Recent Facebook Demographics

If you get a chance, check out the latest statistics from InsideFacebook.com. Please keep in mind that these are only number for the United States. But there are some things that stand out:

Looking at percentages, the highest growth rate is coming from the over-45 demographic:

While the absolute number of members is smaller in that group, the growth rate is fascinating to watch. I would imagine this will eventually slow, as we've seen with the younger demographic, until it normalizes. In anecdotal conversations, I'm finding that many people from this demographic are using Facebook to connect with high school and college friends (especially as we move into reunion time), stay in touch with children and grandchildren, and even begin to use it for some business networking purposes.

Another worthwhile graph from the post breaks down current U.S. users by age:

If you bundle up the groups, you'll find that the 35 and older crowd makes up 38% of Facebook's population here in the U.S. Pretty cool when you consider that Facebook started about five years ago as a college-based tool.

And finally, looking at gender, we find that - in every single segment - there are more female users than male users of Facebook:

While we know that overall women use social networks more than men, I wonder how many of us are using that knowledge to effectively feed our marketing and communications programs? Seems like there's a good opportunity there.

Do any of these data strike you differently? Can you draw any conclusions or make inferences that I've missed? Let me know.

Chart credit: InsideFacebook.com

Facebook and Twitter Go Live on Xbox 360

As expected, November 17th is indeed the day that Xbox Live goes social with its latest big update. The popular online console service now has integration into leading social sites Facebook and Twitter.

Currently, the integration for Facebook is not the complete version, so you won’t be playing any FarmVille on your high definition television. However, the Live rendition does incorporate all of your major Facebook site features. From your TV, you can view pictures (which was a personal favorite), see updates, and post to your feed. Granted, it is a bit obnoxious to type with a controller, and not a keyboard, but it is still pretty cool from what we’ve played around with so far.

Another interesting feature is that you can see all of your Facebook friends who are on Xbox Live and all of your Xbox Live friends who are on Facebook (once they have installed it on their console). Of course, this doesn’t mean that your normal Facebook friends list is forsaken. On the contrary, you can see all of them and view all their updates, news feeds, and pictures right from your couch. It’s nothing different, really, from what you can do on the web… except the whole 1080i thing.

Now, if Twitter is more your thing, then that is here too. From here, the integration is a little fuller (but then again, there is a lot less to Twitter than Facebook). Users can tweet directly from their console, see the latest tweets from whom they are following, and even view what trending topics are out there.

Beyond, Facebook and Twitter, the new Xbox Live update has also included Zune and Last.fm. The former allows users to watch high definition, 1080p, television and videos with up to seven friends. Seems minor, but with the digital age bringing people together across the world, it really adds another great means to connect with them. Last.fm, on the other hand is a program that allows you to customize and listen to various radio stations wrought with free music. Users can choose to skip, “ban,” or “love” a myriad of tracks that will allow them to create a mix of music that is perfect for them. In fact, stations can be browsed based on popularity, artists, and for those in the UK and U.S., a gamers-only station filled with popular game soundtracks.

Overall, the new additions to Xbox Live are a phenomenal boost to the console’s social endeavors. Quite frankly, just setting up some gamer music stations led us to an exorbitant amount of procrastination. And that doesn’t include the time it took to play around with Facebook and Twitter. However, the new updates only seem to be available if you own a Gold Membership and not the free Silver Membership. Frankly, this sort of kills a lot of the update.

Microsoft wants the Live service to be more social. To have people do more than just play games on it. However, the people that play games all the time are there to play games, not so much use these new social features (save Zune, perhaps). The people they want to attract – the more casual crowd – is not going to pay for a Gold account when they can get the same social networks for free on the computer. At the very least, Facebook and Twitter need to be made for the free Silver account; otherwise… what is the point? Hopefully that will change, but as it stands, it is still a very cool addition.

Facebook Adopts Updated Privacy Policy After Relatively Few User Comments

http://www.insidefacebook.com/

Last night, Facebook announced that after a week-long “notice and comment” period, it has decided to adopt the updated privacy policy it initially proposed in late October.

Because the proposed policy did not receive over 7,000 comments — the threshold Facebook laid out in its latest Statement of Rights and Responsibilities — the new policy did not go to site-wide user voting as happened earlier this year. In fact, the English version of the draft only got about 1,000 comments total.

