Generation Y – aka today’s “digital natives” – are predicted to make on-line networking and chat a lifelong habit. In a survey by Pew Internet and Elon University of 895 technology stakeholders and critics, more than two-thirds agreed with the statement:” By 2020, members of Generation Y will continue to be ambient broadcasters who disclose a great deal of personal information in order to stay connected and take advantage of social, economic and political opportunities.

“Even as they mature, have families, and take on more significant responsibilities, their enthusiasm for widespread information sharing will carry forward.”

Just a third disagreed with the statement.

Most who were asked thought that the sharing of personal information on-line has many social benefits as people open up to others in order to build friendships, form and find communities, seek help and build their reputations.

The research showed that many felt that they had already seen the benefits.

As we’ve been saying for a while: “The future is on-line and social media.” Why not find out what WebCreation UK can do to help your business to embrace the fast-growing world of social media?

Do you sell products or services that would appeal to the over-50 market? Do you believe that Facebook is only for youngsters? Well, maybe you should think again.

According to a survey many more over-50s are now using Facebook regularly – and so this could be a great place to widen your social marketing drive.

Hopefully you already have a business website (if not you might want to check out the stunning possibilities on WebCreationUK’s portfolio), and you’ll know by now the merits of social media networks such as Facebook and Twitter.
Now it’s time to wake up to a few lesser known stats about Facebook:

* Facebook is massive – 500 million users at the last count – and therefore makes a great place for reaching potential customers

* A lot more people over 50 are now using Facebook. Some quarter of this age group now use social media websites, with Facebook being the most popular.

* 49% aged 50 to 64, and 40% all adults 50+, consider themselves extremely or very comfortable using the Internet.

So while all businesses would be wise to use Facebook as an important marketing tool, it’s now clear that the over-50s customers can also be targeted on this fast-growing social media site, too. Why miss a trick?

Many more businesses will be keen to embrace social media tools after new figures revealed that people spend almost a quarter of their time on-line using social networks. Why not talk to WebCreation UK about their social media services?

A report by Nielsen claims that in April 22% of on-line time was spent looking at social networks and/or blogs

Other stats to come from the Nielsen reported include:

•    Worldwide we spend more than 110 billion minutes on social networks and blog sites each month.
•    The average visitor spends 66% more time on social media and blog sites than a year ago.
•    We now each spend 6 hours a month on average compared to 3 hours, 31 minutes last year.

A social network usage chart shows that Brazil is the most sociable on-line country, followed by Italy, Spain, Japan, the US, the UK, France, Australia, Germany and Switzerland.

Mashable, the successful on-line news blog, recently asked readers to give their definition of “social media”. There had a huge response and here we highlight some of the ones we liked:

* Social media is a phenomenon that creates a personalised network for sharing digital content among all people in the cyberspace - Rohan Aurora

* Tools or platforms that allow anyone/everyone to share information or engage in conversation – Veena Mathew

* Social media is a multi-dimensional communication information system connecting people to people – Peter Feuersenger

* It’s a conversation in an instant with anyone, anywhere, anytime that gives control back to the individual & consumer in unprecedented ways – Charles Ubaghs

* Set of updated communication tools that allow us to build new communities at a time when our local community had almost been lost – Jerry Daykin

* Social media is an on-line renaissance empowering people with influence to facilitate conversations around shared ideas – Mark Blackman

Social media is communication, friending, family, media, learning and discovery at one click – Glenn K. Bolton

For advice about social media tools for your website why not give WebCreation UK’s expert team a call? As leading web designers we also have great deals on blogs and integrations.

Social media is a term that is talked about all the time now. But not everyone is so sure what it is, exactly. Here we bring to a beginner’s guide to social media.

In a nutshell: Social media is people chatting to other people in various social networks.

How do you “do” social media?: It’s actually more of a “using” thing. You use social media tools such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter to talk to people.

So why do you want to use social media tools?: Well there are million s of people out there using the networks and so they offer s great place to get to know more people and also to tell more people about your brand, products and services.

So will people talk back?: Just like a real-time conversation ,the more interesting and engaging you are the more likely it is that other people will want to talk to you. And just like real-time, too, it takes a while for friendships to develop so keep at the chatting.

Does it cost anything?: No, it’s free to register on these sites and free to use them. But if you want an effective social media marketing drive then it’s a good idea to pay to hire the professionals. There are professional social marketers, bloggers and a range of other experts.

A new report has revealed that social networking is the fastest-growing mobile content technology. The research by comScore looked at how mobile users accessed content whether via application, browser or both.
In April, 69.6 million mobile users accessed an application on their phone, an increase of 28% from the previous year. Social networking had the strongest growth in app access, rising 240% to 14.5 million users.
•    Accessing news apps came next, growing 124% to 9.3 million users
•    * Then sports apps, which grew 113% to nearly 7.7 million users.
•    * Bank account apps also more than doubled their audience, growing to nearly 5 million users.

Nearly 73 million mobile users accessed their browser in April, an increase of 31% from the previous year. Social networking ranked as the fastest-growing category accessed via the browser, growing 90% from the previous year to reach almost 30 million users.

Online Retail sites also saw a huge growth in customer usage via browser, rising 47% to 7.3 million users.

The study found that 78% of smartphone users accessed their browser in April, while 80% of smartphone users accessed applications. In comparison, 19% of feature phone users accessed their browser, with 17% accessing applications.
comScore also revealed that while smartphone users are pushing up growth in browser and application access (up 111% and 112% respectively in the last year), feature phone users still make up nearly half of all users accessing mobile browsers and apps.