Two users have created great comparisons of Google Plus, Twitter and Facebook, in table and infographic forms. I’ll show the infographic first, and below that, the table.

Hutch Carpenter (VP of Product, Spigit) posted this great cheat sheet as a table on Quora to highlight where Google+ is like either Facebook or Twitter.

As Jonathan points out in the comments, Twitter offers near-inline graphics and media, and should probably get at least a 1/2 for that

You can stay up to date on the latest Internet trends if you check out my AssEtEbooks.com Social Media Blog, where you'll find all the news, tips, tricks, articles and ebooks you'll need. And while you're at it, you'll want to check out the many FREE and cheap Ebooks I offer on just about any and every subject you can possibly think of, at AssEtEbooks.com

Source: Cheat Sheet For Comparing Twitter to Google+ and Facebook [infographic] Tweetsmart

That old antique device of the internet, known as email, is arguably considered by many to be a form of “social networking”. Online communication occurred long before we were able to ‘write’ on each other’s virtual walls.

Did you know that the very first email was sent in 1971? Did you know that the concept of “trolling” was established in Usenet bulletin boards not Twitter? Social media has a long (40 years or so) and revealing history.

The origins of social media and inevitably social networking are not clearly defined. Where do you think it all began? How do you define social networking?

Along with this new world of social media, comes new unspoken rules and understandings. One of the most significant aspects of all social sites (Twitter, Facebook, Linked in etc) is the Profile Picture. Not to make you stress over it more than you already do, but CHOOSE carefully. That pic tells the internet a lot about you….

Your Pet: You have no children. Or they have moved out. Leaving you with only the affection of your beloved lhasa apso to keep you company. Facebook is your last effort to connect with the outside world.

Your Baby: You have not lost your baby weight. So rather than post your chubby photo, you use the baby instead. Oh, and you actually, honestly and truly believe you have the cutest baby on the planet. (it’s the hormones. it’ll wear off as soon…)

Your Kids: You have spent the last 1-10 years taking 9 million photos of your kids, and have not one single decent photo of yourself. Your husband only took photos of you when you were breast feeding…boobs motivate him.

You as a child*: Since all you do on Facebook is talk to people from your school days, you felt like this would make it easier for people to remember you. Plus you sorta live in the past. Which is sad.

You with spouse: Even though you are on Facebook of your own free will, your significant other wasn’t too thrilled about it, and said things like ‘Facebook is just a fancy dating service’ and is convinced you are planning a secret rendezvous with your high school sweetheart. So you were HIGHLY encouraged to use a photo of the two of you to make it clear YOU ARE HAPPILY MARRIED.

You with spouse on your wedding day: Still driving the I AM MARRIED message home. And chances are you were married within the last 2 years and still think it is ‘so awesome’. Give it time. Plus you think you looked pretty damn hot on your wedding day. You want to share that hotness with the world. Thanks for that.

You/photo taken by you into a bathroom mirror: you are too embarrassed to ask anyone in your life to take a photo of you for you to use on Facebook. Instead you try to take your own photo, and end up looking like half human half white light from the flash reflection. Still, it is better than using your pet. So there is that.

You drinking cocktail: You are trying to send the message “I am full of fun and good times. Let’s party!”, but what it really says is that you are trying to hard to look carefree and could possibly have a drinking problem. I mean past the age of 21 who brags about the ability to drink? This photo above all the others says “Jealous Much?”. I equate it with the status update that mentions golfing/spa visit/ or an unexpected expensive gift from your husband. We get it. Your life is BETTER THAN OURS. Thanks for sharing.

A celebrity that sorta looks like you, but not really: Just done to confuse people. Knock it off. Plus you are just waiting for someone to say “Oh my god I never noticed how much you look like Katie Perry! I thought that was you!”

A Simpson Cartoon (or other): Grow up much? Chances are you have a Simpsons/Superhero/Tron poster in your garage too.

YOU: You are none of the things above (or all of them) but you have mean vocabulary skillz and know the definition of ‘profile pic’. You don’t over think things and are a rule follower. And you are okay looking at a teeny tiny pic of yourself over and over again. Just a little note: it is super cheating if you post a photo of you wearing sunglasses. EVERYONE looks good in sunglasses. Same goes for hats. Hatless photos only for men. After all- how are supposed to tell if you are bald or not?

(Not written with ill intent. I love you all and your crazy profile pics. Honest.)

