Once considered the province of the young, social networking is increasingly a pursuit for people over 50, new research suggests.

The latest data from the Pew Research Center indicates that growth has slowed in the 18-29 and 30-49 age groups but is taking off for those aged 50-64 and 65+. Some 47% of internet users ages 50-64 and 26% of users age 65 and older now use social networking sites. People aged over 50 now account for 42% of all social networking users, up from 22% a year ago. The main social networking sites used by older people are Facebook and LinkedIn.

The research suggests three reasons why social networking might be taking off for Baby Boomers and seniors. Firstly, social networking is great for people who want to reconnect with friends from their past – and by definition, older people have more of a past than younger people. Secondly, social networking can help bridge the generation gap, by letting grandparents and parents keep in touch with their offspring. Finally, quite a few people with chronic diseases use social networking to reach out to other people with similar conditions – and older people are more likely to have chronic illnesses.

Meanwhile, teens seem to be losing interest in Facebook. A July 2010 research study suggested that one in five teenagers with a Facebook account had stopped or decreased their usage of the site since April 2010. Nearly one in 10 teen internet users said they had a Facebook profile but had completely abandoned it.

Could the two trends be linked? Facebook has become mainstream and that’s great for those of us who enjoy connecting with different generations of our family and friends from all walks of life. It’s also great for Facebook and its advertisers. But it comes at a price – mainstream and cool or cutting edge don’t go together. Many teens likely don’t want to hang out on a site with their parents or grandparents.Once considered the province of the young, social networking is increasingly a pursuit for people over 50, new research suggests.

The latest data from the Pew Research Center indicates that growth has slowed in the 18-29 and 30-49 age groups but is taking off for those aged 50-64 and 65+. Some 47% of internet users ages 50-64 and 26% of users age 65 and older now use social networking sites. People aged over 50 now account for 42% of all social networking users, up from 22% a year ago. The main social networking sites used by older people are Facebook and LinkedIn.

The research suggests three reasons why social networking might be taking off for Baby Boomers and seniors. Firstly, social networking is great for people who want to reconnect with friends from their past – and by definition, older people have more of a past than younger people. Secondly, social networking can help bridge the generation gap, by letting grandparents and parents keep in touch with their offspring. Finally, quite a few people with chronic diseases use social networking to reach out to other people with similar conditions – and older people are more likely to have chronic illnesses.

Meanwhile, teens seem to be losing interest in Facebook. A July 2010 research study

Original Link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/allfacebook/~3/l-9kok53wcA/facebook-older-people-2010-09

New version of my latest free SEO tool has just been published.

Here is what is new in SEO Doctor 1.3

* SEO Score algorithm tweaking
* Redesigned the right-click menu, added new services
* Added Send Feedback feature
* Firefox 4 compatible
* Various bug fixes and tweaks

It now features five ways to get traffic statistics  and a total of 9 ways to get backlink information for any site.

Grab SEO Doctor and diagnose your site right away - no excuse not to as it takes only five minutes.

Related Articles:
* SEO Doctor is operating now
* More links = less page rank?
* SEO Doctor – Free SEO Tool
* SEO Smart Links
* Do it Yourself: Optimize your WordPress Page Headings

Original Link: http://www.prelovac.com/vladimir/seo-doctor-updated-to-v1-3

Twitter has made some strides to get the mobile experience working better as of late. They have been very successful in this area which is critical since the geo-location movement promises to make mobile even more important in the not so distant future.

Evan Williams, co-founder of Twitter, gave some telling stats on the Twitter blog

Mobile users have jumped 62% since mid-April

16% of all new users to Twitter now start on mobile (it was 5% before Twitter started doing branded mobile clients)

46% of active users use some sort of mobile Twitter experience

78% of people who interact with Twitter still do so through twitter.com — though that number includes people who use more than one app

m.twitter.com is the second most-used Twitter interface at 14%

SMS and Twitter for iPhone are tied at 8%

Here is a chart showing the most used ways to access Twitter. One thing I will note that while the post started out concentrating on mobile numbers it becomes less and less clear which numbers are about overall Twitter usage and which are about Twitter use overall (at least for me that is).

