• 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.

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.

To thank my readers for their support over the last year, I’m sharing my 5th annual Very Indie Christmas mixtape.  I make this mix each year to share new Holiday songs besides those played repeatdly on commercial radio and in the shopping malls, so you might consider this my gift to you.

You can find more of my mixtapes and listening habits over the holidays on my Playlist page.

If you’re looking for a good last-minute gift for anyone, feel free to borrow ideas from my list of charities and philanthropic causes I support. Helping those in need is just part of the holiday spirit, so I hope the best for you and yours in the new year!

• Tofurkey and craft beers; including a handful I can only find back home in St. Louis, Missouri.
• Good friends and a social network to keep in touch with them
• Clothes on my back and a roof over my shoulders, in a home with my best friend
• The return of Conan to late-night TV, and cord-cutting options for Television and film
• A family who provides each other with love and support all year round (see above).

Thanks to all of my friends and fellow recent graduates for sharing our ideas and professional stories, and I hope all those who read this blog have a Happy Thanksgiving filled with memories of their own.

In addition to MatthewHurst.com, this new site supports my original goal to build my professional reputation, beginning first by securing my personal brand.  Instead of replacing this site as my expertise in online marketing, public communication, and of course social media, MattHurst.com seeks to better connect me with my peers who might not want to connect professionally, while still introducing them to my personal interests using online communication.

So far I’ve successfully created MatthewHurst.com into a online resource highlighting my professional insights and knowledge, but to most of those I meet online and in person I’m simply Matt – that guy who is really excited about social media. With this new site I hope this will continue to build my personal brand, not to mention helping out with search queries for “Matt Hurst”.

What do you think of MattHurst.com?  Please leave a comment, and I’ll try to incorporate your feedback into future redesigns of this blog as well!

Update: So far the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive

Love the site, man. I miss that robot! – Josh Parolin

New site looks really great Matt, nice job. I’m enjoying discovering your blog posts, esp. one on social vs. civic engagement – Matt

i <3 that robot. i have one too! – Salsus

Nice to meet you – Lone Olive

For those interested in building a similar microsite for themselves, I was able to build the page using Flavors.me using their design and hosting services. Some of my friends have made the move themselves, although credit is deserved to Ishmael Vasquez for leading me in this direction using his own example. Thanks again for all your feedback; please leave a comment with your own thoughts

• Average audience is younger and less affluent, and thereby not as valueable for brands
• More users than Twitter, although they’re less active than Facebook users
• users spend less time on the site than other social media
• Privacy controls are much more robust for personal users.  In many ways, Myspace allows users to control their privacy better than Facebook

As you might expect, Many of my friends had questions about why I would even want to join Myspace again:

I never got into MySpace because I never knew anybody on there. I’ve always had lots of friends on Facebook. What’s strange is that those two are about staying connected w/ ppl you already know. Twitter has been about making new friends. – Michael Calhoun

…Why? – Chris Maue

Don’t do it! – Steve Petersen

Why would you ever leave Myspace - Lost Plum

Hey I’m never on here…so I’ll see you on fb! – Anonymous friend

Some of my old friends who remained on Myspace were also curious why I would join, so I shared a short essay explaining my reasoning.

In online marketing it is most important to meet your audience where they are, rather than where you want them to be.  I’ve been asked if Twitter is merely  a platform for broadcasting narcissism, what the ROI value of a Facebook fan is, and that blogs are just a ruse for stay-at-home moms to get free products.  While using of social media as a tactic varies based on the strategic goals of each client, I invariably must explain that they can use these tools to listen to consumers and learn from what works (and what isn’t) to improve their business, and not just to improve their reputation.  There’s also a first mover advantage for brands who are able to master social media before their competitors, often winning devoted brand advocates who will benefit word-of-mouth discussion for years to come.

I believe the best way to understand new media is to try it for yourself, which is why I have profiles on hundreds of social media websites.  While I may use some networks more actively than others, it’s still important to open yourself to new ideas to best understand what makes them useful or valuable.  Only through my own trial of these media, some of which failed or no longer exist, was I able to appreciate their potential – which saves my clients investing their time on platforms that won’t help meet their goals.  So ultimately I had little choice as a professional to stop worrying and join Myspace.

