Facebook Puts a Happy Face on Latest Numbers

The war between Facebook and MySpace to reel in users continues to heat up, with Facebook reportedly drawing in more than 200 million unique worldwide visitors; more than 1 in 5 people who accessed the Internet in November stopped by the site, according to a report on www.techcrunch.com.

In December, 222 million people visited the site, according to newly released Comscore stats, a nearly 11% month over month growth rate. Twenty-two percent of the entire Internet audience went to Facebook in December.

Facebook now has nearly 100 million more worldwide users than MySpace, which brought in 4 million new users in December to 125 million total. The page view difference is more dramatic - Facebook had 80 billion monthly page views in December v. 43 billion for MySpace. Just six months ago the sites were about the same size.

For more on the story and reaction to it, visit http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/22/facebook-now-nearly-twice-the-size-of-myspace-worldwide/

Social Networking Conference in Miami Jan. 22-23

Social Networking Conference 2009 Miami is slated to be the largest convention ever attended by executives from the internet community industry.

Scheduled for the Miami Beach Convention Center in Miami, Jan. 22-23, topics covered include: global business strategies for social networking, mobile, revenue models, social media marketing, venture capital for social networking and online personals, new technologies, partnerships, legal issues and payments.

For further information, visit www.snc2008.com.

Online Social Networks Generally Not at Fault

Anyone with children surfing the Internet is no doubt worried about just who may be watching their kids at the same time.

A recent analysis by the Internet Safety Technical Task Force points out that child exploitation on the Internet and elsewhere is a concern, however online social networks, like Facebook and MySpace, are not at fault for the majority of it since most reported cases preceeded their existence.

Other findings from the report include:

* Children are unlikely to be propositioned by adults online unless they are willing participants and are already at risk because of poor home environments, substance abuse or other problems;

* Despite some high-profile cases, "bullying and harassment, generally by peers, are the most frequent threats that minors face," both online and offline.

The task force was formed a year ago by the Multi-State Working Group on Social Networking, a joint effort of the 50 federal state attorneys general, led by the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard.

Finally, the task force evaluated age verification and identity authentication, filtering and auditing, text analysis, and biometrics technology that some feel could help strengthen the security of social networks. Ultimately, the task force discovered that many of the technologies had potential but that nearly all of them work in a way that some might see as invasions of their privacy.

The task force was comprised of organizations—including AOL, Facebook, Google, MySpace and Yahoo!

Pew Research Unveils Internet Use Survey

The share of adult Internet users who have a profile on a social networking site has more than quadrupled over the last four years -- from 8% in 2005 to 35% now,¹ according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project's December 2008 tracking survey.

According to survey findings, while media coverage and policy attention focus greatly on how children and young adults use social network sites, adults still account for the bulk of the users of these Web sites. (Since adults make up a larger portion of the U.S. population than teens do, the 35% proportion represents a higher number of users than the 65% of online teens² who use online social networks.³)

Still, younger online adults are much more likely than their older counterparts to use social networks, with 75% of adults 18-24 using these networks, compared with only 7% of adults ages 65 and older.

Specifically, the study found that:

Young people are much more likely than older adults to use social networks.

• 75% of online adults 18-24 have a profile on a social network site
• 57% of online adults 25-34 have a profile on a social network
• 30% of online adults 35-44 have one
• 19% of online 45 to 54 year olds have a profile
• 10% of online 55 to 64 year olds have a profile
• 7% of online adults 65 and older have a profile

Overall, personal use of social networks seems to be more prevalent than professional use of networks, both in the orientation of the networks that adults choose to use as well as the reasons they offer for using the applications. According to May 2008 survey findings that were released for the first time:

• 50% of adult social network users have a profile on MySpace
• 22% have a profile on Facebook
• 6% have a profile on LinkedIn

Online social network applications are primarily used for describing and maintaining personal networks, and the majority of adults, like teens, are using them to connect with people they already know.

