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If Facebook were a country it would be the 4th biggest in the world, just behind the US. Social media has arrived, and is not going to go away again. But is it as important for business as it is for our social lives

A superb blog and video by Socialnomics highlights the impact of Social Media :

1. By 2010 Gen Y will outnumber Baby Boomers….96% of them have joined a social network
2. Social Media has overtaken porn as the #1 activity on the Web
3. 1 out of 8 couples married in the U.S. last year met via social media
4. Years to Reach 50 millions Users:  Radio (38 Years), TV (13 Years), Internet (4 Years), iPod (3 Years)…Facebook added 100 million users in less than 9 months…iPhone applications hit 1 billion in 9 months.
5. If Facebook were a country it would be the world’s 4th largest between the United States and Indonesia (note that Facebook is now creeping up – recently announced 300 million users)
6. % of US companies using LinkedIn as a primary tool to find employees….80%

Does this impact extend from our social lives to our business lives ?  Lets look at  HP as an example.  A high-tech multinational whose staff and customers must be computer literate, and which puts time and effort into social media.  Here are some more stats :

1. HP has over 1 billion customers worldwide
2. HP has 321,000 employees worldwide
3. HP ship 1 million printers a week and 48 million PCs a year
4. HP on Twitter has 10,700 followers
5. HP on Facebook has 32,580 fans

The percentage staff following HP is small, and the percentage of customers following HP is absolutely minute. As a means of talking to its stakeholders social media just hasn’t happened yet for HP.  Looks like we all love our social media, but perhaps we want it to stay social, not business.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 10th, 2009 at 5:33 pm and is filed under Business, The Web .