Of note as well, there are now more than 145 million registered Twitter users that use some 300,000 registered applications to get the most from the service. Remember the days of being excited about hitting 20 million users? Those are getting smaller and smaller in the rearview mirror for sure.

Twitter keeps rolling along but there was no talk about making money. That might ruin the mood of the celebration.

Join the Marketing Pilgrim Facebook CommunityTwitter has made some strides to get the mobile experience working better as of late. They have been very successful in this area which is critical since the geo-location movement promises to make mobile even more important in the not so distant future.

Evan Williams, co-founder of Twitter, gave some telling stats on the Twitter blog

Mobile users have jumped 62% since mid-April

16% of all new users to Twitter now start on mobile (it was 5% before Twitter started doing branded mobile clients)

46% of active users use some sort of mobile Twitter experience

78% of people who interact with Twitter still do so through twitter.com — though that number includes people who use more than one app

m.twitter.com is the second most-used Twitter interface at 14%

SMS and Twitter for iPhone are tied at 8%

Here is a chart showing the most used ways to access Twitter. One thing I will note that while the post started out concentrating on mobile numbers it becomes less and less clear which numbers are about overall Twitter usage and which are about Twitter use overall (at least for me that is).

Of note as well, there are now more than 145 million registered Twitter users that use some 300,000 registered applications to get the most from the service. Remember the days of being excited about hitting 20 million users? Those are getting smaller and smaller in the rearview mirror for sure.

Twitter keeps rolling along but there was no talk about making money. That might ruin the mood of the celebration.

Join the Marketing Pilgrim Facebook Community

Original Link: http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2010/09/twitter-gives-a-peak-under-the-mobile-nest.html

As we reported earlier, Twitter has published new figures showing that it now has 145 million registered users. The thing is, that doesn’t really tell us much about how many people are actually using the service.

“Registered users” is very different to “Active users”. Facebook, for example, announced in July that it had over 500 million active users. This is a statistic that Facebook recently tweaked to improve its accuracy and should give a good indication of how many people regularly interact with the site.

Twitter, however, doesn’t give this figure, making it difficult to determine the true size of its userbase. Third party developers who work with the API have their own ideas. Jesse Stay is the man behind SocialToo, a service that provides useful tools for Twitter and Facebook users. Commenting on Twitter’s latest stats via Google Reader today, he says:

“I wish they’d go with the number their competitors are going with – number of active users. Just stating # of registered users is an unfair comparison (unless they really want Facebook to start touting the number of registered users on their system). My own estimates show only about 30% of Twitter’s numbers are active, based on a sample of 5-10 million users I have cached.”

Now, that’s only one developer and we’ve no way of verifying what he says. However, when you bear in mind all the people who try the service and leave; people who have registered themselves but not used their accounts; not to mention spam accounts,  there’s bound to be a significant drop-off from that 145 million figure.

Twitter’s latest stats say that 78% of users access its service via Twitter.com. According to Comscore, the site received nearly 93 million unique visitors in June. However, visitors don’t necessarily equal active users as some are likely to visit, for example, individual celebrity pages without actually signing up themselves. Yet more traffic will come from search engine results too.

In short, we don’t know how many people are actively using Twitter and until they release such a figure, we can but guess.

Original title and link for this post: How many people are actually using Twitter?As we reported earlier, Twitter has published new figures showing that it now has 145 million registered users. The thing is, that doesn’t really tell us much about how many people are actually using the service.

“Registered users” is very different to “Active users”. Facebook, for example, announced in July that it had over 500 million active users. This is a statistic that Facebook recently tweaked to improve its accuracy and should give a good indication of how many people regularly interact with the site.

Twitter, however, doesn’t give this figure, making it difficult to determine the true size of its userbase. Third party developers who work with the API have their own ideas. Jesse Stay is the man behind SocialToo, a service that provides useful tools for Twitter and Facebook users. Commenting on Twitter’s latest stats via Google Reader today, he says:

“I wish they’d go with the number their competitors are going with – number of active users. Just stating # of registered users is an unfair comparison (unless they really want Facebook to start touting the number of registered users on their system). My own estimates show only about 30% of Twitter’s numbers are active, based on a sample of 5-10 million users I have cached.”

