Here are some of the latest usage statistics on social media use that will make a business take notice:

1) 68% of small businesses will increase their social networking marketing efforts in the next year
2) 56% of Twitter users say they use the micro blogging site for business or work related purposes
3) Over 40% of people have become ‘friends’ with or ‘like’ a brand/company on Facebook or MySpace
4) 20% of tweets are about business products
5) 46% of Facebook users say they would talk about or recommend a product on Facebook
6) 44% of Twitter users have recommended a product
7) Social media played a major role in holiday shopping – 28% of shoppers say social media has influenced their purchases.

Just from the Facebook, there are many statistics that everyone should know about.

1) More than 400 million active users
2) 50% of active users log on to Facebook in any given day
3) Average user has 130 friends
4) People spend over 500 billion minutes per month on Facebook
5) There are over 160 million pages, groups and events that people interact with
6) Average user is connected to 60 pages, groups and events
7) Average user creates 70 pieces of content each month
Males and females almost equally use social sites (47% vs. 53%)
9) 61% of Facebook users are middle aged or older, with the average age being 37
10) 18- to 24-year-olds don’t dominate any particular social networking site; they’re spread out all over
11) More than 25 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photo albums, etc.) shared each month

Interesting isn’t ?

* Thanks to Daer Glista – http://www.articlesbase.com/authors/daer-glista/572989

There is only one objective in social media: create learning networks.

There is too much wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth about social media objectives and strategy these days. We all assume that our organizations are unique and that we must devote great sums of time and money to figuring out what our particular motivation is for social media and how we will carry it out.
We’re wired as humans to believe that we are each unique and different—indeed, this perception shoulders the bulk of our self-esteem. And yes, we are all unique. A little. But in most things, we’re the same and we can usually acknowledge that.
Not in our businesses, though. In the course of hundreds of interviews with companies over my career, the “yes but we’re different” mantra was a familiar refrain. Companies that made commodity products would tell me with straight faces that even their financial processes were unique—GAAP be damned—and that they needed to customize their software to fit “our ways of doing things.” This also meant they paid millions extra in consulting fees to change the software and millions more the next time they wanted to upgrade their software.
I find that we’re applying the same logic to social media. Let’s sit down and figure out our unique objectives and strategies before we do anything.
Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying we shouldn’t have objectives and strategies for social media. I’m just saying that we shouldn’t assume, as we do by default, that ours are much different from anyone else’s.
There is only one objective in social media and it is common across all companies—even across the infamous divide between B2B and B2C: Create learning networks.
And there is only one strategy for carrying out this objective: Find people who are good at developing and disseminating ideas to contribute to and facilitate those networks.
That’s it.

What is a learning network?
The reason I say this is that another hard-wired part of us is the desire to learn. And learning is integral to buying—especially in B2B. Recommend products and services that you haven’t thoroughly researched and you will most likely be out of a job.
But it also applies in B2C. Toyota’s market share wasn’t built by Toyota’s marketing; it was built by Consumer Reports.
Every buyer wants to learn at all stages of the buying process. But no buyer wants to be sold during all stages of the buying cycle.
The purpose of social media is to create learning networks that buyers want to join. The enticements are ideas and education. That means social media are extensions of our content development and dissemination processes. By creating content that offers relevant, timely, and useful ideas and education for buyers at all stages of the buying process, we create the incentives for buyers to engage with us in conversation and community. Whether it’s blogs, Twitter, LinkedIn, or private communities that we build ourselves, the common thread is that by focusing on learning we build and retain buyers’ interest.

Here are the key elements of learning networks:

1. Create an internal learning network.
You need to build an internal network that focuses on identifying internal thought leaders and building alliances with external academics and customers who can help develop and test ideas. Primary and secondary research provides the inspiration for some ideas and the objective justification for others. Internal knowledge share sessions and reward and recognition programs provide the motivation for thought leaders to emerge inside the organization and help imbue a thought leadership mindset into the culture.
2. Create a content development process.
Using ideas from the learning network, marketing needs to develop content. Marketers must become publishers, with a process for refining and presenting thought leadership content through various vehicles, (such as conference presentations, white papers, social media, etc.). Marketing needs professional content developers who know how to collaborate with thought leaders to develop clear, compelling packages. A calendar helps marketing plan out the frequency and focus of its output. Marketing needs to develop materials that are appropriate to each stage of the buying process, so that customers and salespeople can get the right information at the right time. Marketing and sales need to agree on the alignment of content to the different buying stages so that sales will get the right signals about when and how to approach customers for a sale.
3. Integrate the internal learning network and content processes with social media.
Your internal learning network should integrate with the ones you want to build for customers. Internal thought leaders should use social media as a test bed and developing ground for ideas that they later disseminate in more polished form. So for example, a tweet or a posting in a LinkedIn forum leads to blog post, which leads to a video, which leads to a conference presentation, white paper, or private event for top customers.

