Social Media

Believe it or not, Facebook announced it signed up its 500 millionth user on Wednesday. The company launched in 2004 and it took them almost 4 years to sign up 100 million users, so this is quite a milestone.

In today’s world of burgeoning social networking sites, it’s not uncommon to have multiple profiles on multiple platforms. Many people are using Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Digg and many other sites on a daily basis. However, as these sites become more popular and companies start to do business using social media, it becomes difficult to draw a boundary line between what parts of the Net are for your personal use and what could be viewed from a professional standpoint.

By Karen Reynolds, Publicity Club of New England President
February 9, 2010

Like many organizations, we at the Pub Club declared this year The Year we’d dive into Social Media.

Armed with a talented group of board members representing the best and brightest from New England, we identified several areas where we could make a big splash. We launched a blog, opened a Twitter account, and created not one, but two Facebook pages. We also implemented a continuing Social Media workshop series with an ambitious calendar of 5 events for the 2009-2010 programming season.

With projections for more than 18 million people to be using Twitter by the end of 2009 and another 200 million currently using Facebook, it’s clear that social media is here to stay. The essence of the Web 2.0 phenomenon is the rise of user-generated content (UGC) and the power it gives average citizens to express their opinions – and have others listen.

Lois Kelly, a partner at Beeline Labs and author of Beyond Buzz: The Next Generation of Word of Mouth Marketing facilitated an interactive event that made many in the packed room think of writing for social media in a new way.

She opened with a video that will make even skeptics see the value in social media, Social Media Revolution.