Social Networking websites continue to grow on a huge scale with Facebook recently announcing that they have now reached over 400 million worldwide users and Twitter soon to be reaching the benchmark of 50 million tweets per day. Facebook and Twitter also both boasted a  triple-digit growth in 2009 with social networking now accounting for 11% of all time spent online.

Not only have user figures grown across social media websites but so has usage and time spent on social networking sites. A report from The Nielsen Company showed that there has been a huge increase of 82% in time spent on social networking sites. Across the globe over the past year average time spent on social networking sites grew from 3 hours per month to 5.5 hours. In addition Nielsen concluded that overall social media sites such as Facebook are now the most common homepages for users and that people now spend the majority of theit internet time using social networks or blogs.

Forrester also recently produced some interesting stats about adults using social media. Some of the findings included:

• A third of adults post at least once a week to social sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

• A quarter of adults publish a blog and upload video/audio they created.

• Nearly 60% maintain a profile on a social networking site.

• 70% Read blogs, tweets and watch UGC video.

UK Social Media Stats

The popularity of Social Media continues to rise rapidly in the UK, now accounting for almost 11% of the share of UK Internet visits – continually closing the gap on search and entertainment websites.

Facebook’s growth in the UK continues with a reported 24 million active users. It now accounts for over half of all visits to social networking sites in the UK with YouTube sitting in second with over 17% of visits. Despite the media coverage and growth of Twitter over the past year the micro-blogging site makes up only around 2% of visits to social media sites in the UK, only just surpassing Bebo.

The Growth of Facebook

With Facebook also surpassing the 400m user mark, below are some great graphs and stats to put the numbers in perspective from Pingdom.

Sources: Hitwise, Nielsen, Comscore, Forrester, Royal Pingdom.

A question I am often asked is why a fan page? why not just a group? Good question, one that Mashable has answered on its thread titled: difference between Facebook pages and groups. But for those lazy bones out there he is a summary:

For personal or smaller scale interaction then a group is great for this but Pages are better for brands, businesses, celebrities, bands all of whom want to interact with their “fans” without having them connected to a person account. Remember, there is a 5000 friend cap on Facebook, so you are limiting yourself with a personal account. The great thing about Pages is that you can grow as big as you want whilst keeping the focus on the organisation and sending messages, notifications and updates to large numbers of people, unlimited infact.

Setting it up
One of the many benefits of setting up a page is that you can include everything that relates to your business in one place with a built-in potential audience. For example, in your company overview, you can list links to pages on your website, your newsletter signup form, other social media, or whatever you want.

• Overview of company
• Website and contact info
• Press releases
• Videos
• Blog RSS
• Twitter updates
• Company news and status
• Customer interaction

You can also easily update the information any time you wish too, and the fresher your content the more you will engage people.

**TIP** When uploading your photo or logo, include your website address at the bottom. Although fans cant click on this, your audience will know where to go if they want to visit your website

Enhance your Page
Before reaching out to your fans, try and make something of your page. You can do this by adding applications to your page, giving particular function to your page such a videos, RSS feeds or twitter feeds. You want to provide a reason for your visitors to come back and the best way to do this is to engage with them.

The other option, if you have the budget for it, is to create a custom app. For example the pizza hut app that allows users to order their Pizza from their own Facebook account – genius!

Tab-tastic

Your Facebook should act as a secondary website for your business and the tabs at the op are like your site navigation. Have a tab for your videos, your RSS feed, tab for products or services. You may ask how? Try the FBML application below & don’t forget the sidebar! Anything you can put in your tabs, you can also put in your sidebar. A newsletter signup form fits here nicely. So does a poll (another application you can add), affiliate banner, or set of links.

Getting the most from your Page
If you are lucky enough to be building a fan page for a brand that has a strong following, you have the perfect platform to launch a community. Engage with your fans and start the conversation. Use Facebook to get feedback and give your fans a sense of involvement, if they feel like you are listening to their needs they are more likely to engage. Ask questions like: “what’s your favorite product?” or “what could we do to improve our product?” Post updates weekly, if not daily and point your fans to any off-site promotions, such as giveaways hosted on different web sites.

This can be time consuming, but well worth it in the end. Keep sending out invites to new contacts asking if they want to be fans and constantly promote your page. If you want fans, you have to let people know you’re on Facebook. Put an icon or link in your newsletter, on your website or blog, in your email footer, everywhere.

And keep it fun! Nobody likes straight up business all the time!

**TIP** Do an email blast driving subscribers to your fan page. Post a blog about what’s happening on your fan page with an invitation to become a fan.

Posts & Updates
As with any other social media platform, its all about content and interaction. If you only post a few times a month, your fans will soon get bored and wont bother to interact with you anymore. Post every day or even several times a day to make sure you’re showing up in the news feeds of your fans. This can be links to your blog, product announcements, questions, news items, or anything your fans would be interested in.
Remember to send updates to your fans. The email feature is similar to your emails so be careful, you don’t want to spam and annoy your fans. Use it for your advantage to promote sales, new products and events.

