy” is my opinion on things…

100 Social Media Facts and Statistics for 2015

Social-Media-Facts-Statistics

Back in 2013 I linked to some (not so) surprising facts about social media.  Two years is a lot of time and a lot of things has changed since.  So here comes 100 social media facts and statistics for 2015.  These spread from general statistics to service-specific ones, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, Google+, and others.  Unlike many other similar collections, this one actually links to sources for every single fact, and provides an easy one-click share to Twitter button.  Here are a few to get you started:

  • 189 million Facebook users are ‘mobile only’.
  • There are 4 billion daily video views on Facebook.
  • 50% of unique LinkedIn visitors access it via mobile.
  • There is a 50% average increase in comments when a LinkedIn page post contains a question.
  • Over 40 billion photos have been shared on Instagram.
  • Google+ has 300 million monthly active users around the world.
  • Google+ grows at a rate of 33% each year.
  • Average time spent on YouTube per mobile session is 40 minutes.
  • There are 300 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute.

 

Share button – simple, light, flexible, and good-looking share button jquery plugin

Share button – simple, light, flexible, and good-looking share button jquery plugin

10 (not so) surprising social media statistics

Fast Company shares the 10 surprising social media statistics that will make you rethink your social strategy.  I wouldn’t go as far as saying that all of them are really all that surprising, but they are mostly interesting.  Here they are in a nutshell:

  1. The fastest growing demographic on Twitter is the 55-64 year age bracket.
  2. 189 million of Facebook’s users are “mobile only”.
  3. YouTube reaches more US adults aged 18-34 than any cable network.
  4. Every second two new members join LinkedIn.
  5. Social media has overtaken port as #1 activity on the web.
  6. LinkedIn has a lower percentage of active users than Pinterest, Google+, Twitter and Facebook.
  7. 93% of marketers use social media for business.
  8. 25% of smartphone owners ages 18-44 say they can’t recall the last time their smartphone wasn’t next to them.
  9. Even though 62% of marketers blog or plan to blog in 2013, only 9% of US marketing companies employ a full-time blogger.
  10. 25% of Facebook users don’t bother with privacy settings.

Read the whole thing for more details, links, stats, visualization, and ideas on how to utilize this information.