What changes does the new policy bring about? As we detailed when the new policy was proposed, part of the intent with this draft was to provide a “clearer and more comprehensive” description of what the policies actually mean.

Facebook also added a blurb on “location” in which Facebook says it will treat your location as subject to your overall privacy settings (share with “everyone,” just “friends,” etc.). So Facebook is preparing, at least legally, for more location-based services:

Location Information. When you share your location with others or add a location to something you post, we treat that like any other content you post (for example, it is subject to your privacy settings). If we offer a service that supports this type of location sharing we will present you with an opt-in choice of whether you want to participate.

In terms of advertising, Facebook has included language that allows it to provide general statistics about users who interact with ads, but not personally identifiable information. Facebook also says:

We may institute programs with advertising partners and other websites in which they share information with us:

• We may ask advertisers to tell us how our users responded to the ads we showed them (and for comparison purposes, how other users who didn’t see the ads acted on their site). This data sharing, commonly known as “conversion tracking,” helps us measure our advertising effectiveness and improve the quality of the advertisements you see.
• We may receive information about whether or not you’ve seen or interacted with certain ads on other sites in order to measure the effectiveness of those ads.

Other notable reiterations of previous policies include what Facebook has to say to developers. “We do not guarantee that Platform will always be free,” according to the document.

Overall, the new policy does not represent any major shift in Facebook’s privacy philosophy, but is a part of its overall effort to simplify its privacy and legal documentation.

More politicians and watchdog organizations are paying attention to Facebook’s privacy policies too. The Privacy Commissioner of Canada has pushed the company to adopt more detailed rules about a number of practices, including better informing users what data they are sharing, and with whom.

And just today, Jim Gamble of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, criticized Facebook for not placing the CEOP “report” button on its website. Facebook responded, “We are confident that the Ceop button is an excellent solution for sites that have not invested in as robust a reporting infrastructure as Facebook has in place and one we continue to improve.”

Five Tips for Getting Traffic From Stumble

money.bigbucksblogger.com

StumbleUpon drives a lot of traffic, and the traffic, and as DoshDosh reports, StumbleUpon traffic is generally focused and of great quality. So, it’s worth trying to discover how to generate plenty of traffic without spamming the site and getting banned.

Naturally, I’ve been reading a large number of “to do” tips and I’ve hit on five I’m going to try over the next month. I’ve selected these because they are easy, and not too time consuming.

I encourage you to try them too.

All require you to join StumbleUpon and to make things easy, you should install the StumbleUpon toolbar which you can download at StumbleUpon’s main page — look in the right sidebar. After you install, you will see an bar whose left edge looks like this:

Ok, so now what am I going to do? Here’s my list, I encourage you to give it a try too:

1. Stumble people who link you! Do this by regularly visiting your dashboard, visiting their blog, and then clicking the “thumbs up” icon in the Stumble toolbar. If you are the first to Stumble, you will have a brief form to fill out. It’s quick– just do it.

   Why do this? When you Stumble someone else, they get traffic. If they linked you, some of those visitors will click the link to your post. (I tried this: it worked.)

2. Link and befriend bloggers who Stumble your posts! Why? Because bloggers tend to read posts that appear in their trackbacks. You can’t make them like your post or Stumble you. But remember, these are people who do Stumble what they like. So, it’s worth a shot!

   (If you want to read more about gaining visibility with the “right” Stumblers, read My StumbleUpon Friend.

3. Stumble your friend’s and commenter’s blog & Stumble posts you link. Do watch for your friends’ best posts– because other Stumblers will trust you more and your Stumble profile will improve more if you give a thumbs up to good posts.

   Why do this? Well, your friends and commentors visit your blog, right? Showing them the power of Stumble will make them want to join and get Stumbling too.
   When they do, encourage them to install the toolbar. Make them your “Stumble” friend. (You tell me your profile in comments, I’ll befriend you. )

   Give them your Stumble profile link. Hopefully, they will make you their StumbleUpon friend and will Stumble your best posts (especially when you link them.) Then, you will both increase your reputations with Stumble and get more traffic. (To read more about how Stumble rates stumblers, visit Stumble Upon Mathematics.

