Since the turn of the year, most of my thoughts about taking my business to the next level have focused around social media. Thinking about this objectively, this got me thinking, is this just a fad or is it here to stay?

Some facts…

1. Average person spent five and a half hours on social media sites in December 2009, up 82 percent from December 2008. AC NIELSEN

2. Marketers will also be spending more time and money on social media sites in 2010 – Alterian

5. Facebook is still by far the most popular social networking site worldwide, with 206.9 million unique visitors in December

6. 67% of global social media users visited the site during that month, spending an average of about 5.5 hours there per month, up from just three hours in December 2008.

7. Twitter received 18.1 million unique visitors in December 2009, up from 2.7 million in December 2008 (a remarkable 579 percent rate of growth).

8. Time spent on blogs and other social media sites increased 210 percent year-over-year, and the average time spent per person increased 143 percent.

9. Australia led the world in time spent on social media sites with 6 hours and 52 minutes per person, United States was second (6 hours and 9 minutes) with the United Kingdom close behind (6 hours and 7 minutes)

10. 20 million people are online on SKYPE at peak time, 445 million subscribers in Q1 2009, 30% usage for business purpose, 3.1 billion call to mobiles and landlines in Q3 2009, More than 190 certified hardware products.

11. Facebook available in more than 70 languages with 900+ employees. Facebook banned in Syria and 70% users live outside US. Features more than 350,000 application. Over 2.5 Billion photos uploaded monthly and faster growing demographic is women over 55. More that 300,000,000 users.

12. Approximately 150,000,000 videos on YouTube. 70% of the registered users are the American. Every minute 20 hours of video is uploaded. Localized versions for over 22 countries in 19 languages, total times of videos watched in 9300+ years. Estimated revenue of between $120 – $500 Million.

13. 54% of respondents said social media was ‘increasingly important’ to the overall marketing mix, with only 14% believing it to be ‘critical for success (Alterian Research Study)

14. Social Media has overtaken porn as the #1 activity on the Web

15. If you were paid a $1 for every time an article was posted on Wikipedia you would earn $156.23 per hour;

16. 25% of search results for the World’s Top 20 largest brands are links to user-generated content.

17. Hitwise UK reports indicate as top three sites for the week ending 16/01/2010: Facebook (51.60%), YouTube (16.10%) and Bebo (2.26%) (social networking category).

18. 51% of journalists read blogs for story ideas.

19. 28% of top search engine results are Social Media sites.

20. Universal McCann reports that 77% of all active internet users often read blogs.

21. Delicious (bookmarking site), has more than five million users and over 160 million unique bookmarked URLs.

22. According to Compete, In Q4 2009 Digg saw a 91% increase in traffic, while Stumbleupon and FriendFeed recorded a huge increase of over 180% and 3100%, respectively, as compared to 2008.

23. Wikipedia currently has more than 13.5 million articles in more than 250 different languages. The site attracts over 60 million unique visitors a month and it’s often hotly debated that the information it contains is more reliable than any printed Encyclopaedia.

24. There are overall 234 million websites as of December 2009. 126 million blogs on the Internet (as tracked by BlogPulse)..

Data compiled by Sorav Jain: Social Media & Digital Marketing Blog

I love going to workshops and seminars, for several reasons. While I was in my 9-5 I went to many, both paid and free. However the reason I am in the fortunate position I am now, of running my own business, and being my own boss, is that I took MASSIVE ACTION (as I am sure many of you will be familiar!).

This last weekend I went to a workshop around attracting more clients, and I must say, I learnt a lot. However I made a commitment to myself that  I wouldn’t go to another until I followed up on my commitments I made and take MASSIVE ACTION around my goals.

This got me thinking,  what is the reason you go to workshops/seminars?

I see three reasons

1. Knowledge
2. Reinforcement
3. Networking/Joint Ventures

The title of the workshop and what it is going to give you is the obvious reason most people go to a workshop. We live in a society where we feel that we need more knowledge, “I am currently not getting what I want, so I must be lacking knowledge.”

Is this the case? Think of the last 5 workshops you have attended, did they give you ‘information’ that you already knew, but just not applied? I can certainly say this has been the case for me sometimes.

So what is it that makes us go back? Do we need constant reinforcement for what we already know, or is it more about developing our current knowledge? For me it is often the case of developing and fine tuning what I already know.

A few years ago I differentiated between whether I was consuming my time or investing my time, and I must say the percentage wasn’t in my favour. This for me was a light bulb moment, as soon as I consciously investmented my time, i.e. reading, networking, researching, communicating, listening, being a teacher, being a student, doing what I love, and not comsuming my time, i.e. TV, procrastinating, finding things to do to avoid what needs to be done; things started to change, I took MASSIVE ACTION.

What was a massive eye opener for me was the people you meet when you go to these workshops/seminars. By the very fact that they are there, their mindset would be very similar to yours, hence the opportunity to network with like-minded people is fantastic.

The opportunity to develop new connections for Joint Ventures is also great. Joint Venturing can take many forms, from joint marketing activity to promote complementary services, to looking for mentors who have already achieved what you are looking to develop.

These are some of my ideas. I would love to hear why you go to workshops and seminars.

When December comes the thought on most peoples minds is where did the year go? All the things I planned to do, I never got done. How frustrating!!!

So what are going to do that will make 2010 your best year yet? What plans do you have for 2010 that mean you can’t wait for the new year to begin?

A wise man once said if ‘…you keep on doing the same things expect the same results!’

The new year brings optimism and a sense of a new beginning. Why wait? What’s stopping you doing what you want to do now.

By starting now you give yourself a months head start. If its working, great carry on in the new year, if not, change it.

5 Questions to Ask Yourself before the start of 2010

1. What can I start to do now, that I am waiting for the new year to do?

2. Who do I need to connect with NOW to ensure my year starts on the right foot?

3. What are the things that I can start to delegate to ensure I focus on what I do best?

4. What’s the most important thing I want to achieve in 2010?

5. What am I worth?

To really kick start you year come see me here