If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you know what I think of an online presence. I believe it will be the most critical asset a person owns. It will be the asset of the future. It will be worth more than any other asset you have. If I haven’t convinced you yet, maybe this will get you there.
Your online presence will matter because;
- Social media creates social capital. Social capital is a predictor of income and wealth
- Gen Y will out number baby boomers by 2010, 96% of Gen Y has joined a social network,
- Social Media has overtaken porn as the #1 activity on the web
- There are over 200,000,000 million blogs, at least 100,000,000 million of those bloggers tweet or blog daily
- 33% of all internet users read blogs,
- 33 Million Americans have rated a product, service or person using an online rating system
- 78% of consumers trust peer recommendations – only 14% trust advertisements
- 80% of employers use social media to find candidates
- 45% of Employers use social media to screen or vet potential candidates
- 35% of employers decided NOT to offer a job to a candidate based on information uncovered on social media sites
- 18% of employers HIRED a candidate BECAUSE of their social presence
- 25% of college admissions use social networks as part of the admissions process
- 43% of people in the US Google (doogle) a first date
- 12.5% of all couples married in the U.S. last year met via social media
- 42% of all adults have said they or someone they know has been helped by following medical advice and health information found online
- At lease one person, using social media, avoided highly invasive spinal surgery
- Those with lower social capital, have a higher mortality rate -they die earlier
- There are over 1 Billion Internet devices
- There are 6 billion internet searches on Google a month
- 1.6 Billion people access the web via their mobile phone – that’s 1.6 billion people a click away from info about you anytime anywhere
- The number of text messages sent and received every day exceeds the total population of the planet
- 355 Million users on Facebook
- Avg. time spent on Facebook: 20 minutes a day
- 19 Million people on Twitter
- 83 Million people generated some form of social media in the US
BONUS reason- Since 1985 our “core networks”, our offline networks of friends and family have shrunk by 1 person.
Personal networks are moving online. Social capital will be created and leveraged using social media. Social capital correlates heavy to someones overall success. Without social capital, there is little success. Developing and managing their social graph will be the most important thing someone can do
An online presence will be the most valuable asset a person will have, worth even more than their home.
Are you convinced?
UPDATE: Made a mistake on the statistic “50% of employers HIRED a candidate BECAUSE of their social presence” I’ve changed it to 18%. Thanks to Marty for getting me to double check stats.
1
Without question, and I've said this before, and this is what got me to follow you, your continuing broadcast on Why Your Social Graph Matters is the single most important topic of our age. You're right: social capital is emerging as both factor and predictor of success — personally and professionally.
Comment by JuanLulli — December 7, 2009 @ 6:46 am
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Without question, and I've said this before, and this is what got me to follow you, your continuing broadcast on Why Your Social Graph Matters is the single most important topic of our age. You're right: social capital is emerging as both factor and predictor of success — personally and professionally.
Comment by JuanLulli — December 7, 2009 @ 6:46 am
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Interesting stat today from Hitwise – Social Networks have surpassed Search Engine traffic in New Zealand
So not only is your Social Graph important to your wealth creation but you will also use it to find information as we continue to create more and more data each year (which is growing exponentially)
Comment by PaulDunay — December 7, 2009 @ 10:20 am
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can you send me the link?
Social Capital removes the friction of information, to your point social media is going to exponentially impact this through access of information
Comment by Keenan — December 7, 2009 @ 10:56 am
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http://weblogs.hitwise.com/alan-long/2009/12/so...
Comment by PaulDunay — December 7, 2009 @ 11:01 am
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Nice post, Jim. I hope you continue beating the social media drum…this is important stuff, and businesses need to start paying attention. Individuals, too. And everyone needs to wake up to the fact that social media isn't about free advertising…it's about interaction and conversation.
Comment by Jerry Kennedy — December 7, 2009 @ 11:56 pm
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Nice post – ties in well with the book we're doing.
Comment by geechee_girl — December 10, 2009 @ 10:14 am
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that was the inspiration, it came from the research
gotta love the web for info.
Comment by Keenan — December 10, 2009 @ 10:30 am
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“Social Media has overtaken porn as the #1 activity on the web” when did this happen?
Comment by randyayn — December 10, 2009 @ 12:42 pm
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End of last year; http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSSP3194372008...
Crazy isn't it.
Comment by Keenan — December 10, 2009 @ 12:51 pm
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And 95% of statistics are completely made up.
I've got to ask where some of these numbers come from.
How about these 2 obviously incongruous statements:-
“45% of Employers use social media to screen or vet potential candidates”
“50% of employers HIRED a candidate BECAUSE of their social presence”
Shouldn't the numbers at least be the other way round?
Or how about the statement:-
“80% of employers use social media to find candidates”
Seriously, how many people do you know that have been randomly approached on facebook by a company offering them a job?
(That didn't involve bank transactions with a Nigerian Prince)
Can anyone say 80% of their friends got their current job in such a manner?
And as for the statement:-
“Gen Y will out number baby boomers by 2010″
Thats an absolute load of codswallop. If it were true the governments of the world wouldn't be worrying about how they're going to afford pensions/medicaid etc in the next 20 years.
There are so many obviously false statements in this list, I have to doubt the accuracy of all of it.
It has clearly been made up purely to justify the writers own agenda.
Comment by Marty — December 13, 2009 @ 10:04 pm
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Way to keep me honest Marty;
Sources:
45% of employers use Social media to screen of vet potential candidates; Source: Career Builder Survey Aug 19th 2009
50% of employers HIRED a candidate BECAUSE of their social presence: I made a mistake, that should be 18%, I will change now, the 50% was: “Profile provided a good feel for the candidate’s personality and fit” (thanks) Source: same Career Builder Survey
80% of employers use social media to find candidates: Source Jobvite Social Recruitment Survey
Gen Y will outnumber baby boomers by 2010: Rainmaker Thinking Study, and Millenials Conference
Comment by Keenan — December 14, 2009 @ 9:53 am
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Way to keep me honest Marty;
Sources:
45% of employers use Social media to screen of vet potential candidates; Source: Career Builder Survey Aug 19th 2009
50% of employers HIRED a candidate BECAUSE of their social presence: I made a mistake, that should be 18%, I will change now, the 50% was: “Profile provided a good feel for the candidate’s personality and fit” (thanks) Source: same Career Builder Survey
80% of employers use social media to find candidates: Source Jobvite Social Recruitment Survey
Gen Y will outnumber baby boomers by 2010: Rainmaker Thinking Study, and Millenials Conference
Comment by Keenan — December 14, 2009 @ 4:53 pm
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I love this…and knowing my Mom, who is over 80 uses facebook and linkedin, hey anyone can do it!
Comment by Kathleen Bennett — April 6, 2010 @ 1:50 am
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Your Mom rocks!
//keenan
Comment by Keenan — April 6, 2010 @ 2:04 am