Now, that’s only one developer and we’ve no way of verifying what he says. However, when you bear in mind all the people who try the service and leave; people who have registered themselves but not used their accounts; not to mention spam accounts,  there’s bound to be a significant drop-off from that 145 million figure.

Twitter’s latest stats say that 78% of users access its service via Twitter.com. According to Comscore, the site received nearly 93 million unique visitors in June. However, visitors don’t necessarily equal active users as some are likely to visit, for example, individual celebrity pages without actually signing up themselves. Yet more traffic will come from search engine results too.

In short, we don’t know how many people are actively using Twitter and until they release such a figure, we can but guess.

Original title and link for this post: How many people are actually using Twitter?

Original Link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheNextWeb/~3/JJQC3Flmgck/

"Sharing is Contagious" charts how we are increasingly growing up sharing files, photos, knowledge, and daily thoughts—and how these collaborative behaviors are moving into other areas of our lives. From bike-sharing to co-working to peer-to-peer rental, a dotted line is forming between "what’s mine," "what’s yours," and "what’s ours." Technology and peer communities are enabling old market behaviors including bartering, swapping, trading, renting, lending, and sharing to be reinvented in ways and on a scale never possible before.

Rachel Botsman and Roo Rogers, co-authors of the soon-to-be-launched book What's Mine Is Yours, call this groundswell Collaborative Consumption; a powerful cultural, and economic force transforming business, consumerism and the way we live. The following infographic—content by Botsman, design by Design Motion—examines a transition from a society based on ownership to one defined by access.

View the full-size infographic here.
 "Sharing is Contagious" charts how we are increasingly growing up sharing files, photos, knowledge, and daily thoughts—and how these collaborative behaviors are moving into other areas of our lives. From bike-sharing to co-working to peer-to-peer rental, a dotted line is forming between "what’s mine," "what’s yours," and "what’s ours." Technology and peer communities are enabling old market behaviors including bartering, swapping, trading, renting, lending, and sharing to be reinvented in ways and on a scale never possible before.

Rachel Botsman and Roo Rogers, co-authors of the soon-to-be-launched book What's Mine Is Yours, call this groundswell Collaborative Consumption; a powerful cultural, and economic force transforming business, consumerism and the way we live. The following infographic—content by Botsman, design by Design Motion—examines a transition from a society based on ownership to one defined by access.

View the full-size infographic here

Original Link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/good/lbvp/~3/o7DGVNwHpY8/sharing-is-contagious-the-rise-of-collaborative-consumption

At first it will be tedious and mundane to add people to lists you have made friends with on Facebook; however, it will be worth your wild going forward with all that you do on Facebook. You can create lists such as; “people I work with”, “online friends” or “friends and family”. These lists can become a great networking tool and help you target the exact people you want to share various content, events, or to even have a peek at what their up to without having to sort through your uncategorized newsfeed.

Here’s how you can create your Facebook Lists Today:

1. Once logged into Facebook you will want to go to the top left where it shows the shadow of a person (where it shows people who want to be friends with you) and click on it. A drop down will appear and you will want to click on the link “Find Your Friends”.

2. After clicking on “Find Your Friends” a new page will appear with a button close to the right-hand side that reads, “Create a list”.

3. Click the button “Create a List” and a popup of all of your friends and pages that you have liked will appear. At the top you can name your list and then click on the faces of your friends that you would like to add to the list – you are able to add the same people to a variety of lists if you choose. – When you have added the people to fit the list, click on the button “create list”.

4. Now that your Facebook lists have been created go to the left column on your newsfeed and click on “friends” to see the list of your lists. When you click on the name of your chosen list – the people you added to the list will be seen in your newsfeed. P.S. You can create Facebook Lists for your pages that you own or are admin to as well.