4. Thank people who stumble you. This tip comes from Liz of Successful Bloggers. How? Find the white conversation balloon in the Stumble toolbar; (it’s on the right in the image I show.) Click that– you’ll see who stumbled you. Next, find the “meet so-and-so” link. Click to open their profile.

   Now, look at the right sidebar. See the “Send a message?” Click that. Then send a message and thank them!

   Why? People who stumble tend to stumble a lot. Thanking them is gracious. It also may make them remember to visit your blog again and Stumble you again.

5. After someone Stumbles you, go stumble a post they stumbled! How? Once again, visit the Stumbler’s profile and look at the right sidebar. See “Stumble his favorites?” Click that.

   Read a few posts– use the “stumble” icon on the far left of your Stumble toolbar to scan past the ones you don’t like. Within 5 posts, you’ll probably find one you like. So, give it a thumbs up! You are done.

   Why do this? Because a person’s stumble profile is strengthened when they posts they Stumble are given thumbs up by others — including you. So, if people who like your posts develop good reputations, you get more traffic when they stumble you.

Those are the tips!

How about adding friends and fans?

Of course I’m going to add friends and fans etc. But right now, I don’t know everyone’s Stumble profile name. So, I’m going to concentrate on doing things that will make others discover my profile and want to become my fan.

To do that, I need to Stumble others, attract the attention of people who already Stumble, then cross my fingers and hope they like my posts.)

Will I be reading more tips? Absolutely. This is just a start– but it’s easy. With luck, I’ll accumilate stumbles, friends and fans as I learn how to better use StumbleUpon. (And you will too.) Maybe we’ll both soon find ourselves reciting An Ode to StumbleUpon.

Some Considerations About Domain Registration And Hosting

A domain registrar is a company that supplies domain names, and sometimes hosting as well.

After deciding on your domain name, you would go to a domain registrar to purchase it.. You will get your desired name if it is available. If not you may have to modify it, or choose another name.

The domain registrar checks the name chosen is not already taken, and collects information about the domain name purchaser (name, address, phone number, email address and fax number). They hold the information for billing, administration and technical contacts for the domain purchaser. The admin. contact and the owner are usually the same person, or company.

Your domain name points to your hosting space. The domain name makes the space look more professional and makes it easier to remember. Your domain name would look like, for example, YourName.com or YourName.net, or YourName.org etc. Nowadays domain names are quite cheap to purchase. The DNS (domain name servers) is information also held by the domain registrar and consists of the primary and secondary name servers that let internet traffic know where the internet host is for the domain name they are searching for.

Hosting - you need your domain/website hosted, and there are several hosting companies out there like One.com and HostGator. There are also many that do hosting and domain names. GoDaddy and CheapDomainSeller.com does both hosting and supplies domain names, and if you take both with CheapDomainSeller.com, they give you a discount. They have different packages, but the Economy Plan gives 5 Gb space, 250 Gb transfer, 500 email accounts, free software, 10 MySQL databases, 50 email forwards, forums, blogging, photo galleries and no ads.

Bandwidth - each hosting plan has a bandwidth limit per month. You need to ensure you have a package with sufficient bandwidth for your purposes. Big video files take up more bandwith so make smaller files if possible.

You can upload to your website/blog using programs like Microsoft FrontPage or other ftp programs. There are many ftp programs like Smart FTP or Filezilla. A Google search for 'FTP Programs' should give you a good choice.

Other factors to consider when registering a domain name and getting hosting are:

The cost of setting up, like purchasing a domain name, renewing it every year, the yearly cost of hosting etc. The other costs to factor in are SEO (search engine optimisation), advertising and marketing, etc. Research web hosting companies before you decide on one, compare prices and services with other web hosting companies.

Time in which you can be up and running. Most hosting companies can have you up and running within 24 hours.

How much space does your website need? A simple static space with small files, or a site that requires large database storage? If your site needs special software to run scripts or if your site requires a database, you should check with the web hosting company first.

You should try and visualise what you want your site to be like and what its purposes are. Write down all the functions of the links on your website. Make sure you have met all your requirements for your site so there are no complications after it is up and running caused by things you have omitted accidentally.

Remember, forums are also a great place to look for lots of good advice and information.