**TIP** Every time someone becomes a fan, comments, clicks the “like” link, or shares your post, it shows up in that fan’s news feed for all their friends to see. So “viral” is built in.

Using FBML
FBML is the HTML editor app for Facebook. Search for the application Static FBML. THis will allow you to create basic HTML in the boxes and tabs on your page. The create thing about this app is you can create a landing page for your brand, to inform and engage the audience when they reach you.  For example, you can give a short description of your organization and tell people to click the “become a fan” button.

Get Social
Unfortunately your Facebook page wont grow to thousands or millions overnight (unless you are Nike!)  so plan to dedicate a few hours each week to getting new fans and updating content. You’ll quickly appreciate the instant ability to connect with customers and future customers through this social media tool!
There you have it folks, I hope that help. Thank you for Mashable and the Direct Creative Blog for their tips.

Photo: babygood.com

My recent days have been spent surfing the interweb for a flat to share in the city, somewhere to call home and be able to enjoy the London experience without the 2 hour commute home.

Last nights viewing was a bit of a washout, a two-bedroom house above a Chinese restaurant with 3 people living there. Two Russian escorts sharing a bed and a polish man on the sofa. All you need now are some immigrants locked in the wardrobe and you’d have a full house. And how much do I have to spend to live in such a sort after property? £800 a month, 800! Needless to say I left with a smile on my face (in fear of being gagged and/or beaten) with no intention on ever returning!

Determined not to fail I scurried home and got straight back online. Checked yourface and twatbook before stepping up the hunt a few huskies? (Name of hunting dogs). High on orange juice and property rage I finished with 5 flats with some potential, and to my knowledge no eastern European escorts that may pounce on me!

The hunt continues!

Check out this superb piece of filmmaking in its entirety below. Genius.

The fantastic fighting cock, aka Dude, led his ladies into battle when the fox managed to get into their coop late at night. Surprisingly, the feather-weight contest didn’t end in a slaughter of the chickens but the demise of the predator.

News of the fight broke when chicken owner Michelle Cordell, 43, went to collect eggs from her brood and found the dead fox lying in their midst.

‘I was so shocked. When I went to the chicken coup they were all fine but, when I went to the other side, the fox was lying there dead,’ she said.

Ms Cordell added that a little table in the corner of the coup, which the chickens perched on, had been knocked over and was lying next to the fox’s head.

‘It seems they kicked over the table and knocked the fox out, and then pecked it to death,’ she said.

‘It had little blood marks on its legs that looked like they had been pecked. It had not been dead long. The fox was not a cub but it was only a young one and Dude and Izzy are big birds.’

A fox killed one hen and another cockerel just before Christmas but Ms Cordell is certain the chickens saw off the latest attack.

She said: ‘I reared Dude from a little chick and he has become very protective over the others.’ Her verdict on the cockerel? ‘Now he is a murderer.’

Yes, another Metro story comes to Joe’s Blogg, this time in the form of raining fish!

Ms Christine Balmer’s family thought she was going mad when she told them what was happening.

‘I haven’t lost my marbles,’ she said. ‘Hundreds and hundreds of fish landed in the town. Locals were picking them up off the ground everywhere. ‘These fish were alive when they hit the ground,’ she added. ‘Thank God it didn’t rain crocodiles.’
The perch are common throughout northern Australia. That’s all very well, but the nearest river is 326 miles away from Lajamanu. It seems there is a natural explanation, albeit utterly unlikely. Meteorologists say conditions were perfect for a tornado in the region which could have sucked the fish up to 50,000-ft into the air from lakes hundreds of miles away.
‘Once they get up into the weather system they are pretty much frozen and after some time they are released,’ said Mark Kersemakers of the Australian Bureau of Meteorology.
It’s not the first time local people have reported strange things.
Les Dillon, 48, said: ‘In the early 1980s I was at the Alice Springs Tavern Hotel and when I walked out the door I saw all those little fish, fallen out of the sky.
‘Yes, I had a couple of beers, six, so none of my mates believed me. I’ve rung heaps of people to let them know I wasn’t drunk back then. It had really happened.’
‘I was really excited to see it had happened again, I rang heaps of people to let them know I had not been drunk back then, it had really happened.’

Identify the Type of Feedback

Straight Problems – Someone has an issue with your product or service and has laid out exactly what went wrong. This type of feedback is negative in the sense that it paints your business in a poor light, but it can be helpful in exposing real problems that need to be dealt with.

Constructive Criticism – Even more helpful is when the comment comes with a suggestion attached. Many customers — including some of your most loyal — will use social media to suggest ways in which you can improve your product or service. While this type of feedback may point out your flaws, and is thus negative, it can be extremely helpful to receive.