Facebook Lists can serve a great purpose when you want to see what is happening with your friends and family. It’s an easy way to target events, and will save you tons of time from clicking friends one by one. Make your Facebook lists today and take control over who you want to see in your newsfeed, when you want to.

Original Link: http://soshable.com/how-to-categorize-your-friends-on-facebook/

It looks like Facebook has added most-liked stories into its on-site search results.

This search for the word “Discovery” brought up a TBD.com and WashingtonPost.com story on the Discovery gunman. Clicking on the headline takes you straight to the story. The stories are ranked by “the number of likes and the number of friends who liked that object,” explains AllFacebook, and by the looks of it, stories are getting premium placement.

Is it the beginnings of a competitor to Google News? Perhaps. As Flipboard has shown us, it wouldn’t be difficult for Facebook to whip together a social news experience that would be pretty compelling. By the way, people are so desperate for a Facebook iPad app (there currently isn’t an official one), they’re paying for third-party bootlegs.

Related posts:
* Facebook unveils local ‘Places’ feature
* Props to TBD for Discovery Channel hostage coverage
* Foursquare preps new features, links coming?It looks like Facebook has added most-liked stories into its on-site search results.

This search for the word “Discovery” brought up a TBD.com and WashingtonPost.com story on the Discovery gunman. Clicking on the headline takes you straight to the story. The stories are ranked by “the number of likes and the number of friends who liked that object,” explains AllFacebook, and by the looks of it, stories are getting premium placement.

Is it the beginnings of a competitor to Google News? Perhaps. As Flipboard has shown us, it wouldn’t be difficult for Facebook to whip together a social news experience that would be pretty compelling. By the way, people are so desperate for a Facebook iPad app (there currently isn’t an official one), they’re paying for third-party bootlegs.

Related posts:
* Facebook unveils local ‘Places’ feature
* Props to TBD for Discovery Channel hostage coverage
* Foursquare preps new features, links coming?

Original Link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/LostRemote/~3/xFiuPjrYaI0/

We asked people on the street what they think of daily deals company Groupon. Most of them hadn't heard of it. But once we explained what the company does, most of them got pretty excited. That's probably why Groupon revenues are supposedly going to reach $500 million this year. Watch above.

BONUS: Watch Our Interview With Groupon Co-Founder & CEO Andrew Mason

Don't Miss...

– Here's What People REALLY Think Of The iPhone 4

– What Do People Really Think Of... Twitter?

– MySpace Is A Creepy Place Overrun With Ads, Ex-Girlfriends, And High Schoolers

Produced By: Kamelia Angelova & William Wei

More Video: CLICK HERE >

Join the conversation about this story »We asked people on the street what they think of daily deals company Groupon. Most of them hadn't heard of it. But once we explained what the company does, most of them got pretty excited. That's probably why Groupon revenues are supposedly going to reach $500 million this year. Watch above.

BONUS: Watch Our Interview With Groupon Co-Founder & CEO Andrew Mason

Don't Miss...

– Here's What People REALLY Think Of The iPhone 4

– What Do People Really Think Of... Twitter?

– MySpace Is A Creepy Place Overrun With Ads, Ex-Girlfriends, And High Schoolers

Produced By: Kamelia Angelova & William Wei

More Video: CLICK HERE >

Join the conversation about this story »

Original Link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider/~3/EPDs7p5if_0/what-do-people-really-think-of-groupon-2010-9

I used to be a keyword research freak.

Seriously! If you found me at one of the big conferences in the early 2000s you would have likely heard me discussing the importance of keyword research. “Keyword research is the most important aspect of SEO,” I would say. “Target the wrong keywords and it won’t matter if you are #1 on Google or not.”

Yeah, I took it seriously.

I still do, and that’s why I’m sharing this experience from the WebmasterWorld forums. WMW member vivalasvegas follows-up on a report he submitted previously about the sudden loss of almost 5,000 visitors a day for one keyword combination.

