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I was reading up on new developments in social media this morning and came across many social media stats and statements that both amazed me and showed the extent social media has impacted this world. Let me share some of them with you and please feel free to rate, subscribe and comment!

Expressing social media as numbers is truly mind-boggling:

  • If Facebook were a country, it would be the third most populated in the world, ahead of the United States – only India and China are more populated
  • 500 BILLION. The number of minutes spent on Facebook per month.
  • 25 BILLION. The amount of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photos, etc.) shared each month on Facebook.
  • 500 BILLION. The number of peer influence impressions Americans generate per year via social media. 62% of those impressions come from Facebook.
  • 24 HOURS. The amount of video uploaded to YouTube every minute
  • 2 BILLION. The number of YouTube videos viewed per day.
  • 4 BILLION. The number of images hosted on Flickr.
  • ONE-THIRD. The proportion of women aged 18-34 who check Facebook when they first wake up—even before going to the bathroom.
  • NINETY-FIVE. The percentage of companies using LinkedIn to find and attract employees. 59% use Facebook and 42% use Twitter.
  • 1 in 6. The number of marriages last year between people who met through social media. THAT’S MORE THAN TWICE THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE WHO MET AT BARS, CLUBS, AND OTHER SOCIAL EVENTS COMBINED.
  • 27 MILLION. The average number of “tweets” per day on Twitter.

And a interesting final stat: 'More than half of the human race is under the age of 30. They’ve never known life without the Internet. Guess how they feel about social media?'

I also found many interesting thoughts and definitions of social media from various professionals that I would like to share with you:

  • “Social media is the ongoing conversation of the planet. It is the source of news, it is the connector to the giant multi-celled organism called planet Earth. As time goes on, social media is my home on the internet. It is my home page, the place where I spend the most time. It is where I do business. It is where I hang out with friends. It’s where I find out about new movies, television and other products. It is my diary. Looking back on my wall, I have a history that is far richer than any diary or journal.” Kurt Sonderegger, VP Marketing, Ploom, http://www.ploom.com
  • Social media is the vehicle by which men have finally decided it’s cool—and valuable—to open up, share, make friends and have conversations. (Women have know this for eons.)” Diane Hessan, CEO, Communispace http://Communispace.com
  • “Social Media is the mainstream. The average Facebook user age continues to rise. It’s not just for kids anymore. It moves the media mouthpiece and content distribution into the hands of the public.” Emily White, Co-Founder, Whitesmith Entertainment http://whitesmithent.com
  • Social media “is like water. On its own, water does some cool things, but when combined with other compounds it enabled the evolution of all forms of life. Social media on its own is nice, but when combined with other tools, it is enabling everything to evolve, from communications to business to politics to marketing.” Mike Volpe, VP Marketing, HubSpot, http://www.hubspot.com
  • “Social media is the best way to reach your most influential customers, and the only way to reach your most cynical ones.” Michael Troiano Principal Holland-Mark
  • “Social media is the crack cocaine of the Internet. We want it, we need it, and we go into withdrawal when we don't get enough of it.” David Armano, SVP, Edelman Digital, http://darmano.typepad.com
  • “Social media is everything and nothing. Nothing because social media has become like air to the people who use its various forms regularly. It's not "social media" - it's simply letting my friends know what I'm doing/thinking/wishing/ etc. through a digital means. Everything because as more people are armed with webenabled smartphones, there's nothing that can't quickly be shared with a broad group of people. Governments and big businesses have CCTV; the people have camera phones.” Paul Isakson, Co-Founder, Thinkers & Makers Http://paulisakson.typepad.com
  • “Social media... is a way of thinking... It’s not about sales, or ads, or clickthrough rates. It’s about pursuing relationships and fostering communities of consumers. It’s about rethinking how you make plans when your customers are in the center and in control.” Paul Adams Senior User Experience Researcher Google http://thinkoutsidein.com/blog
  • “Social media is the same today as it was yesterday. It’s just now reached such a critical mass, it’s too hard to ignore. You don’t want to be ‘that guy’ or ‘that brand’ who refuses to adapt to change and loses touch with reality.” Julia Roy Senior Manager, New Media Coach, Inc. http://juliaroy.com
  • Now social media IS media. And like all media it is at risk of getting corrupted, polluted, overly commercial, politicized and too powerful. It is up to all of us to prevent that from happening.” Shiv Singh, Director Digital Engagement & Social Media PepsiCo.

A final thought to consider. The extent to which social impact can have an impact is demonstrated in the example I found below. And guess what? I found this using social media too!

“We're still in the process of picking ourselves up off the floor after witnessing first hand the fact that a sixteen-year-old YouTuber can deliver us three times the traffic in a couple of days that some excellent traditional media coverage has over five months. Juicystar07 and new media, we love you!”

- Michael Fox, CEO, Shoes of Prey, blogging about how 16yo Blair Fowler (aka Juicystar07)’s video promoting their design-your-ownshoes website became the #1 most commented on and #5 most viewed video worldwide on YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/user/juicystar07