1. What is social media? Channels for interacting, using accessible publishing techniques. Social media use web-based technologies to transform and broadcast media monologues allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content.” -Wikipedia

2. 51% Get News From 'People They Follow’(Pew Survey)

3. “The overwhelming majority of Americans (92%) use multiple platforms to get their daily news.” (Source: Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project and Project for Excellence in Journalism)

4. Americans spend 57 minutes a day getting news from traditional media (same as in 2000) and AN ADDITIONAL 13 minutes each day consuming news on the web.(This doesn’t include mobile.) Pew Research Center, September 2010

5. 95% of online shoppers conduct research before making a decision60% of online shoppers always or oftenuse search engines(Credit: Compete Online Shopper Intelligence Study)

6. The average social network user is37 years old.(It’s 44 on Linkedin.)(Credit: Pingdom)

7. 79% of the 100 largest Fortune 500 use Twitter, Facebook, YouTube or blogs to communicate with customers, with Twitter as the platform of choice.(Credit: Burson-Marsteller Fortune Global 100 Social Media Study)

8. More than 60% of moms said they would provide info about themselves to a trusted brand if it meant more personalized content. (Source)

9. More than 25% of Americans 50 yrs + stay connected using Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. (Source)

10. The average Facebook user creates 70 pieces of content each month. (Source)

11. People spend over 500 billion minutes per month on Facebook(Source)

12. Almost two-thirds of people are happy to pay for quality journalism but not online, according to a YouGov survey. (Source)

13. 68% of global consumers act upon email they receive on a mobile device while using a desktop PC (Source)

14. Americans spend 57 minutes a day getting news from traditional media (same as in 2000) and AN ADDITIONAL 13 minutes each day consuming news on the web.(This doesn’t include mobile.) Pew Research Center, September 2010

15. 95% of online shoppers conduct research before making a decision60% of online shoppers always or oftenuse search engines(Credit: Compete Online Shopper Intelligence Study)

16. The average social network user is 37 years old.(It’s 44 on Linkedin.)(Credit: Pingdom)

17. 79% of the 100 largest Fortune 500 use Twitter, Facebook, YouTube or blogs to communicate with customers, with Twitter as the platform of choice.(Credit: Burson-Marsteller Fortune Global 100 Social Media Study)

18. “1 in every 3 online Americans is a conversationalist, someone who updates their status on a social networking site such as Facebook or posts updates on Twitter at least once weekly.”(Credit: Forrester)

19. Billions of pageviews Image courtesy of @Jess3, March 2010

20. The Geosocial Universe Image courtesy of @Jess3, August 2010

21. 78% of companies said they use Facebook, Twitter, and other sites to conduct research, improve customer service, push marketing and PR initiatives, and ultimately boost sales.(Source)

22. About one-in-three adults has a cell phone with apps (Source)

23. Most brand managers currently use online video for marketing purposes and will increase their usage in the next 12 months(Source)

24. More than 72% of cell phone users send and receive text messages.(Source)

25. Cellphones cause an average of 1.4 million car crashes every year.Of those, 200,000 crashes are due to text messaging.(Source)

26. Close to half of US consumers prefer mobile coupons to be sent via text message.-According to Insight Express

27. 8 in 10 Americans want companies to give them the opportunity to buy a cause-related product.-2010 Cone Cause Evolution Study

28. Forrester says 14% of Americans already have or are planning to buy a tablet device in the next 12 months.

29. The mobile-advertising market for North America is expected to be $450 million this year, up 50% from 2009. (Source)

30. A full 72% of Congressional Republicans have at least one Twitter account, compared to 55% of Congressional Democrats. (Source)

31. 'BFF' and 'Hashtag' now in New Oxford American Dictionary

32. From OnlineEducation.net

33. 78% of active users turn to Twitter.com to access the service rather than using one of the many third-party applications available on mobile and desktop environments.(Source)

34. Third-party Twitter apps have seen a 50% decline in early-stage investment over the past year. (Source)

35. About two-thirds of Internet users globally and nearly three-quarters of Web surfers in the U.S. have been victims of online crime. (Source)

36. 38.9% of people don’t use any social network. (Source)

37. 61.1% of web users visit social networks. This represents a 4.3% increase on the results in January 2009, when 56.8% of respondents said they use social networking. (Source)

38. 88.3% of social media publishers monetize social media in some way.-Q2 2010 State of SMS I IZEA

39. 87.4% of social media publishers have or would create sponsored content.Q2 2010 State of SMS I IZEA

40. Twitter users earn 298% more in SMS for their blog than non-twitter users.Q2 2010 State of SMS I IZEA

41. Top 10 Viral Ads of All TimeSource: AdvertisingAge Blendtec – Will It Blend – In-house: 134.2 million views Evian – Live Young – BETC Euro RSCG: 103.9 million views Old Spice – Responses – Wieden & Kennedy: 57.1 million views Pepsi – Gladiator – AMV BBDO: 46.7 million views Microsoft – Xbox Project Natal – World Famous: 42.7 million views Dove – Evolution – Ogilvy & Mather: 41.1 million views T-Mobile – T-Mobile Dance - Saatchi & Saatchi: 35.5 million views Doritos – Crash the Super Bowl 2010 – Goodby Silverstein & Partners: 34.2 million views Old Spice – Odor Blocker – Wieden & Kennedy: 34 million views DC Shoes – Gymkhana Two – In-house: 32.9 million views

42. Facebook has 500 million users, which is just under the population of the United States. (Source)

43. Twitter has 145 million registered users, up almost 40 percent from the number it had four months ago. (Source)

44. 16% of all new users to Twitter start using the service via a mobile device now. (Source)

45. 70% of consumers who “fanned” a brand on Facebook didn’t feel they’d given this company permission to market to them. (Source)

46. Nearly one third of all cellphones in the U.S. are now so-called smartphones—Web-enabled devices that make surfing the Internet for information easy for people on the go. (Source)

47. Young people’s use of social networking sites grew only 13% between April 2009 and May 2010.(Source)

48. 34% of Americans report they “tune out” social networking sites, 39% attribute to rude discourse and behavior [Weber Shandwick]

49. Visualizing 6 Years of Facebook from Mashable:

50. 60% of B2B don't have a staff member who is dedicated to social media marketing.

52. 35% of Twitter users live in urban areas.