After the jump, check out my favorite memes from 2011!

Did I miss any memes which would be on your own list? Feel free to leave a comment and share your favorites from 2011. Until then, here’s looking forward to more memes and creative media shared online in 2012!

Not only is Facebook increasingly synonymous with social media usage, but it’s ubiquity reaches more than 7 out of 10 web users every month, and a growing number of weekly and daily users like myself.  Here’s a few more ways to understand the impact of Facebook:

• Time spent on Facebook accounts for about 1 out of every 5 minutes time spent online every month, and the most total time of any website.
• Facebook’s app is the most downloaded for iPhones, with over 100 million iOS installations. Outside of Android’s stock apps, Facebook is the most downloaded and used app.
• Next to Google, Facebook is the second most visited site on the web.
• While 45% of my friends on Facebook are female, women represent the majority of Facebook users

My 550+ friends on Facebook represent only a fraction of Facebook’s 800+ million registered users, but it represents a historic shift in creating larger circles of friends. Thanks to Facebook’s ubiquitous popularity, I’m able to keep in touch with friends in high school and college who live hundreds (and thousands) of miles away, whereas only a few years earlier I would more easily fall out of contact with my friends. Since I grew up in the Facebook generation, I’m not alone in using the social network to keep loose-ties with old friends following my own graduation and relocation to New York City.  Here’s a few more stats about how I use Facebook to connect with friends:

Facebook Infographic via ShoutFlow.com

5 years ago I reluctantly joined the social network, admittedly at the behest of Lauren Reid who wanted to make our relationship “Facebook official”. I’m happy to say we’re still “in a relationship” (even though only 24% of my friends are single), and that I’ve been hooked on Facebook ever since.  Here’s how I used Facebook when I first started:

I’ve seen this social network grow from a core of friends and college classmates into an everyday network of family and friends used by some people I never thought I’d interact with online; most recently my Mom even signed up! You can connect with me through my Facebook profile or by becoming a fan of my Facebook page for this website.

• More than 4 in 5 American who are active online visited Social Media websites within the last month
• About a quarter of all time spent online is using Social Networks & Blog sites, more than twice as much as the next nearest category of websites.
• Facebook is by far the most popular social networking website globally, and in the U.S. Tumblr is among the fastest growing
• Growth in social media users comes from people of all ages and increasingly among those aged 55+, making social media more representative of the online population overall

As a member of Nielsen’s global communications team (full disclosure), I helped research and write this report, working together with our thoughts leaders/experts and designers to create compelling data visualizations that help convey Nielsen’s insights into consumer behavior.  The response to the report has been overwhelmingly positive, with coverage by key news media and thousands of links shared across social networks. Of course all ideas/opinions expressed on this site and in social media are my own (and are not necessarily shared by my employer), so hopefully you find the analysis and insight in this report as helpful as I do.

Visit the Nielsen’s website to read the Social Media Report and download a copy of your own.

I’ve wrote before that Twitter has inspired a fixation by online marketers like myself because of how it can be measured. Since my previous post, Twitter has continued to grow its influence among newsmedia, brands, and consumers around the world.  Even among experienced Twitter users like myself, Twitter use has changed significantly over the last year as the social network broke records and even breaking news.  As of writing this blog post, marking my first 4 years using Twitter, here’s how I’ve used Twitter:

• I joined Twitter 1462 days ago on September 15, 2007
• I’ve posted over 16,100 tweets in four years, almost double my total since April 2010, and average 11.3 tweets per day and 328 tweets per month
• I’ve gained 1677 followers, about 2/3rds more since March 2010, and I’m following about twice as many Twitter users (1347) as I was during my prior blog post measuring Twitter

In celebration of my 5th year using Twitter, I wanted to update my status about how I use the social network, so I created this infographic using Visual.ly to help illustrate my use on Twitter as of September 2011:

Click here for a version of Matt Hurst’s Twitter infographic which is automatically updated based on my most current usage on the social network.

Extra credit: Follow @MattHurst on Twitter and see how I use Twitter and hear what I have to say.

