In the interest of trying to become more transparent as a blogger, here’s a look back measuring my own blog’s audience during 2011:

Source: http://jetpack.me/annual-report/6790360/2011/

• A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 4,900 times in 2011. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 4 trips to carry that many people.
• In 2011 there were 15 new posts on the blog, growing the total archive on this blog to 61 posts so far.
• Twitter and Facebook were my main sources of referral traffic, but increasingly Google+ brought new readers to my site.
• I’ve had far fewer comments in 2011 than in previous years, and average less than a comment per post.
• My most read posts in 2011 were actually from previous years, bringing in visitors searching for “Twitter internships” and how to become “Social Media Marketers“, showing the long-term value of SEO built through blog writing.

While this analysis looks at stats from this website using WordPress’ built-in tools, these insights into my blog’s audience can be gathered on any kind of website.  Here are some of the website measurement tools you can use to learn more about visitors to your own site:

• Google Analytics is a great tool that offers stats about your site’s visitors, the content they visit, and how they find your site.  There are many advanced featured for businesses to use, including goal tracking and conversions, which come in an easy to use interface.  Most importantly, it’s a free tool that’s easy to set up on any website.
• PostRank measures engagement on your site (integrating Google Analytics data) and elsewhere online, and offers publishers perspective on who shares links to your site through social media.
• Lijit is a search tool you can install on your site, which also offers insight into what users are searching for when they visit your website.
• SEOmoz is paid tool for online marketing professionals that helps you optimize your content for search engines. In addition to helping you research the rank of your site for various keywords and find backlinks from around the web, SEOmoz helps you research competing sites and offers suggestions to improve your own content.
• WordPress Stats is a built-in feature for bloggers using the platform, and offers real-time stats about popular content and referral links (as seen in this post).

Extra credit: Since 2012 marks my 8th year as a blogger, I’ve also added new pages to this site which offer a timeline of my blogging career as well as some of my favorite copywriting as professional blog writer. Hopefully sharing some of my experiences as blogger will help you better understand your own blogging efforts, but if you think of any questions feel free to leave a comment on this post which all of my readers can learn from.

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.

What is copyright and what constitutes fair use? Do I need to register a copyright for my creative work to be protected? How long is a work copyrighted, and when does it enter the public domain? Are there advantages to using creative commons licensing or copyright?

In a recent course I took at the Brooklyn Brainery, our class took these questions head on to discuss the need to protect creative work and limit the exploits of copyright trolls. Sometimes referred to as intellectual property, copyright is a kind of property right (and a Constitutional Right in the US) which protects the use of creative work. Of course creative work is unique compared to other kind of property, so copyright is created whenever it’s “fixed in a tangible form of expression” by its creators, whether it’s a written novel or a music recording. Copyright gives its owners the exclusive right to reproduce the work, derivative works, and public performances of it.

There’s a careful legal balance between protecting the intellectual property rights of their owners and promoting the free expression which is guaranteed as a constitutional right.  For example, in the music recording industry many musicians don’t profit from sales of their recordings after they cede to their labels/distributors ownership to copyright for their work, sometimes waiting years to regain the copyright to their own songs. Likewise the creators of mash-ups and remixes such as Girl Talk make a legal balancing act necessary to avoid infringing on copyrights while using elements of old recordings to create something new.

While media law is a continuously evolving field and largely a matter of interpretation for the judges, over time some precedence has emerged that provides some legal framework. As we learned in our class for general purposes, here’s the four requirements you need to meet for Fair Use of copyrighted works:

1. The Purpose and Character of the Use
   • Use should be transformative, meaning it adds new value or changed the original expression. For example, some music sampling or mashups/remixes meet these requirements
   • Is the purpose to make money? Is the work a parody or satire (or something else)?
2. Nature of the Copyrighted Work
   • There’s a need to protect works of fiction and promote authorship, but courts generally agree use of historic facts should be available for public use.
   • Does the work need protection? Until a work is published it’s less of a “fixed object” than those already created.
3. Amount and Substantiality of portion used
   • While you can’t copy the whole work or the “heart” of it that makes it most valuable, it’s generally acceptable to excerpt small parts of a copyrighted work
4. Effect on the Market
   • Will the use negatively impact the market for the original work? If people are likely to buy it instead of the original, it could cause damage against the copyright holder
   • Sometimes a parody can become more popular than the original, but it shouldn’t count against it’s use because it’s not meant to replace the work it’s based on

On the internet where anything can be copied, pasted, and published in a matter of minutes, copyright becomes confusing to many who’ve had little prior experience in publishing, not to mention difficult to enforce for copyright holders. On the other hand musicians and photographers should be able to decide how their work can be used, whether by individuals working on their own websites or by companies/organizations who want to use their work.

Best Practices:
So what can writers/photographers/designers/programers do to protect their work? Although creative work is automatically copyrighted through the very act of it’s creation, you should consider registering your creative work which will create a public record of who owns it and provides a legal reference that will provide some protection. The good news is our class instructor told us registration is cheap, as little as $35 to register 1000 photographs for instance. It’s a small price for a little piece of mind that will help identify you as its owner/creator, and best of all you maintain the option to share your work with whoever you’d like.

Another option for those who want to share their work even more openly is using Creative Commons licensing, a framework made popular by Lawrence Lessig to help the Internet generation continue sharing remixes and mash-ups. Like with Fair Use, Creative Commons provides a framework for appropriate use of intellectual property, and has the added benefit of making the copyright more transparent and hence easier to share creative work. For instance I share my photographs on Flickr under a CC-license, so that bloggers and creative professionals who find my pictures useful can use them to illustrate their own stories and ideas. As a result my photos are featured on websites as diverse as Wired, the Consumerist, and even RocketBoom, not to mention this site. Ultimately it’s the responsibility of the copyright holder to ensure a work is protected, and where and when it can be used by others.

Extra credit: Explore my photos published on other websites using the Creative Commons licensing. But keep in mind I retain all rights to the blog posts I write on this website.

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…

• Application – Instagram. Instagram has become my preferred way to share photos on Twitter, Facebook, and to make posts on my photo blog Speaking in Megapixels. It’s fun and easy using it to turn cameraphone pics into memorable photos. I find myself increasingly posting Instagram in place of Twitpic to share instant memories over the internet.
• Blog – Geekosystem. Imagine a blog that brings together the best links from Reddit + Tech blogs + general geeky ideas in a single source.
• Colleague – Jake Brus. I worked with Jake as a student at American University, and was impressed by his knowledge of branding and creative writing style. A midwesterner educated in DC, Jake is a pragmatic problem solver and great collaborator of projects in the classroom. And since graduating he’s started writing a blog about Place Branding which is recommended reading for anyone who wants to learn about the subject.
• Music – Harry Nilsson. Probably the best pop musician in the 1960s-70s since forgotten, whose soaring harmonies I can’t help but sing along to myself.  He’s the consummate musicians-musician, and his exploits have since made him the subject of the documentary “Who is Harry Nilsson (and why is everybody talking about him)?”  After watching the film, it’s easy to understand why.
• Social Network – Empire Avenue. The stock exchange game lets you buy and sell stocks of individuals on social networks, increasing their values based on social media activity. While it’s not meant to act as an social currency like competing influence ratings metrics (Klout comes to mind), it makes for addictive gameplay that effectively functions as a social network in its own right, complete with personal profiles and public comments.
• Television – The Office. This season we wished farewell to Michael Scott, wrapping up years of plot lines into satisfying conclusion. Nostalgia for the “World’s Best Boss” was hi, and even Ricky Gervais couldn’t resist making a cameo for the character he made famous. No one knows who will play the next boss at Dunder Mufflin, but I’ll be watching along with everyone else.
• Word Game: Words with Friends. Yes it’s just Scrabble, but by opening up to my network of friends through my iPhone changes they way we can play. Just look up “matthurst” if you want to play a game with me!

