RESEARCH DATA

Interesting observations taken from Erik Qualman's book "Socialnomics" published in 2009 as to why social networking needs to be considered for your marketing plan.

o    Social media has overtaken porn as the #1 activity on the Web.
o    80% of firms use social media sites as their primary tool to find employees.
o    Gen Y will outnumber Baby Boomers by 2010; over 90% will join a social network.
o    YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world.
o    Facebook added over 100 million users in less than 5 months / Jul-Dec 2009
o    80% of Twitter usage is on mobile devices.
o    Generation Y and Z consider e-mail passé.
o    One-third of bloggers post opinions about products and brands.
o    8 of 10 consumers trust peer recommendations, 14% trust advertisements.