Social Media by the Numbers

• Feb 19th, 2010
• Posted by Cody
• Posted in Facts, Irrefutable, Social Media, Social Media News, Social Media by the Numbers, Spring Creek Group, That is a picture of an early Scrabble tabulation, Uncategorized

Blogs, the long-suffering workhorses of the Internet, are often thought of as an excellent way to communicate with others online.  However, a “blog post,” when used to convey one’s opinion, comes with one inherent flaw: it requires the use of words, and words alone can simply not be trusted.

Fortunately, in the entire history of the world, numbers have never been used to lie or deceive any one in any way.  That is why, periodically, we like to take a look at “Social Media by the Numbers” in order to cut through the empty rhetoric often present in the busy world of social media and get down to some serious and objective truth. 

• Percentage of journalists in a recent study who say social media is an important tool for producing and reporting the stories they write:  56%
• Number of unique visits to Twitter.com in January:  73.5 million
• Minimum number of Olympic athletes who dislike NBC’s Olympic coverage, according to NBC.com’s own “Olympic Pulse” Twitter feed:  1
• Dollar amount of voucher offered to filmmaker Kevin Smith following his removal from a Southwest Airlines plane for being “too fat” to travel, which prompted a backlash via Twitter:  $100
• Percentage of people, according to a CNN.com poll, who agree with Southwest Airlines’ decision: 58%
• Minimum number of photos of 9/11 hijackers that have been appropriated for Facebook advertisements regarding changes in Michigan’s auto insurance policy:  1
• Number of incarcerated individuals’ Facebook profiles that British Justice Secretary Jack Straw has requested be shut down, due to the fact that these profiles are being used to harass the individuals’ former victims:  More than 30
• Altitude, in feet, which Toshiba UK launched an “ordinary living room chair” for an ad campaign:    98,268
• Number of class action lawsuits filed against Google due to privacy concerns over their new Google Buzz application: 1
• Percentage of social sharing on the web driven by Facebook: 44%
• Number of Facebook’s new environmentally-friendly “green data centers” that will be partially powered by coal:  1
• Breakdown of our emotional reaction to the “new social statement site” pleaserobme.com:  70% amused, 30% terrified