Do you have a Twitter account?

Does having a Twitter account increase your chances of becoming an influencer?  It certainly helps.

Will the simple fact of having the account make you an influencer?  Probably not.  If you use your social accounts wisely and truly enrich people’s lives with knowledge, that’s when you can become a social media influencer.

According to Dan Zarrella (@danzarrella), if you are looking to find a social media influencer, then look to sites like Twitter.  Dan is an author and social media and viral marketing scientist; also a marketing manager and product owner at HubSpot.

I had the pleasure of attending a webinar on social media marketing today with Dan as the speaker.  If you couldn’t attend, you can still watch the free HubSpot video recording of the webinar with Dan Zarrella – The Science of Social Media Marketing

When you are planning a social media marketing campaign, you will reach more people if you befriend influencers and convince them to help spread the word.  These influencers are active on social media and tend to spread more knowledge than other users.  This is one reason they are influencers.

They have extended reach and people trust and listen to them.  Enlisting their help will help you increase your own reach.  Because other users look up to the influencers, they will tend to spread the word to their circle of influence also.  Thus, your campaign grows more viral.

Learn more about social media and how to spread your viral marketing campaigns further. Read Dan’s book “The Social Media Marketing Book”.

Technorati Tags: Business, Dan Zarrella, Marketing, Online Communities, Social Media, Social Media Influencer, social media marketing, technorati, twitter, Viral marketing

Has social media really taken over our lives?

I was researching some statistics on internet usage and I thought it would be fun and useful to share with you what I found.  Actually, I was amused with my findings, but this is really a great example of how powerful the social web has become.

According to a recent survey by Crowd Science (see chart on right), driving while texting is our 3rd most favorite social networking activity.  Also, the report is that almost 1 in5 social media users use Twitter on a weekly basis.

According to the survey, the 2nd most favorite place for social networking site access is while in the toilet.  It also appears that some of us are even visiting social sites during religious services.  Oh, the sacrilege.

How many of us have been guilty of the above and below mentioned activities?  Come on, you can be honest.  Were you one of the survey respondents?

(I’m sure you can tell I started this post from my iPhone.  Hint: look at the top and bottom of the images.  Yes, I was in the car, BUT I was parked for most of the time.)

What’s the 4th most favorite social media activity for Twitter and Facebook users?  Answer:  After sex posting; more than 1/3 of users according to a recent Retrevo (see chart on left) survey.  Wonder what those people say? It appears that the once popular term “kiss and tell” has been replaced with “kiss and Tweet”.

By the way, this survey also included high rates for driving while texting.  Wonder how many have had sex while driving while texting?  Maybe a future survey…..

The Retrevo survey also found that for individuals under the age of 35:  39% of Twitter users and 27% of Facebook users checked the sites at least 10 times every day.

Also, did you notice that evidently 35 seems to be the cut-off age for the “younger crowd”.  That should make some of us feel younger.  Ah, the magic of social media.

Technorati Tags: Crowd Science, facebook, Social Media, social networking, social web, Text messaging, twitter