Social Media: 5 Rules, Facebook Tops Google, Effect on Olympics

• The 5 Basic Rules for Social Media was a blog post that was prompted by Nestle stating that it is interactive dialogue that could work well or fail. Nestle serves as a perfect example of what NOT to do and the debate is still not over.
• Because social media is always changing, some of the main things Facebook page administrators should do are:

1. update posts regularly and respond to fans' posts;
2. allow both positive and negative comments & respond timely to each (by allowing both you're establishing credibility & authenticity);
3. ask questions to get audience engaged;
4. post on other pages & profiles;
5. and include personal info to help fans understand you and your company.
   
   

• As of March 15, 2010, Facebook passed Google and became the most visited site in the US. Last week, out of all web visits, Facebook made up 7.07% while Google had 7.03% (Source) Although, this is only a slight margin, I believe that Facebook's user base is still expanding. Since September 15, 2007, Google has remained the top website. From this time last year, Facebook's total visits have increased 185%, but Google has only grown 9%.
• Another article stated Facebook may be the top visited website, but Facebook's revenues are estimated to be around $1 billion which is only one-third of Google's revenues (Source). Chris Dixon wrote that Google has a revenue made up of the perfect combination because people frequently visit the site, leave fast, and sometimes have intent to purchase something. While on the other hand, Facebook has a lot of visitors who socialize not purchase anything or click on ads. "Facebook is like a Starbucks where everyone hangs out for hours but almost never buys anything." I found this article interesting because most of the articles I come across just talk about the importance of social media, the expansion of social media, but not really about the Facebook corporation.
  
  
• Social Media Impacted the Olympics! NBC believes that social media is the reason more people tuned in this year to the Super Bowl, the Grammy’s and Winter Olympics (Source). Facebook fans could interact with one another on the Olympics fan page, congratulations to winners, and information about events were exchanged through social media outlets (YouTube, Twitter, and Blogs) The 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics topped the 1996 Olympics as the most popular foreign winter games to watch because of social media's impact. In February, Facebook had surpassed more than 400 million members that month and Twitter had 50 million posts daily.

• I found another article examining Facebook's worth. Every month 400 million people visit the site; half visit daily. 48% of users check Facebook from their bed nightly (Source). Facebook's advertisements are growing because of virtual games gaining users and brands making Facebook pages. "Pay With Facebook" gives Facebook 30% of the virtual goods market on their site and could become a one-click payment option online. The site calculated Facebook's value around $35 billion through calculating its share price and the total estimation of fully diluted shares.
  
  
• IRWebReport published an article about a survey of influences on investors. Blogs and websites are the top influencers, but for those investors under 40, they are influenced by friends, family, and coworkers (Source). This indicates the importance of sharing info on social network to IR professionals.