Wow! Did anyone else notice how fast the world is changing? Advances in technology are the primary driver for the rapid circulation of information around the globe. And the quicker information spreads, the more rapidly ideas, innovations, household hints, and medical breakthroughs can turn into common knowledge. I look at how my kids do their homework and am shocked and excited at how much they use the Internet for research and communication. Like it or not, the World Wide Web and all the tools attached to it, are here to stay and are rocking your world.
As a business owner and learning specialist, Social Media is one area I have been slowly exploring (see my blog post from June 2009) and now more rapidly learning (you may now be one of my Facebook friends). It's like back in the 1990's, when everyone needed a website as entry stakes into the world of business. Well now a similar thing is happening with Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Blogs, YouTube, etc. And like the explosion of "on-line presence" back in the day, all these Social Media tools run the risk of taking over our lives with checking, updating, friending, and learning. Though they are all free to use, the cost comes in your time.
But make no mistake. Social Media is here to stay, and this is where the people are!
- Social networks and blogs are the 4th most popular online activities online, including beating personal email!
- 10% of all time spent on the internet is on social media sites.
- LinkedIn boast "40 million experienced professionals" and is considered by many as the best resource for finding employees, contractors, and contracts.
- Twitter, at last count, has close to 50,000,000 users and that number is doubling every 90 days.
- Since April this year, Twitter has been receiving around 20 million unique visitors to the site each month, according to some analytical sources.
- In April 2009, Facebook reached 200,000,000 users: if Facebook were a country, it would be the world's fifth-largest. Since then Facebook is adding more than 350,000 people per day, most of them 50 years old or better.
- Universal McCann reports that 77% of all active internet users regularly read blogs.
- YouTube is likely to serve over 75 billion video streams to around 375 million unique visitors during this year.
- There are more video views every day on YouTube than ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX combined.
Around 64% of marketers are using social media for 5 hours or more each week during campaigns, with 39% using it for 10 or more hours per week.
(This list is of course gleaned from the Internet, much of it from http://econsultancy.com/blog/4402-20+-more-mind-blowing-social-media-statistics)
Pretty amazing stuff, eh! For me, these stats (and others) instill fear and excitement. Fear because I am wondering if I am falling behind my competitors in using these tools to communicate and promote my business, and excitement because of the amazing leverage and reach these tools give me.
Enter IdeaZone.ca, a Victoria company led by Paul Holmes and Catherine Novak. (Notice the links lead to a website, a YouTube Video, and a Blog – no need for me to describe Paul and Catherine here, I just refer to their posts, all relevant to Social Media – I love it!)
Paul and Catherine were founding members of Victoria's Social Media Club, and have been groundbreakers in the areas of marketing using social media. Sector has connected (of course online and face-to-face) with IdeaZone.ca in several ways and we are really excited about this partnership. The first product of this relationship (other than the many laughs and positive support we have given each other) is a new Sector website, coming soon. The second, is a course on Social Media we are launching in October.
Catherine will be teaching the course, and I will be co-facilitating (and learning all I can). I am very excited about the course since it is a blended learning program (face-to-face and on-line, to maximize learning), is very practical (uses Social Media tools to teach social media), and has a strong, "application of the applications" focus where we will help the learners to develop a Marketing Strategy during the class. Learners will come out of the gate at full speed, already geared up and with a strategic plan to apply the learning and the tools in a way that is most effective and doesn't consume all of their time.
We have even got some interest from the traditional press, so that underlines my belief that this is an important, timely topic that fits right in with Sector's purpose of "building human capability to create positive change in organizations, and the world." And I, for one, would rather learn from experts so I can get going quickly to use these tools correctly and strategically, and learn how to keep my time on the tools manageable.
I'll see you on line:
twitter.com/gbrim
facebook.com/gerry.brimacombe
www.thedynamicsector.com/GBlog
www.linkedin.com/in/sectorlearning
Gerry Brimacombe