Posted By: Tom Retterbush

You can stay up to date on the latest Internet trends if you check out my AssEtEbooks.com Social Media Blog, where you'll find all the news, tips, tricks, articles and ebooks you'll need. And while you're at it, you'll want to check out the many FREE and cheap Ebooks I offer on just about any and every subject you can possibly think of, at AssEtEbooks.com

Source: Why Email Marketing Is Better Than Social Media (marketingpilgrim.com)

        

1. Delivery

Email marketing surpasses social media because it goes directly to the a place where people are looking to receive messages. Social media is a place where people go to communicate yes but not only communicate, it is largely a place to browse. This is why Facebook created the message and email function….because they know that this type of communication is a superior delivery method. In addition, because email can use HTML code it allows for a much better delivery method that allows for more flexibility. This flexibility includes the ability to embed images, attach documents or embed links to aid your marketing methods. Social media has many constraints on how things can be displayed which can often work against your marketing goals. In addition email allows for superior delivery tracking metrics as you can track, who all received your message, who opened it and who clicked on your links within the email. Within social media the only thing you can track is if someone takes an action. You can not track who your message was delivered to, you can’t see who has read your message and you can’t see who has clicked on your links. Given the flexibility and tracking features of email marketing it has a far more superior delivery method than social media.

2. Read Rate

Average email marketing open rates are anywhere from 10-20% depending on which study and industry you refer to. Compare this to the average Facebook, Twitter or other social media post. On these mediums people are connected to hundreds or thousands of people that are also posting. If someone has 500 friends and each one makes one post a day, that means their news feed could have up to 500 posts per day. I know personally I maybe read the top ten posts on my newsfeed when I log in or on occasion read read the top 20 but never more. That works out to a read rate of like 2 to 4%. Because of the mass volume of posts on social media sites, the read rate is much lower then email. And if less people read your messages….then the medium is less effective.

3. Attention

Social media does beat email for the amount of time spent on each activity at about 22% vs 8% respectively, but given the much higher number of connections on social media sites, that time is more fragmented across a wide range of pages. In addition only a small portion of that time on social media sites is spent on corporate or business pages, most of the time spent on facebook or other social media sites is spent viewing friend pages. I do not have any figures but my estimate is that the amount of time spent on marketing related pages when on social media sites is low compared to the amount of time spent reading marketing emails.

In addition the fact that 58% of internet users check their email when first going online versus only 14% checking social media sites first says something about which gets the higher amount and level of attention. People usually do first what they are most interested in or see as the most important. Another reason why email is superior to social media is because it is still the primary source of communication online and is given the most attention. This may change over time as tools are put in place and tactics are learned for how to have a higher interaction rate with prospects over social media but currently email wins hands down in this area.

4. Usage

Email is a medium where people have the habit of attempting to keep track of all or most messages. Social media is much more of a browsing usage in nature. People usually check all email messages that are delivered to their in box, at least reading the subject line. People do not read all messages on a social media site as there is just too many messages. In essence people put more importance on an email message then a social media post, because it is directed from one person to another. Email can be used to create marketing newsletters that people read regularly and wait in anticipation of receiving (if they are a really good newsletter). I have not heard of anyone ever waiting in anticipation for a social media post . Given email is given more importance, it is the better medium for communicating marketing messages when you are trying to entice or convince a prospect to purchase.

I am not saying social media is not a valuable tool. It is a great tool that every business should use to market its business. It just should not become the only focus in your marketing efforts. Specifically email marketing and social media should play of each other as each can compound the effectiveness of the other. Social media should play a role that is part of a larger marketing plan and within that plan email marketing should be given more prominence as it is the more power tool to generate sales.

Will email marketing always be better than social media at generating sales? Only time will tell, but currently email trumps social media as a more effective marketing medium to generate new customers. My hypotheses is that social media will always be a powerful tool earlier on in the buying process for things such as creating awareness, education and interest in products and services but that email will always be the more powerful tool for later stages of the buying process when looking to persuade and sell to prospects.

Posted By: Tom Retterbush

You can stay up to date on the latest Internet trends if you check out my AssEtEbooks.com Social Media Blog, where you'll find all the news, tips, tricks, articles and ebooks you'll need. And while you're at it, you'll want to check out the many FREE and cheap Ebooks I offer on just about any and every subject you can possibly think of, at AssEtEbooks.com

Source: Why Email Marketing Is Better Than Social Media (marketingpilgrim.com)

                       

Social media provides an excellent opportunity to extend the experience of a brand. Here's how Jessica Sutherland, senior director for content development at USA Network, explained it at the recent Streaming Media East conference:

"Our goal is to support our on-air properties and we're trying to drive tune-in as much as possible," said Sutherland. "When we create content, we're always striving to extend that show experience on our site, so we have our shows that are on the air when in season, just one hour per week, so we want to give fans a place to go where they can interact with those characters even further."