As social media becomes increasingly intertwined with daily lives, it seems inevitable that romantic relationships make greater use of social media. It wasn’t long after online networks were created that web users found the Internet to be a ideal medium not just for academics communicating over long distances but for developing friendships and romantic relationships as well. Perhaps the first social networks formed around dating sites during the web’s early years, and once these social networks began to take part in our online routines, the relationship status became a key part of profiles. Today many consider updating your relationship status from single to “in a relationship” a legitimate means to acknowledge their entry into a committed relationship, and sharing the news of an engagement is only a mouse click away for Facebook users.

Couples use social media to tell their story and about preparations for the wedding, and to exchange photos and share memories with wedding guests (and maybe those who couldn’t make it) after the big day. One popular trend for newly engaged couples is to make a wedding website on which couples can share the story behind their relationship and to share wedding day plans in advance with guests, not to mention making it a breeze to link to their wedding gift registry. Some even use social media to propose to their spouse, creating a unique proposal but also making it easy to share their special story. Here’s a few of the unique ways couples are using social media to share their proposals and weddings:

• A Google Maps engineer created a scavenger hunt for their would-be fiancé, navigating around NYC using the Maps app on their smartphone
• Dozens have proposed by updating their status on Twitter
• During the Royal Wedding between Prince William and Kate Middleton the couple broadcast their wedding via a live stream on YouTube. News and chat about their wedding set a new record for tweets per second.
• A single issue Groupon good for one marriage contract
• One creative partner set up a series of proposal-themed web links for their would-be spouse to click-thru using StumbleUpon
• An enterprising couple checked-in to the altar using Foursquare to pop-the-question
• At least one couple proposed (and accepted) via LOLCats

This summer I had the honor to attend the wedding between two of my friends, Mark Welsh and Kristin Welsh. Before we arrived in Destin for their wedding, we used their wedding website to make our own plans for when to buy plane tickets, where to stay, what to do in Florida, and which gifts we could buy through their wedding registry. From the day of their engagement up to the ceremony on the beach, they celebrated news about the wedding with friends and family. And afterwards we used the same social networks to share photos and relive their special day.

Here is a timeline of my favorite memories from Mark and Kristin’s wedding, as told through social media clips by friends, family, myself, and the bride and groom themselves:

Social Media continues to have a profound effect on all our relationships, bringing romantic couples together and connecting us closer with family and friends when couples share their special day. Or at least it’s likely to shape how we share memories in the future, just as wedding photography and videography has in the past, by creating unique memories not only on the big day, but all the day leading up to and in the lives they choose to share together.

At least once in your career as a social media manager you may be tempted to cross-post your marketing message over multiple social networks.  While new tools make it easy to post updates across Facebook, Twitter, and more sites you should resist this inclination to broadcast your message through social media; cross-posting ignores the unique purpose of using social media to reach your audience.

The practice of cross-posting has become increasingly common as brands build their online marketing strategy around Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, and link baiting across social networks. Posting updates on each site requires sustainable commitments of time and resources, so there’s temptation to publish the same message across multiple sites with only a single update. However the acceptable rate of updates varies widely between social networks, so while it’s effective to post messages multiple times a day on Twitter, this same frequency might be viewed as spammy on Facebook and other networks. The result is often that brands lose fans/followers as well as the trust of their audience, not to mention deteriorating their brand’s value in the eyes of consumers.

In addition to making your brand become perceived as a source of spam, cross-posting also appears tone deaf to the consumers who are interested in interacting with your organization. Social Media opens up new opportunities that can help promote brands, but all too often is viewed as the platform to broadcast their own advertisements. But even a soapbox speaker will read the reactions of the audience they’re addressing, and likewise your brand should listen and interact with your audience.

Best practices:

• Post updates individually to each social media site, varying the frequency for each platform; perhaps 1-2 updates a day on Facebook and 6-10 for Twitter.
• For every 5 updates on Twitter, only 1 or 2 should promote your company, and the rest should engage your audience by sharing their ideas and answering their questions for subjects which you have expertise about.
• Use measurement tools to note which posts resonate with each audience, and make adjustments accordingly to what they find most valuable.
• Take advantage of the unique features of each social media site, such as @replies on Twitter and the Events or Photo apps on Facebook, to spark discussions with your target audience.

Use these unique social media tools to listen carefully to your audience and then offer them solutions to their problems, not just to sell them your products.