At IDEO’s Humanizing Social Media event in February 2010, we explored the implications of social media on interpersonal communication. Rather than perpetuating the discussion of case studies and e-commerce during Social Media Week, this social experiment left us questioning how the communications shifts have impacted the way we develop new friendships online. Our cellphones were left at the front door and we exchanged our clothes for a plain white t-shirt affixed with buttons which carried tags that describe ourselves, like “blogger” and “geek” in my own case.

It was an thought provoking exercise, and now I can  finally share the results from this experiment with you.  We had a great night at this event, so much that I was awarded the honor of “Person with whom you’d most like to stranded on a desert island with”!  Look for yours truly to take a staring turn during the panel discussions, as captured in this video.

A little further news and notes not quite long enough to warrant a blog post of their own:

• The Case Study of my work on  SpaFinder’s Deal Days event using social media has been published.  Our outreach to bloggers and through social media resulted in at least 1200% increase in word-of-mouth discussion of their brand, successfully launching this event while working to promote their brand and improve SEO.  My responsibilities also included developing best practices for their social media strategy, in addition to helping launch their iPhone app and video production work.
• Following the announcement at Facebook’s developers conference, I tried to answer what  Facebook Open Graph means for website owners, in a post Blue Fountain Media’s blog.  Since then we have an even better picture of both privacy concerns and the benefits of the platform for casual users and developers alike.  In many ways Facebook is poised to become the first semantic search engine by integrating their social network with the rest of the internet.
• BrewNoob.com has officially launched!  Only one year ago I created a Twitter account to share my love of tasty beers, and now it has grown into a blog in its own right.

The best is yet to come, so come back soon for exciting updates as I grow professionally (and personally) online and off.

What can you do with a BA in Film Studies (or a minor in Philosophy for the matter)? Graduating into an otherwise uncertain job market can be scary; many of my classmates still weren’t sure how they could use their well-developed new media skills, much less where they might be employed.  For me the answer seemed obvious: I went right back into school to study strategic communication.

Yet this time last year I graduated once again, with an internship lined up but without a clear direction for my own career.  I could only dream of working as a social media pro, but my inexperience and overeducation seemed like insurmountable hurdles to post-graduate employment. Only recently was I finally able to find employment with a like-minded group of professionals who shared my passion for creating innovative websites and reinvigorating established brands through strategic online marketing.

Recently I heard from an old friend who wanted to break into online marketing and new media as well. Although I knew first hand of their knowledgeable understanding of online communication and social networks, their challenge was to demonstrate that knowledge to an potential employer. It’s the same reason why I went back into school to study communication, but in this business environment experience is valued more than education.

While I can’t speak for everyone, here’s what I think might help from my own experience:

1. Create a resume website: ideally using your own name (like me), or else build your personal brand around a site you can make.
2. Connect it with your social media profiles. Secure your name across platforms (even if your not sure how to use them yet).
3. Rock that SEO magic (keyword blog posts, inbound links), and connect to colleagues’ and friends’ sites. This can be accomplished through a professional blog that shows off your knowledge of using social media.
4. Make sure you get to Page 1 when someone Google’s your name.

Hopefully these steps will help you demonstrate your talent using online media, but personal branding alone is not enough to get a job.  Without being able to go into specifics, here’s some general tips that could help you get a job:

• Learn the Language:  Bone up on your communications and marketing knowledge with some supplemental reading from your favorite thought leaders.  Avoid self-proclaimed Experts, Ninjas, and Gurus.
• Join the Conversation:  Establish yourself as an authority about the subjects you care about online, using social networks like Twitter and LinkedIn.
• Read about offline Pros: Learn about measurement, and reinforce your own understanding of communication theory. Sadly, this blog doesn’t count as required reading.
• Network IRL:  Introduce yourself to other professionals and find jobs which aren’t advertised (this worked for me).  You can join me at an event if you like.
• Write: Read the AP Stylebook like a bible, and hone your writing craft.