USA has found the social networking can help in promotion, and that it works even better when fans are rewarded.

"Social helps us drive our fans there, and when we're monetizing that opportunity, I guess what we try to do is give rewards to fans for interacting," added Sutherland.

Scroll down to view the video of the entire panel discussion.

Building a Content Brand Using Social Media

Posted By: Tom Retterbush

You can stay up to date on the latest Internet trends if you check out my AssEtEbooks.com Social Media Blog, where you'll find all the news, tips, tricks, articles and ebooks you'll need. And while you're at it, you'll want to check out the many FREE and cheap Ebooks I offer on just about any and every subject you can possibly think of, at AssEtEbooks.com

Source: Using Facebook and Twitter to Promote Online Video (streamingmedia.com)

Facebook Growth Slows in May

Facebook, now at around 700 million users, is the powerhouse in social networking. Month after month, the service has shown amazing growth figures, that is, until this past May. According to Inside Facebook, Facebook's growth was 11.8 million users in May, down from 13.9 million new users in the month of April. In each month during 2010, the service added 20 million new users, on average.

Another interesting note from the latest figures, Facebook lost roughly 6 million users in the United States during May and another 1.5 million in Canada. Are users fleeing Facebook, much like MySpace a few years ago? Not likely — the service has surging popularity overseas, as Facebook added 1 million new users in places such as Indonesia, the Philippines, India and Mexico.

Why North American users left Facebook is unknown. Considering the numerous security and privacy issues Facebook has suffered, perhaps users decided to forgo the service and delete their accounts. Have you considered dumping Facebook, let's discuss in the comments below!

Klout Now Ranks Influence on LinkedIn

Klout is a new website that ranks your influence on social networking sites by providing a score on how much pull you have on various sites. As of yesterday, Facebook and Twitter were the main sites that Klout offered guidance on. Just recently, the social networking rank site added LinkedIn to its portfolio of sites, so users can see their influence on the professional social network using Klout's algorithms.

Posted By: Tom Retterbush

You can stay up to date on the latest Internet trends if you check out my AssEtEbooks.com Social Media Blog, where you'll find all the news, tips, tricks, articles and ebooks you'll need. And while you're at it, you'll want to check out the many FREE and cheap Ebooks I offer on just about any and every subject you can possibly think of, at AssEtEbooks.com

This is my rule: ( Facebook + twitter + Youtube > Google ).

what i really want to deliver by this rule is that the traffic we can generate from the social media sites combined can be bigger than the search engines sites traffic, especially Google. Moreover, back to Alexa.com we can know that 7.63% of the people who visit google They were in Facebook, Twitter or Youtube. In addition, 7.06% of the people who quite from Google they go to Facebook, Twitter or Yourtube. Furthermore, 2 of the first 3 biggest world sites are Social Media sites, so a lot of traffic is waiting for you

Here is my best 3 social media sites:

Facebook

600 million active users representing this site from all over the world, back to Alexa.com Facebook comes 2nd after Google for the biggest sites in the world. In Facebook you can share links, text, photos or videos with your friends or fans. What’s more, this flexibilities to choose the way you want to deliver your message can make everything easy for you to generate traffic to your blog or your article.

Twitter:

190 million active users representing Twitter from all over the world, back to Alexa.com twitter comes 9th from the biggest world sites. Twitter is a micro-blogging tool that allow you share a text message with a 140 characters as a maximum length. What is awesome about twitter that you can follow people who are within your city and the awesome ability for their search engine, we all know Google has robots that work for them while twitter search has 190 million users typing and updating. For example, if you type Ice cream in twitter search, you will find a lot of results that people from your city have written.

Youtube:

If you are good in front of the camera, you should be fine using Youtube. Video marketing has proved the awesome result that can generate to the marketers. Of course the effect of the videos in people mind is really big, video is one of the best ways to increase your sales and traffic, as you have the ability to talk to people and this can walk you through to people trust.

If you know how to use those 3 social media sites you will see an awesome result coming to your blog or your business, for me I’m getting a visitors only from Twitter more than Google. I may not good in SEO but believe me social media is easier than a piece of cake. Finally we conclude that social media is as important as SEO.

Posted By: Tom Retterbush

You can stay up to date on the latest Internet trends if you check out my AssEtEbooks.com Social Media Blog, where you'll find all the news, tips, tricks, articles and ebooks you'll need. And while you're at it, you'll want to check out the many FREE and cheap Ebooks I offer on just about any and every subject you can possibly think of, at AssEtEbooks.com