Being strategic in your communications means using research to focus your goals on any media outlet, including social media. Of course many organizations may not be able to commit resources to support so many social sites, and instead they should focus on one or two which best meet their goals. In many cases a poorly executed communication plan may be worse than no having no social media presence at all, so be don’t be afraid to be selective.  After all an abandoned social media profile is like a ghost for your brand, and when you’ve got the tools and the talent “I ain’t afraid of no ghost”.

Outside of Instagram, here’s a few more ways to measure the impact of mobile on photo sharing:

• The iPhone is the most popular camera on Flickr overall, and I’ve uploaded more than 5% of my 8194 photos on Flickr from pictures taken using my iPhone camera.
• Photos are the most used app on Facebook, and they’re rumored to be working on a mobile photo app
• At least 2 million photos are posted to Twitter each day on average, and doubtlessly more buzz comes from image driven Tumblr posts and photoblogs

Most recently with the announcement of Twitter’s new photo sharing functions, as well as their deeper integration with Apple products, photography continues its push into mobile platforms and remains a key driving force behind social media into the foreseeable future.

Extra credit: check for updated stats about how I’m using Instagram, and see a gallery of my favorite photos in my Photography portfolio. And of course you can look for my photos by following “MattHurst” on Instagram…

Full article available via WSJ.

Image c/o DeneyTerrio on Flickr (under CC-licensing)

Since Foursquare was created in March 2009 its social network which connects people and places into an addictive public game has motivated millions to continue checking-in. Whether your friends use the social network to unlock badges for brands and special events, compete on the leaderboard, and of course become “the mayor” of their favorite venues. Location-based social networks like Foursquare have created new opportunities for friends to connect IRL (or allegedly to stalk each other), while opening individuals to new connections more like they do online.

Of course Foursquare was hardly the first location-based social media; by the time I signed-up in March 2009 I had already been checking-in for nearly a year, using networks like Brightkite and Loopt. Indeed the founders of Foursquare were well ahead of the competition, having set up the SMS-based location network Dodgeball years earlier which had been bought by Google, only to revisit their idea with smartphone technology. By mixing game elements and unlockable rewards, not to mention the right timing to take advantage of the burgeoning social media scene, Foursquare has created a unique application that has proved popular by 2010 and beyond.

In the process of the gameplay and deals that attract users and brands to use the service, one of the byproduct of using Foursquare is the data that’s created about individuals who use the service. Here’s some perspective on how I’ve used Foursquare over the past 2 years:

click image to enlarge the Foursquare Infographic

• I was the 3,820th user to register on Foursquare, making me an early adopter of the location-based network that now tops 8 million members.
• My first check-in was on March 17, 2009 at Breadsoda in Washington D.C., and have checked-in another 669 days since
• In my first two years I’ve checked-in over 3000 times (3241 as of April 15, 2011) at 723 different venues.
• I’m currently mayor of 7 venues, and have earned as many as 13 mayorship at any one time, earning me the Supermayor badge
• So far I’ve unlocked 61 badges so far: 38 official Foursquare badges, and 23 more branded by their promoted partners

Of course Foursquare is much more than a means to broadcast your location, although the network has that reputation since many early adopters (myself included) had their service configured to tweet their check-ins automatically. However I’ve found Foursquare is best experienced not just as social media, but as a tool to connect people with places. Their service aids the discovery of new places to visit by using the suggestions and tips of friends, and on several occasions has helped result in the social media serendipity that has connected me with new friends and enabled impromptu rendezvous with friends who check-in right around the corner.

It’s this decidedly pro-social behavior that Foursquare promotes by offering the tools to help keep tabs on what your friends are up to, and is reinforced consistently with it’s game elements that reward the behaviors it can measure; business owners can create deals to lure in customers, and the game itself keeps consumers motivated to keep using the service. Sometimes I even find myself going out of my way unlock special promotions at venues or to visit places I want become “the mayor” of. Along the way, here’s some of the measurements of how Foursquare keeps me connected:

• I follow at least 195 friends on Foursquare (and a few dozen branded accounts), in dozens of cities around the world.
• Among my friends, I was the 11th person who signed-up for Foursquare
• I’ve contributed over 100 tips at the venues I frequent, the most popular of which at DCA airport, and completed 209 tips left by others
• I was invited to become a Superuser on Foursquare so I can edit and improve venues, helping build the foursquare community

Probably the best way to learn about Foursquare is to try the network for yourself. Once you’re already a member of Foursquare, feel free to follow me for tips and impromptu meetups. Or if you prefer using another location-based social media, check out all the networks I use to share my location.