There’s no magic formula that works for everyone; in fact perhaps it’s most important to be yourself!  If you’re a strong writer, use your resume website to highlight your copywriting or news stories.  Or if you’re a great at video editing, use your site to highlight the best clips you upload to YouTube.  Making your own website offers an ideal opportunity to introduce the best work in your portfolio, and will build a body of work which will cement your professional reputation.  With some work and a little luck I know you can break into this field too!

Today I celebrate my 25th birthday and the first anniversary of this website, which neatly coincides with the 25th anniversary of dot-com domains. In the year since I started writing this blog, so much in my life has changed:

• Graduated from American University with a Master’s degree in Public Communication.
• Created social media strategy for a non-profit, and raised funds my favorite cause through tactics on Facebook.
• Managed Twitter accounts and Facebook pages for entrepreneurs, local bloggers, and established brands.
• Found an internship through Twitter, learned about research and professional writing, and was called a “social media power-user” by my colleagues.
• Television transitioned from analog to digital, but I still watch most of my video online.
• Online retailers of music, video and applications became the biggest, and opinion leaders curated our online content.
• Moved from DC to NYC, and started to build my professional network.
• Blogged about my passion for tasty beers.
• Started working with a leading web design, SEO, and online marketing company.
• Met many more Matt Hursts on the internet, built my personal brand, and became a professional.

If I haven’t been keeping up with the blog as much lately, it’s because I’m finally applying the insights I’ve written about here through my new work.  I’m proud of what I’ve been able to accomplish working as a social media and online marketing pro, so expect to hear more about those experiences soon. Until then, thank you for sharing this journey from student to professional along with me.

It has been said that 8 out of 10 job opportunities come from sources outside of those advertised. So it might be assumed that social networks, especially those centered around professional relationships like LinkedIn, would be ideal tools to find jobs and recruit new talent. Yet in the experiences of many job hunters, including myself, social networks like LinkedIn have yet to live up to this promise.

Social networks are a great tool for HR professionals and other job recruiters, making it easier than ever to search for employees with the right experience and skills.  Besides Facebook and Twitter, social networks such as LinkedIn, Plaxo, Brazen Careerist, and Xing have become popular places to post resumes and connect with like minded professionals.  Sometimes these professional networks have been known to generate new business opportunities, but for many job seekers these sites offer no greater a resource to find employment than Monster.com.

Part of the problem lies in how LinkedIn is used differently than other social networks.  Once you’ve finished setting up your profile with your resume and begin to connect with other professionals, there is little else to do on the site. While LinkedIn has 50 million registered accounts, less than half are active at least monthly (according to Quantcast).

Besides expanding your network of connections, LinkedIn confines interaction between its users to those who are already connected. Even with the integration of Twitter into the LinkedIn platform, interactions between members of a network are largely limited to interpersonal discussion.  By comparison to the open/public conversations that make Facebook and Twitter so popular, the end effect is to make discussion seem closed-off or private, further discouraging discovery and interaction between its members.

To be sure these social networks are becoming more popular as professionals look for meaningful ways to network online, or at least in a different (less personal) way than Facebook or Myspace promotes.  According to a Pew report the median age of a LinkedIn user is 39, significantly older than Twitter (31) or Facebook (33).  Perhaps this better explains why these communities interact differently; LinkedIn users might feel they are finished using the network once they’ve set up a profile, rather than integrating social media as part their everyday lives.

In my own job search, LinkedIn could be playing a pivotal role, although so far its just a supporting piece of the puzzle.  To be sure I’ve written recommendations for colleagues, networked in groups like #PRStudChat, and reached out through mutual connections, all of which have expanded my network.  So far LinkedIn has yet to land me any meaningful job opportunities, at least compared to board-based services like Mediabistro and Craigslist.  Until LinkedIn can leverage of their social network to create opportunities, especially for individual users, its potential will continue to yield diminishing returns on investment for organizations.