If learning is the objective, the rest falls into place. Idea- and education-based content is the fuel for building community. The rest is promotion.

What do you think?

Rage & fear overtook public anger in Egypt since last month.10,000 protestors in Cairo’s Tahrir square chanted slogans against President Hosni Mubarak stood strong to endure intense fighting with police brutality while the dictator taking refuge from the protest at the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh which known to be his favorite leisure place and his immediate family board jets for safe havens in Europe. Little that we know that cold war between U.S & Russia is where ARPANET, the world first packet switching network which is the grandfather of Internet back in 1969 evolve into a powerful social media tools like Facebook and help drive passionate anti-government protest. The erupt may just wait for the right time but isn’t coincidence that it happens where social media is the answer on how effective it is for people who shares mutual ideas & thoughts to march proud on the street coupled with strong youth angst among students who have been oppressed ever since.My answer is yes.

The rallies of anti-government protest across Middle East including what was happened in Tunisia and Egypt are cause by depression years of unemployment and frustration ranging from lack of political freedom to police brutality. But that was not the main reason that fueled the sparks. On 6 June 2010, Egyptian Khalid Saeed was found killed & evidence says police had done their part by taking his life brutally. This tragedy has created a tidal wave of interest between young people with the creation of the “We are all Khalid Saeed” Facebook group page. Fan grows into thousands and become powerful with a lot of petition,grievances, sudden protests and many small riots updates. Although Presiden Hosni Mubarak appointed a vice-president for the first time since he took his power as a strong signal that he might have second thought to still run for a sixth term in election due this year in 2011, he is already late to overcome the uprising Egyptians people who became united and believe that his 30 years ruling regime must go. The best part is what the protest organisers in Egypt and much of the world did not foresee that the revolution is already started in a small Tunisian town which later was called The Tunisia Twitter Revolution. Hundreds of opressed netizens have found a great deal of brotherhood to take this matters into their own hands and came down to take it to the streets in protest as a part of escalating tension, calling for the resignation while Hosni Mubarak desperately tries to hold on to power. But 3 decades of ruling with sticking his people under his radar is a way of stupidity when the technology of information superhighway grows rapidly just like consquences from the rule of nature; where the son is finally smart enough to find himself out from the ignorance of the lies from his father.Let’s reveal some of the fact that related to this country to make clear of my point here.

1) In 1990, according to World Bank, 14% of college-age Egyptians were enrolled; in 2008, 28.5 % were. Egyptians schools expanded and a crop of European universities opened campuses there. The Egyptian government doubled the funding for higher education in its 2007 five-year planand sought internation advice on revamping the system. In contrast of this positive moves, the 300-page examination of higher education in Egypt by the World Bank and Organization for Economic Development, published in 2010 noted “a continuing oversupply of university graduates, especially in the humanities & social sciences” and plus the ongoing complaints from the business employers that they couldn’t find workers with the skills they required.

2) High school graduates in Egypt account for 42% of the labor force but only 80% of the unemployed. 1 in every seven college graduates in Egypt, Jordan and Tunisia in unemployed & many more are overqualified for the jobs they have.

3) Mourad Ezzine, a former Tunisian education experts who work the World Bank report, reveals that Arab countries spent heavily on higher education with the objective to boost economic growth, increase employment on higher paying income and reduce inequality of social economy within the society.”But it didnt work out well. For two reasons. First, the education system delivered quantity, not quality and second, on the economic side, the creation of employment to meet the profile of those graduates didn’t happen. Why ? Because the reforms in these countries did not go far enough, fast enough” said him.

4) Middle East countries including Egypt has few differences than other developing economic countries of the world. Fertility rates are staying higher than other countries in East Asia or Latin America which mean more employment opportunities as much as 9.4 millions jobs must be created to match with increasing citizens which now is already 80 million people as International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates. Labor forces in Middle East countries including Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Syria, & Tunisia have grown by 2.7% faster than anywhere outside Africa. That would take about 10% a year of economic growth which is now just 6% average of recent years statistics.

