A recent survey by Bloomberg and YouGov found that Google+ is on track to become the second largest social networking site within the next 12 months. I’ve been a member of Google+ since it launched about a month ago, but I’m just not buying it—the survey, that is.
The survey (which only interviewed 1,003 adults, not quite a representative sample in my opinion) claims that Google+ is “chipping away at engagement levels on Facebook and Twitter” based on the following statistics:

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What we’ve learned in the past decade is that brands that want momentum, relevance and reach must ensure they are digital to the core. That means a lot more than having a cool website and delegating some people to talk about the brand in social media. In just the past few years, ordinary consumers have taken digital into every room of their house and with them everywhere they go. They’ve become digital to the core.
Digital is already massive, and it’s [...]

Let’s start this week’s blog post with “happy” news—at least for the Germans (like me). According to a study, Germany is the happiest country on Twitter. Alex Davies, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Cambridge, analyzed the tweets of 25 countries (countries where there was enough tweeting to make the rating possible). The parameter to determine the levels of happiness was the high-level correlations between words and emoticons like or . By the way, the saddest [...]

Let’s call this Week in Social Media the “Visual Week.” I found quite a few interesting and funny infographics and videos, all of course concerning our favorite topic: social media.
What would Facebook look like, if it was a city? Actually, it would be humongous, with its 600,000,000 inhabitants (20 times bigger than the most populous existing city). Have a look at this infographic on getsatisfaction.
LinkedIn has recently surpassed the 100 million user mark—and to that, we say congratulations! Mashable marked [...]

Do you use Facebook’s birthday feature as a cheat sheet for remembering your friends’ and family members’ birthdays? Do you say “Happy Birthday” to anyone and everyone on their special day…even if you haven’t seen or spoken to them in years?
It’s time to ’fess up…because almost everyone who uses Facebook regularly is guilty of this. I know this because my birthday is often the only time I hear from some of my friends—the elusive, annual “Happy Birthday!” post. And thanks [...]

Hello, and welcome again to another Week in Social Media.
Facebook—my beloved social network and, as always, the first topic of this blog post. But this time it is not about the platform itself but the users. With almost 600 million of them globally, there is a lot to learn about the demographics. Have look at this SlideShare by Amodiovalerio Verde.
What would the Class of 2011 look like, if social media were a high school? Interesting question, right? What about [...]

We all know the age-old “If a tree falls in the woods…” question, but in the age of social media an equally important question is now being asked by the masses: If you’re in a relationship and it’s not documented on Facebook, does it even count?
We all have friends who record their entire relationship through social media channels—whether through constant tweets proclaiming their love for their romantic partner, frequent wall post declarations of love, or pictures posted of flowers or [...]

Hello again, and happy seventh birthday, Facebook! What has happened during the last seven years? Tech18 explains it in seven interesting points.
That’s all about Facebook this time. But that doesn’t mean that there haven’t been other interesting social media topics during the last week.
Apple and News Corp., for example, finally launched the Daily iPad newspaper. “New times require new journalism. Our challenge was to take the best of conventional journalism…and combine it with the best of new technology,” Rupert Murdoch [...]

It’s no surprise that The Social Network caused a huge stir in the film world this past fall, as everyone (or everyone I know, at least) is curious about how the biggest social networking site came about from a drunken dorm room escapade.
It was quite a surprise, however, that the movie was the big winner at the 68th Golden Globe Awards on Sunday, taking away four major awards including best drama, best director, best screenplay and best original score—especially when [...]

Hello, and welcome to another “Week in Social Media.”
Although 2011 has just started, 2010 is still fresh in our minds, so I will use the chance to concentrate on the past, the present and the future. As reported in my last post, much happened during the past year, especially on the Web and in social media.
Let’s take a look at the Internet itself first. Have you any idea how many websites were added in 2010? Or how many people used [...]