• 89% use their online profiles to keep up with friends
• 57% use their profile to make plans with friends
• 49% use them to make new friends
• Other uses: organize with other people for an event, issue or cause; flirt with someone; promote themselves or their work; make new business contacts.

When users do use social networks for professional and personal reasons, they will often have multiple profiles, usually on different sites.

• 51% of social network users have two or more online profiles
• 43% have only one online profile

Among social network users with multiple profiles:

• 83% have those profiles on different sites
• 17% have those profiles on one site
• 24% have multiple profiles so they can keep up with friends on different sites
• 19% have multiple profiles to separate the personal and the professional
• 6% just use different sites
• 4% have different profiles for different parts of their personality
• 4% have older profiles on sites they do not use anymore

Most, but not all adult social network users are privacy conscious:

• 60% of adult social network users restrict access to their profiles so that only their friends can see it.
• 36% of social network users allow anyone to see their online profile
• 58% of adult social network users restrict access to certain content within their profile
• 43% of adults think it would be pretty easy for someone to find out who they are from their profile; 23% of teens say it would be pretty easy
• 33% of adults with profiles think that they would have to work at it, but that someone could eventually find out who they are; 40% of teens say the same
• 20% of adults think that it would be difficult for someone to find out who they are; 36% of teens say it would be difficult for someone to find out who they are.

The use of social networks on any given day is also increasing. In February 2005, only 2% of adult Internet users had visited an online social network "yesterday" while 19% of adult Internet users had done so in December 2008.

Social network users⁴ are equally likely to be men and women, but are more likely to be young: 75% of online adults between ages 18 and 24 have a social network profile, as do 57% of wired adults between ages 25 and 34. Profile ownership drops to 30% among 35-44 year olds, 19% among 45-54 year olds, 10% among 55 to 64 year olds and 7% of online adults 65 and older. Similarly, social network users are also more likely to be students -- 68% of full time students and 71% of part-time students have a social network profile, while just 28% of adults who are not students use social networks. Whites are less likely than African-Americans or Hispanics to have a profile on an online social network. Nearly one third 31% of online white adults have a social networking profile, compared with 43% of African-Americans and 48% of Hispanics.

For further information, visit www.pewresearch.org.

¹ The 35% data point and basic demographic information about social network users is from Pew Internet Project's December 2008 Survey. All other data in the report is from the Project's May 2008 survey, unless otherwise noted. ² This teen data point is from Pew's Gaming and Civic Engagement Survey of Teens fielded from November 2007 through February 2008. n=1102 parent child pairs and the margin of error is +/- 3% for online teens. ³ Pew defines online social networks as spaces on the Internet where users can create a profile and connect that profile to others (individuals or entities) to create a personal network. ⁴ Data in this paragraph comes from the Pew Internet Project's December 2008 Survey.

Cision Unveils Blog to Help Communication Pros

Cision, a provider of media research, distribution, monitoring and analysis services for the public relations industry is sharing the insights of its thought leaders in social media and other disciplines with the new CisionBlog, an interactive forum dedicated to "Helping Communications Professionals Navigate the Evolving Media Landscape."

Anchored by Cision executives Heidi Sullivan, director of Media Research, and Jay Krall, manager of Internet Media Research, CisionBlog's initial focus on social media will expand in 2009 to feature guest writers from Cision who will share their insights into public relations media research, media contact, news distribution, media monitoring and media measurement and analysis in the print, broadcast and online worlds.

"Cision has tremendous intellectual capital to share with the PR industry, and CisionBlog provides an excellent platform for our thought leaders on all forms of media and communication," said Stephen Debruyn, Cision's vice president, Marketing. "Heidi Sullivan and Jay Krall got CisionBlog off to a terrific start in 2008, and in 2009 we expect to broaden and deepen the online conversations we engage in on the blog - especially about integrated PR media management applications enabled by our CisionPoint dashboard and services."