Extra credit after the jump:

• Comic: XKCD. Like thousands of other geeks, I’ve been a reader for years. Lately XKCD has become better known for another reason; creating infographics that help visualize complex subjects like the impact of radiation following the disaster in Japan.  In other words, reading XKCD won’t only help you be a better geek, but also a little smarter as a person.
• Location: Brooklyn, NY. Constantly the subject of hipster jokes and perhaps overhyped, but always underestimated.  It’s residents are often it’s own biggest critics, but Brooklyn is in the midst of a renaisance of culture and redevelopment years in the making.  Also, I’m proud to call Brooklyn my home.
• Charity: City Harvest.  City harvest brings fresh food and ecological education to school kids in the urban environment of New York City.  I participated in their Skip Lunch Fight Hunger drive this May 11th, in which $10 will help buy lunch to 43 school kids during the summer months (when school in out).
• Website: Grooveshark.  A great music service doesn’t need to be a cloud music locker or subscription service, only to let you listen and share songs with friends.  Grooveshark makes both extradonarily easily, and may yet help you discover new tracks at the same time.

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.

I started 2011 fresh by listing the things I could live without from 2010, but have found many more worthwhile ideas to share over the last month.

Application – IntoNow. I’ve been trying a half-dozen TV check-in apps, to share the shows I’m watching with friends and to chat with other viewers, but they’re all are kind of the same. This app stands out by becoming the Shazaam for TV and Movies, recording an audio-fingerprint which instantly recognizes the show I’m watching with a single push of the button (even if it’s a live broadcast!). So it fits into the lean-back experience of TV viewing, almost like you’re not using an app at all.

Blog – The Atlantic. As a long-time reader of the magazine, I’m surprised I hadn’t been reading their blogs earlier, especially since their editors seem to have fully embraced the medium. My favorites include Alexis Madrigal for literary tech analysis (rather than reporting/punditry) and a handful of contributors behind their Culture blog.

Colleague – Alhan Keser. I worked with Alhan at Blue Fountain Media, and he impressed me immediately not only for his understaning of SEO and social media (what he hired me for), but for his insight into a consumer’s behavior as they use the web. He effortlessly combines thoughtful web design with online marketing tactics, to create successful websites that build business for his clients. It’s a rare talent in the business to wear both hats. Fortunately Alhan is more than a talented co-worker, but he’s also a nice guy that I’m glad to count among friends.

Film – Black Swan. This film benefits from the visual magic, strong symbolism, and cathartic plotlines we’ve come to expect in Darren Aronofsky’s films. As a recovering film student who has written about the director before, I can assure long-time fans like myself would not be disapointed by this early favorite for the Academy Awards.

Event – Social Media Week. As social media starts to become synonymous with the rest of the internet, this year’s series takes place in cities across the world. At last year’s Social Media Week I was nominated for an award (albiet minus social media), and this year i’ll keep learning and connecting with other like minded professionals in New York City.

Music – Arcade Fire. The band that I’ve loved since I was still coming of age continues to grow up with me, releasing an album many others also consider the best of the last year. They’re also one of the last great rock music bands that make use the lost art of the album, and in these winter months they’ve re-entered my rotation.

Social Network – Hashable. At networking events during Social Media Week, we’re all looking for a replacement to the traditional business card. While there are lots of apps to trade contact information, Hashable is a first of its kind network that meets the actual goal of building networks through the exchange of information. Connecting with your Twitter account is just the first step of using this network to connect with other people.

TV show – King of the Hill. I’ll tell you what… this show is a brilliant sitcom of post-Reagan suburban America. My friend Gabe Bullard as a better summary of why this series makes us laugh, which is also why I’ve run a marathon through 8 or 9 seasons over the past couple months.