What Mr. Sheen hasn’t learned through his own use of social media is true for many other organizations who want to promote their brand and protect their reputation using social media: you’ve got to have a communications strategy.  And no, “going viral” is not a strategy, it’s only a goal (which can sometimes backfire).  To that end Charlie Sheen captured the attention of the online world, but without a strategic approach his haphazard embrace of social media seemingly hurt, rather than helped his reputation.  In contrast with individuals who have developed their personal brands, Sheen lacks personal experience to cultivate the tremendous interest in his brand in the best direction, which seems justify his search for a third-party who can give his Twitter account a positive spin.  Yet instead of looking for an intern, he should take a page from the many established brands who’ve successfully managed their social media presence, either though hiring online marketing and PR agencies or developing internal resources to plan their communications strategy.

Of course many brands didn’t always feel this way; when I started this blog in 2009 I wrote about my own experience using Twitter as a tool to find internship opportunities. At the same time agencies turned to my generation of recent grads and millennials to help them understand social media, so many were receptive to the idea of an interns helping out with a niche website like Twitter or Facebook. Especially because many businesses still considered social media a new fad (and not an important emerging platform) many were willing to let interns manage accounts for their brands; after all many simply assumed it was only kids using new media.

What seemed true in 2009 should not be assumed in 2011; social media have emerged as core platforms not only for promoting brands but for building businesses. With 600 million members on Facebook, and an established user base on Twitter that averages over 30 years in age, no brand would risk putting their reputation in the hands of an inexperienced graduate, much less an intern.  Instead organizations who want to build their brand through social media should hire professionals who’ve developed their strategic approach through experience, especially those who have tactical experience using blogs and social media to promote another organization.  Brands should look for professionals who’ve learned about social media through broad online experience, not necessarily specific skill-sets related to individual platforms like Twitter, because it demonstrates their ability to adapt and learn as new platforms emerge.

For prospective interns and job candidates, Twitter continues to stand out as a great tool to network and find job opportunities like my own Twitter internship. It’s also an excellent platform to share ideas and build your online reputation as a knowledgeable professional, particularly for social media marketers like myself, in a forum that’s highly visible in search results for those screening applicants. Likewise for job recruiters, social media offers a unique opportunity to screen potential employees and get a fuller picture of the people outside of their resume.

While it’s yet to be seen what the outcome of Mr. Sheen’s search for an intern may be, it seems likely that the same lack of direction that stifled his own social media efforts will sabotage any intern’s efforts.  At the end of the day a brand is only as strong as it’s own commitment to their unique offering, and that comes only through the knowledge and experience all members of an organization share.  To be sure, Charlie Sheen has earned America’s collective attention fixed on his social media presence, so what he is able to achieve depends not only on what he says but also who he chooses to manage his brand’s voice online.

Update:Since I published the original post on my Twitter internship, people have asked me about what most appropriate role for an marketing/communications intern might be.  First I should note that Internships are valued most for helping gain experience in the field, but that legally Interns are usually prohibited from making contributions to the main business practices of a company. Social Media may have been considered an emerging platform in the past, but Facebook and Twitter are now core parts of a brand and many organizations now use their blog as a primary outlet for communications. As much as today’s interns may want to demonstrate their own understanding of new media, no organization fulfills their educational (or legal) obligations by assigning an intern to perform services they should expect of their PR/marketing/communications professionals.

Of course this isn’t to say interns can’t make valuable contributions using their own insights into new media, only that they shouldn’t be acting as social media spokespersons for their organization.  Instead there are many additional roles an intern can serve, including social media monitoring, auditing, and even old school media clippings with an online twist. In a Sales capacity, I’ve also seen interns do great research work identifying sales prospects using social media, and turning these leads over to an appropriate sales representative for the company.  Internships are a great way to gain experience using new media professionally, but they shouldn’t be representing the public face of their company externally.