My conclusion after doing some more research: the apparently popular 3 word phrase was made popular by the Search suggestions feature. It seems that people were typing in the first 2 words (or even just one word and a half) and the first suggestion was my phrase. Combined with the fact that the first 2 words make a very popular phrase with several million searches reported per month – the result was some nice traffic spilled in my direction. Needless to say – the 3 word phrase is no longer a favorite suggestion.

Bottom line. Google stopped using the keyword combination in Google Suggest and vivalasvegas lost 5k visitors a day. Ouch!

My point?

When you do your keyword research, you absoluteley need to ensure you are checking Google Suggest as part of that research. Start typing in the keywords that Google “suggests” and see what other phrases Google will likely be presented to your target audience.

For example, if you are targeting SEO related queries, try this:

Some queries will throw up local intent suggestions, but you’ll get a good feel for the keywords you should be adding to your mix. For bonus points clicks, don’t stop with Google Suggest. Take a look at the bottom of the results page and see what Google says are related searches:

Hey, you never know when these suggestions might result in an extra 5,000 visitors a day for your web site!I used to be a keyword research freak.

Seriously! If you found me at one of the big conferences in the early 2000s you would have likely heard me discussing the importance of keyword research. “Keyword research is the most important aspect of SEO,” I would say. “Target the wrong keywords and it won’t matter if you are #1 on Google or not.”

Yeah, I took it seriously.

I still do, and that’s why I’m sharing this experience

Original Link: http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2010/09/keyword-research-google-suggest.html

Facebook confirmed yesterday that it has begun testing a new “subscribe” feature for users and pages. The feature lets users follow a user or page and receive notifications when a new update or piece of content, such as a picture or video, occurs.

The new feature may be a move to make someone’s news feed more specific and relevant to users. With the average user having 130 friends, it can make it difficult to stay up-to-date on what everyone’s doing. With the “subscribe” feature, a user could choose the top friends they want to follow and see their updates in the notification stream, similar to what happens when someone comments on one of your updates. It also sounds much easier than managing your news feed settings for multiple groups of Facebook friends.

As pointed out by All Facebook, it isn’t know what will happen if someone “Likes” a page or “checks-in” to a location through Facebook’s new Places feature. The following Facebook statement was provided to All Facebook:

“This feature is being tested with a small percent of users. It lets people subscribe to friends and pages to receive notifications whenever the person they’ve subscribed to updates their status or posts new content (photos, videos, links, or notes).”

The new Facebook feature may remind you of the main feature of popular social network Twitter, which has built its entire 145 million member network on following other users and seeing only their updates. One can’t help but wonder if Facebook is making a move to be a more complete social network, offering Twitter users the same features. And here comes more speculation about whether Facebook will kill Twitter.

Tags: follow, social network, Social networks, SocialBeat, updates

Companies: Facebook, TwitterFacebook confirmed yesterday that it has begun testing a new “subscribe” feature for users and pages. The feature lets users follow a user or page and receive notifications when a new update or piece of content, such as a picture or video, occurs.

The new feature may be a move to make someone’s news feed more specific and relevant to users. With the average user having 130 friends, it can make it difficult to stay up-to-date on what everyone’s doing. With the “subscribe” feature, a user could choose the top friends they want to follow and see their updates in the notification stream, similar to what happens when someone comments on one of your updates. It also sounds much easier than managing your news feed settings for multiple groups of Facebook friends.

As pointed out by All Facebook, it isn’t know what will happen if someone “Likes” a page or “checks-in” to a location through Facebook’s new Places feature. The following Facebook statement was provided to All Facebook:

“This feature is being tested with a small percent of users. It lets people subscribe to friends and pages to receive notifications whenever the person they’ve subscribed to updates their status or posts new content (photos, videos, links, or notes).”

The new Facebook feature may remind you of the main feature of popular social network Twitter, which has built its entire 145 million member network on following other users and seeing only their updates. One can’t help but wonder if Facebook is making a move to be a more complete social network, offering Twitter users the same features. And here comes more speculation about whether Facebook will kill Twitter.

Tags: follow, social network, Social networks, SocialBeat, updates

Companies: Facebook, Twitter

Original Link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Venturebeat/~3/MuNcZI3tG28/