44% use social networks, like Facebook and Twitter, while watching TV. 19% have shared TV content on a social network. Developing a social media strategy that ties in with other forms of advertising will help engage an audience across multiple channels and across multiple mediums. Whatever your marketing and advertising plans, with the rise of smartphone and tablet users, brands need to consider how they will create a more social experience to TV viewing. 37% go online while watching TV every day. 37% have chatted online about TV content. MORE >>

I’ve been thinking about this since Shonali’s thought-provoking post a few weeks back about how to social network smartly by being yourself online. What are we really up against (against ourselves) in the way we behave on social networks? This best summary I’ve found on online disinhibition is several years old, but still applies to today’s world of social media communication. On Twitter, for example, you might be friends with people of various social and career statuses (which is part of the reason it’s awesome!). MORE >>

In December 2008, global consumers spent an average of just over three hours on social networks. According to The Nielsen Company , social network sites have grown in importance globally in 2009. Australia, Brazil, Japan, Switzerland, Germany, France, Spain and Italy) shows not only that overall time on site has increased, but also that the global audience for social networking has increased. Of the 307 million social network users in the countries in the survey, 207 million (67%) were users of Facebook. Image by Balakov via Flickr. MORE >>

Everyone’s talking about the launch of Togetherville , a social network designed to bring parents and their kids together with the goal of learning responsible social networking. Does Does it occur to anyone that children six to ten years old (Togetherville’s target) don’t need social networks, and to encourage them to use one is the antithesis of responsible social networking? Any serious adult user of Twitter, Facebook, or MySpace knows these sites are both social and anti-social. That will come in time. MORE >>

of Sociology , on the shaping powers of social networks. He does a wonderful job of explaining stastically the forces and dynamics that drive social networks. In doing so, he helps us understand how business can work in tandem with such dynamics enabling a company to be relevant, sharable and social online. Plus what’s required to sustain a networks once it’s built. Many of us -- myself included -- assume there’s a basic human trait that drives social networks; we simply like to be in communication with each other. MORE >>