5) In survey of 2000 people in the Middle East between 18 and 24 years old by public relation firms ASDA’A Burston Marsteller which was released last year, two thirds of them told that their countries is likely moving to the right direction, in general. But unlike Egypt, only 26% of have similar agreement.

6) IMF in its report also reveal that while most of other rising powers like China were diversifying their growth through privates sectors, Egypt still left behind by depending on state model economics. A small percentage of college students are hired for jobs or even offered courses that matches with private-sector jobs. Lack of economic growth that failed to provide more jobs outside government employment and the dominance role of the government jobs as favourite choices as an employer have left critical point where unemployment rising every year. Based on the current scenario, over 70% of the population in Egypt which are employed, works in government.

For the 1960’s youth culture, Berkeley was where the Free Speech Movement is coming to its momentum and the beginning that later into the Civil Rights, Women’s Rights and anti-Vietnam War protest movements. As time flies, human will always learn history to remind them there are many dreams that need to be fulfill from generation to generation and this point stand clear to what happened in 2004 where was an estimated 250 social protest in Egypt where the another infamous movement name Kefaya Movement was born and burst onto scene with only small numbers of active members.Although 50 years of history in Berkeley remain unknown to mass media and the ongoing internal conflict within this Kefaya Movement which seems to weaken their prospects has found lights after participation of thousands young internet savvy members just when the phenomenon of Facebook comes out, whom also a university students.

I leave you guys with this speech manifesto for you to understand this dream that will never be going to end in each generation.

“We regard men and women as infinitely possessed of unfulfilled capacities for reason, freedom and love. Men and women have unrealized potential for self-cultivation, self-direction, self-understanding and creativity. We would replace power rooted in possession, privilege, or circumstance by power and uniqueness rooted in love, reflectiveness, reason and creativity.”

Mohd Ridhzuan Harun
12 Feb 2011

Ref:

Owedat, N., Benard,C., Stahl,D., Kildani,W., O’Connell E. and Grant, AK., “The Kefaya Movement – A Case Study of a Grassroots Reform Initiatives”, National Defense Research Institute (accessed 11 Feb 2011)

Reviews of National Policies for Education – Higher Education in Egypt, Organisation For Economic Co-Operation and Development & IBRD / World Bank (2010), ISBN 978-92-64-07723-2 (print) / ISBN 978-92-64-08434-6 (PDF),

Regional Economic Outlook, Middle East & Central Asia, May 25 2010. International Monetary Fund. http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ ft/reo/2010/MCD/eng/mreo0510.htm (accessed 11 Feb 2011)

Wessel,D 2011. “Arab world built colleges, not jobs” The Wall Street Journal, Feb 7, pp14.

Students for a Democratic Society http://www.studentsforademocraticsociety.org/ (accessed 11 Feb 2011)

This is one of the article that I believe will help you guys better understand about how important is to become a smart business person in social media ages nowadays. The web is filled with social networks: We have Twitter for meeting new people, Facebook for old college buddies, and Bebo for those of us who don’t want to hang out with the mainstream. Those social networks are rarely viewed as corporate services — they’re relaxing at the end of a long workday, not playgrounds for more business activity. But I would argue that social networks provide value to a business person on several levels, whether it be for those furiously working each day in a cubicle or for others closing big deals on the golf course.

Social networks can help make you a smarter business person, and there’s a lot of corporate value to be found in them. (Did you know that Dell has made over $6 million from Twitter alone?) It’s time to exploit them for your business, and here’s the 10 tips that I believe are worth mentioning.

1. Get involved. The only way to use social networks to improve business is to join some sites. LinkedIn is a good start, but you’ll need to do much more if you plan to make your social life profitable. Social networks require participation. If you don’t get involved, you’ll never find value in the social web.

2. There’s more than LinkedIn. There’s little debating that LinkedIn is ideal for those who want to network with other professionals. But Twitter, Facebook and the rest also provide real value to a business person. In many cases, they allow you to find folks you might have otherwise missed offline. They also provide you with a “cheat sheet” of information, like interests and education, that could help you close a deal. For example, I recently got in touch with a local professional who needed some basic tech services. I used Facebook to get to know him and what his interests were. When we finally had a chance to meet, I referenced his love of the New York Yankees and some films we both enjoy to get the conversation started, which may have helped me close the deal.

3. It’s networking, but online. One of the first rules you learn in any business school is to network. It’s not always what you know, it’s who you know. Social-networking sites are ideal for those who want to network. You can use them to get back in touch with old friends, get to know colleagues, or network with other local professionals trying to do the same. You wouldn’t believe how easy it is to get to know clients when you’re introduced by a mutual acquaintance.