Debruyn said CisionBlog complements the company's active webinar program focused on hands-on PR tactics and strategy, as well as its participation in numerous other PR knowledge-sharing activities. Cision's senior executives and thought leaders are active in industry associations, seminars and events that help set the agenda for best practices in PR. Cision's research department manages an extensive global CisionPoint media database, with more than 900,000 media contacts in 150 countries, updated more than 10,000 times a day.

Cision is also a global provider in print, broadcast and social media monitoring services and in PR measurement and analysis services. Its clients range from leaders of the Fortune 500 to small fast-growth enterprises to most of the world's top public relations agencies.

For more information, visit www.cision.com.

Small Businesses Optimistic Despite Economy

Although it is hard to find positive economic news in today's headlines, America's entrepreneurs appear to be optimistic about 2009.

According to a national survey commissioned by Microsoft Office Live Small Business (http://www.smallbusiness.officelive.com) and Elance Inc. (http://www.elance.com), nearly 60 percent of small-business owners believe that 2009 will be as good or better than 2008, while 37 percent are worried about 2009 but believe their businesses will weather the current economic storm. Despite it all -- and staying true to their entrepreneurial spirit -- 86 percent of business owners state that they are happier running their own business over working for someone else.

This survey was part of a joint effort to connect Office Live Small Business customers with skilled freelance professionals from the Elance network through a new service marketplace, available at http://www.elance.com/p/landing/olsb/buyerpromo.html. Office Live Small Business customers who hire a qualifying Elance provider for a $250 job can get a $50 credit to use toward services offered through the Service Marketplace for their next job.

Conducted by Decision Analyst Inc., the survey also revealed that 61 percent of respondents would continue to spend the same or more on marketing in 2009. In terms of staffing, just more than half intend to maintain their current staffing levels, while nearly a third believe they may need to hire contract or freelance help. Small-business owners surveyed were most likely to hire freelance workers to help with their Web design, marketing and sales efforts.

Although just more than half of the small-business owners interviewed did not have a Web site, almost two-thirds admitted that having a Web presence is important to the success of their business. Lack of budget, time and technical expertise were among the top reasons for not having a Web site, the survey revealed.

Tagnics Unveils New Service for Uploaded Photos

Tagnics (www.tagnics.com) is a new service launching in 2009 that Autotags and provides a Who’s Who service for your uploaded photos. They are currently offering their service for free while they gather feedback.

About the Company
Tagnics provides 2nd generation search and content management solutions in the digital media space.

Solution & Value:
According to a Nokia research report, more than 100 billion digital media files are newly created every year and uploaded online. However, the current technologies are at a loss when it comes to handling such explosion of rich digital media.

To accurately categorize, index, and retrieve digital media files based on their content in real-time has always been one of the biggest challenges of existing search and content management providers. Hence 60~70% of rich media files are lost or unable to be accurately searched online due to the fact that there is no proper way of indexing and retrieving them based on their contents. This is a huge loss of human creativities & talents for the whole society.

Tagnics solves this problem by enabling 100% content-based search on all digital media. This will turn lost treasures into vast resources for the public at the finger tips. By overcoming this challenge, Tagnics has been one step ahead of the competition and become the true leader in 2nd generation online search and content management service field.

History & Structure:
Founded 4 years ago and led by a high caliber management team with a combined 125 years in the technology business. Supported by renowned scholars and tenured professors from top universities such as Yale, MIT, Rutgers, and Sidney. Owns 5 patent pending technologies that pioneer the next generation rich media search and content management. Company has broad international operations.

To try out the service for FREE:
Try Tagnics Service for free. During the testing phase, you will need to upload your pictures to Flickr. If you haven't used the service before it is Free up to 200 pictures uploads. It also works in conjunction with Facebook. To upload photos on Flickr (www.flickr.com).

For those who want to upload large # of photos to Flickr, try downloading & installing this Software (uploadrxl.rutgersmit.com/Download/). It works! You can even try the whole folder upload.