With all the hype surrounding Facebook’s public offering, GM’s decision to stop Facebook advertising and the countless articles pointing out how abyssmal click through rates are – we tend to lose sight of the value Social Media provides for marketing. The folks at Pew Internet have provided us with this reminder. While the data may almost three months old, even the change-at-the- speed-of-light nature of the Internet can’t devalue these numbers. typical or median user can reach over 31,000 people. That is staggering. You are receiving an actual endorsement from them. MORE >>

This does seem to be one of the raging questions in the social media world. Leaving aside, for the moment, of post quality – what is the optimum number of daily posts for a Facebook business page? Before you answer – keep in mind that once most of your fans have liked you they rarely come back to your page for a visit. Generally, they interact with you via the postings in their news feed. So, given the complete random nature of postings and when people pay attention the chances of your fan base seeing every one of your posts is pretty slim. Uh, not so fast. It is about page likes. MORE >>

A couple of reports were released in the last week that highlight how people are using Social Media – by two well respected research firms. While it is easy to get blinded by the numbers, a look inside can reveal some facts that can help you focus your Social Media marketing strategy. First, the folks at Nielsen give us their April 2012 Internet usage report. The numbers do not vary much on a month-to-month basis so you can assume what you see here will continue for the foreseeable future. As always, Google gets the most traffic and Facebook gobbles up the most on-line time. SMThree. MORE >>

This just in…apparently the reason everyone posts on Facebook , tweets from their smart phone, writes a blog, checks in on foursquare, pins recipe’s on Pintrest and watches video on You Tube is because…wait for it -  it’s FUN! Don’t take my word for it. This has been proven in a study by the market research firm Penn Schoen Berland for the Hollywood Reporter. Fully 88% of the participants in the study viewed Social Media platforms as just another – albeit new – form of entertainment. The sample was based on a demo of 13-49 so its pretty comprehensive. MORE >>

This is the raging debate in social Media, isn’t it. Everyone is looking for the holy grail in Facebook posting. Now, along comes a study from PageLever that is getting some traction. According to them the average Facebook post has a life expectancy of 22 hours and 51 minutes. Of course, your mileage may vary. There is one small problem with the study. It measured 20 status updates from 5 pages that each have over TWO MILLION fans. This is not exactly in-depth market research. Yes, the facts stated in the study are true. The beauty of digital media is that we can see exact numbers. MORE >>