Top Ten again? As my friends “up nort” would say: ya you bettcha!

These lists in themselves may not look like much, but with 18-34 year olds spending 4.3 times more on social media vs. TV radio, newspapers, magazines and books combined, you may want to think about how you’re reaching those you’re trying to influence.

Today it’s about YouTube, #4 Largest Site on the Internet

1. The very first video upload on YouTube was on April 23rd, 2005
2. About 14 months after the launch, more than 65,000 videos were being uploaded every day.
3. People are watching 2 billion videos a day on YouTube and uploading hundreds of thousands of videos daily.
4. Every minute, 24 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube.
5. American users account for about 70% of Youtube users.
6. Over half of it’s users are under 20 years old.
7. Fifty-one percent of our users go to YouTube weekly or more often.
8. 52 percent of 18-34 year-olds share videos often with friends and colleagues.
9. Users are evenly divided between males and females, and spanning all geographies.
10. You would need to live for a thousand years to watch all the videos currently on YouTube.
11. (Bonus!) 77% of users coming to youtube come intending to watch one video but end up watching several.

With adults spending 15+ hours a week on the internet, Youtube has become huge in it’s influence on our culture.

Remember, social media is much more about listening than talking at people. (Too preachy?)

I thought I would give just a quick snapshot of some interesting facts you might not know about this fast growing social media phenomenon.

1. Currently about 110 million users of Twitter’s services.

2. Twitter gets more than 300,000 new users every day.

3.  75%  of Twitter’s users use third-party apps for access not it’s web platform.

4. Twitter receives 180 million unique visits each month.

5. There are more than 600 million searches on Twitter every day.

6. Twitter started as a simple SMS-text service.

7. Over 60% of Twitter use is outside the U.S.

8. There are more than 50,000 third-party apps for Twitter.

9. The Library of Congress has access to all tweets on Twitter as a donation by Twitter for research and preservation.

10. Twitter is accessed by more than a third of users via their mobile phone.

Do you tweet?

I am sure by now you have seen the recent announcement that Facebook has reached 500 million users worldwide, 150 million stateside. According to Facebook’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, the mission of this social media powerhouse is to help make the world more open and connected. They are certainly on their way.

We pulled together a few more gems that will impress you:

• Those 18 – 34 spend 4.3 times more time on social media vs. TV, radio, newspapers, magazines & books COMBINED.
• 34% of women 18 – 34 check Facebook FIRST THING in the a.m.

The Neilsen Company found that Americans are spending nearly a quarter of their time online on social networking sites – this is a 43% increase from just a year ago. To put this in perspective, the closest competitor was online games at 10.2%. E-mail trailed behind at only 8.3% and it is losing steam. Obviously the social networking trend is continuing upward.

So how do you use this for your business? We have a couple thoughts:

#1 – get engaged with Facebook.
Create a profile page for your company and update it at least 3 times a week. Add a link to Facebook on your e-mail signature and politely suggest that your clients, friends and family all “like” your page. Your posts can be commentary on topics such as industry trends, shout outs to employees who do a great job, and customer success stories.

Learn a little more about Facebook advertising. It is an effective, affordable tool to target very specific audiences. It is amazing how much you can drill down. Plus, you can monitor and track the success of your campaign on a daily basis. You really have nothing to lose.

#2 – join LinkedIn.

There are professional groups that you can join in addition to starting your own network of connections. Not only can you learn more about social media, you can learn more about your industry while sharing your own expertise.

#3 – do a little investigating.

Benchmarking is a great way to judge the landscape. What is your competition doing online? Do they have a Facebook or Twitter account? Also, talk to those in the know – twenty-somethings – and don’t be afraid to ask questions. Reverse mentoring is a great thing when it comes to the latest in technology.

#4 – okay, you knew this one was coming. Contact Catalyst!
We are here to help clients build their knowledge and their business through social media. Whether you are looking for baby steps or a full-fledged digital campaign, we would love to be a resource for you.