4. Don’t underestimate Twitter’s value. It might not seem like the best choice for a business person at first glance, but after further inspection, you might find that Twitter is a fine networking platform. It’s filled with active members who want to get to know others, and there are far more professionals than you think. And thanks to several third-party Twitter tools, like WeFollow, it shouldn’t take long to find folks in your area you want to target. WeFollow lets you find people based on categories. So if you want to find entrepreneurs, you can. If you want to find marketing professionals in New York, you can do that, too.

Dell, for one, has shown just how important Twitter can be to a company’s bottom line by offering sales through its Twitter feed, listening to what customers are looking for, and telling those followers about available coupons. In the meantime, besides the $6.5 million it’s pulled in from using the site, it’s attracted a whopping 1.5 million followers looking for deals.

5. Join the conversation. Once you join social networks and you know who you want to target, start talking. Get to know what they discuss and join that discussion. Social networking is not about being shy; it’s about being willing to open up in an online world that has stayed anonymous for far too long. That means you’ll need to talk about your interests and topics that others in your social network are engaged in.

6. It’s not about the numbers. Although some believe the more friends or followers you have on your favorite social network, the better, I don’t. If you want to turn your social life into more business, find followers and friends who either improve your relations with the surrounding community or increase your prospects of securing clients. Don’t waste time with big follower numbers. Most times, it’s that core group that will provide the most value. A company in my hometown currently has a little over 200 followers on Twitter. But according to that company’s owner, they’re some of the store’s most reliable customers; when the owner sends out sales information or coupons, these are the folks who are most likely to redeem them. Twitter lets you engage in extremely effective marketing for free.

7. Don’t stick to business. The worst thing you can do on a social network is just talk about business. Remember that many folks want to leave business at the office. Use social networks to find common ground and get to know each other. When you feel comfortable that a relationship is developing, then throw in the business.

I learned this lesson the hard way when I first started using Twitter. I didn’t discuss topics my followers cared about. Instead, I focused all my tweets on the tech business. Some folks stopped following me; others asked me to stop talking about business so much. It was a great wake-up call. Today, I talk about tech and business, but I also discuss other topics that are important to me and my followers.

8. Don’t go overboard. Don’t think that you need to join every new site that crops up. Instead, stick to two to four social networks. By doing so, you can still be on the sites that other folks are on, but you won’t get caught up in trying to update every site you use.

I wish someone had told me this a long time ago. At this point, I belong to well over 35 social networks. They range from the big ones like Facebook to relatively unknown services like Plurk and Identi.ca. For a while, I tried to keep all those profiles up-to-date. But it became too time-consuming and I was forced to scale back. Today, I maintain active updates on Twitter, Facebook and FriendFeed. Everything else is left dormant.

9. Share what you know. Social networks provide value because users can share their expertise. If you’re into stamp collecting, let us know. If you’re an expert in derivatives, tell us about it. Don’t simply regurgitate what you see in so many other places on the web. Although I write about technology for a living, I’m actually quite knowledgeable in financial topics and baseball history. I was surprised to see how many of my social-networking buddies have those same interests, and it’s helped us form a better professional bond.

10. Remember your employer. Anything and everything you say is a direct reflection on those who employ you. Don’t use profanity. Don’t say nasty things about the competition. Just as you would at any dinner meeting, represent your company well. Companies have worked with PR companies for years to disseminate only the information they want shared, and today, any employee can say anything with a click of a button. If you plan to help your business through social networks, remember that your job could be on the line if you say the wrong thing.

Based on my explanation above, you might have feelings that I was right all the way about what I think of the strong benefits that good PR can give to us.The question is – Why should PR not be included in economic value? To explain more, Public Relation isn’t something that might be calculated in financial budget as something that can give profit in return.It’s not like Marketing department which has strong projection about what will the expected result can be achieved if certain campaign or method is being actioned within the timeframe.It’s also not like Human Resources, where companies spend a certain budget to advertise the employment and also employee training – both has calculated profit that can be measure through yearly employee evaluation review.I think I do no have to explain about Advertising budget, which is so common these days that most people even outsides from management skills level has a certain degree of understand how  good advertising will lead to better reception of product to the public.Do you know that in business rules, most company believes that advertising comes first after the quality of product ?

I can’t believe some people still consider that PR is worth included in Miscellaneous fees.

Ridhzuan Harun