Women Run The Show On Most Social Media

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Men Tweet, Women Pin: The Gender Differences In Social Media (Pew Internet via The New Age)
With the exception of Twitter, all of the top social media sites are more popular with women than with men, particularly Pinterest. Research from Pew Internet sheds light on the popularity of social media in the U.S. by gender. The data shows that Facebook is most popular with women, 72 percent of female Internet users have a profile, compared with 62 percent of U.S. men. The biggest users also happen to be aged between 18 and 29, although the percentage of 30- to 49-year-old users is also growing. Pinterest has by far the highest percentage of female users, with only 5 percent of men admitting to using it, compared with 25 percent of women. However, one surprising thing is that it is equally popular across age groups, with those aged between 18 and 49 equally likely to use it. Read >>

What Makes Social Media So Influential? (Dashburst)
Social media is the easiest, fastest and most explosive way to transmit and receive information. With the global population still rapidly growing, it’s become abundantly clear that social media is no passing fad either. Its influence is remarkable. Here's why:

1. It's ubiquitous
2. It's time-consuming
3. It's habit-forming
4. It influences life offline
5. It helps businesses

Click here for the full infographic. Read >>

The Opportunities And Dangers Of Social Selling (Experience: The Blog)
The term "social selling" has been around a while, but suddenly it seems very hot. The definition is obvious: using sales techniques in social media channels to increase revenue. Social doesn't revolutionize sales. If anything, it reinforces the importance of traditional value-based relationship building.

Brands that wish to succeed with social selling must realize that sales is a lagging indicator; the vital leading indicators are the ones that gauge the strength of relationships. Social selling can be successful for companies and people who invest the time and energy to build relationships, but those that bring traditional sales tactics such as cold calling and ABC (Always Be Closing) will find social hostile territory. Read >>

What Influences Your Mix Of Media, Marketing And Mingling? (Small Business Trends)
Below are 6 statistics that appear to influence your mix of media, marketing and mingling:

1. 40 percent socialize more online than they do face-to-face
2. 1 out of every 7 minutes spent online is spent on Facebook
3. 83 percent of brands use Facebook as #1 tool for business
4. 53 percent of brands use Twitter as #2 tool for business
5. 61 percent of brands use LinkedIn as their primary professional networking site
6. 53 percent of employers have formal social media policies

Click here for full image. Read >>

Why Pinterest Bought Punchfork (GigaOM)
Many observers have suggested that Pinterest bought the recipe site for its content. Not so, says Eric Fader of Ignited, who argues that the secret sauce is Punchfork’s technology and what it will allow Pinterest to do. Combining the power of a search engine indexing content, the popularity of content based on how often that content was shared on social networks, and an intelligent display of metadata to enhance the search results, Punchfork had a powerful engine under its hood. And so with Pinterest scooping it up, the move can be seen as a marked shift from a user-generated content approach to one that leverages search technology to discover, index, and present content to its user base. Read >>

Twitter Etiquette You Need to Know (Jeff Bullas)
Just like being on a date, when you are tweeting away on twitter, one should also have proper etiquette.

1. Don't start a tweet with a hashtag
2. Don't use more than 3 hashtags
3. Strive for engagement, not followers
4. Some people won't follow you
5. You don't have to use all 140 characters

Despite its simplicity, Twitter has nuanced customs. Good habits always go a long way in any society and correct Twitter manners are important if you want to impress the netizens of the online equivalent of texting on steroids. Read >>

What To Do If Your Twitter Account Has Been Hacked (The Vancouver Sun)
Six hours after Burger King’s Twitter account was hacked Monday the company remained silent on the social media channel. However, the hacker didn’t. While it may not be possible to entirely eliminate the risk of being hacked, there are measures a company can take to reduce the risk. And there are actions you can take if your brand is hacked. The first rule if your brand’s Twitter profile has been hacked: Act quickly. Read >>

Parents Join Facebook To Watch Their Kids (Education Database Online via Mashable)
One in two parents join Facebook just to keep tabs on their kids. In our increasingly digital world, it is difficult for parents to monitor their children's activities. So perusing social media is an obvious solution. Read >>