Merited Attack – While the attack itself may not be merited, the issue that catalyzed it does have merit in this type of negative feedback. Essentially, you or your company did something wrong, and someone is angry.

Trolling/Spam – The difference between trolling and a merited attack are that trolls have no valid reason for being angry at you. Also in this category are spammers, who will use a negative comment about your product or service (whether true or not) to promote a competing service.

Decide How to React

When dealing with Straight Problems, a response is almost certainly necessary. Whether that response is personal or a broad public-facing message depends on how widespread the problem is and how many people reported it. Regardless, if a real problem exists, steps should be taken to fix it and customers should be notified that those steps are being taken. Remember that there will be times when such criticism is the result of a perceived problem rather than an actual problem (e.g., someone who just doesn’t like the method by which you do something). Even this type of complaint should be given a response, if only to say, “Thanks for bringing it to our attention, but here’s why we do it that way.”

Similarly, Constructive Criticism also requires a response. Certainly there will be times when you won’t want to implement the suggestion given — probably most times you won’t — but you’ll build loyalty and trust by responding to criticism with a positive message. It is well worth the effort to thank those consumers who took the time to provide you with a suggestion or point out your product’s flaws.

Merited Attacks are a bit tougher to deal with, because they’re more likely to feel personal. You should always try to keep in mind that this type of feedback, as harsh as it may be, has a basis in a real problem. It is best to respond promptly and with a positive vibe (e.g., thank the commenter for the feedback and assure them that steps are being taken to correct the issue or mitigate their problem, such as offering a partial refund).

The final category is the only category of negative feedback that does not require a response. In fact, it is almost always best not to respond to Trolling or Spam. This type of feedback isn’t really feedback at all. It is designed either to bait you into an unnecessary and image-damaging fight, or to siphon off your customers using underhanded tactics. You should always ignore this variety of feedback, and when appropriate, remove it as soon as you spot it.

This cheeky meerkat appeared to have offended a rather prim giraffe after wandering into its enclosure. The tiny mammal bounded into the giraffe’s pen, sparking the curiosity of the larger beast. The pair inspected one another solemnly, with the meerkat stretching out a little paw and appearing to give the giraffe a kiss.

Going for it: The meerkat is dwarfed by the giraffe as it goes in for a kiss

But it seemed the giraffe was not that sort of giraffe – and the meerkat had pushed its luck too far.

It was forced to flee when the giraffe started kicking its hooves.

The remarkable confrontation was captured by 40-year-old photographer Alfonso Paz at Lisbon Zoo, Portugal.

He said: ‘Two meerkats escaped from their enclosure and were playing with each other along the road that led to the giraffes.

‘They were hiding here and there as they ran into the giraffes’ compound.

‘They found some large rocks and as soon as the first meerkat appeared standing up between the rocks, a young giraffe approach them.

‘I was fascinated as the giraffe and the meerkat just stared at each other for a few moments – I had never seen anything like it.

‘I didn’t even prepare the camera at first because I didn’t want to disturb what was happening.

‘But then the giraffe leaned over the meerkat and touched its head. Then they started playing with each other.

‘At one point the meerkat seemed to give the giraffe a little kiss on the cheek.’

Alfonso said that something then seemed to irritate the giraffe and it started kicking out at the meerkat.

He added: ‘All hell broke loose.

‘The giraffe seemed to be offended and started kicking in every direction and the other giraffes started running in every direction and jumping and kicking.

‘The meerkats seemed to enjoy the scene because they stayed for a while longer before going back to their compound.’

And if that wasn’t enough, here are some more stories to warm up your start to the weekend:

• Seoul Man steals 1,200 pairs of shoes
• World’s largest rodent pet is an internet star
• Cat with can on head somehow finds its way to pet rescue center

He may be just a few days old, but this unusually marked lamb is clearly one to be reckoned with.

Named Miyagi after fictional martial arts expert Mr  Miyagi from the Karate Kid films, he was born five days ago with a thick belt of black wool around his middle.

Farmer William Herbert said:

‘I’ve been farming for over 50 years but I’ve never seen anything like this before. Some lambs have a spot of discoloured wool, but it’s very unusual to see a  full thick stripe. It goes all the way around. It looks like I’ve gone out to him with a paint brush.

‘He’s one of a set of triplets but he won’t be treated any differently to his  brother and sister. They don’t have any markings on them – he’s the odd one out.’

Mr Herbert, who also keeps cows at Woodwell House Farm, Durham, said it’s not certain Miyagi will keep his black belt. He said:

‘Some sheep with slight discolouration lose it when they get older. This little one’s stripe feels more like hair than wool though.  We won’t know whether he’ll keep it until he starts to grow.’

Well I sure hope he does – Ive never had an excuse to travel north to Durham, but now I have a good excuse as any. Road trip anyone?