Atlanta Web Design

Did you know that approximately half of gamers are female and the average age of a player in the US is actually 48 years old? Gaming is definitely not the same world it used to be! It’s not limited to PS3s or the Xbox anymore, many gamers have taken to growing their crops and building a family of crime on games like Farmville and Mafia Wars on sites like Facebook.

Facebook dominates as the top social gaming location with 83% of weekly gamers playing on the site according to eMarketer, and by 2012 social gamers will represent approximately 40% of social users – up from 30% reported in 2009. So how can companies use this to their advantage? Just over half of the gamers questioned said that they actually noticed branding in their virtual games – such as through sweepstakes, offers and surveys.

An estimated 47 million people played social games in the US in 2009 – that number is projected to increase to 79 million by 2012 (ThinkEquity LLC, 2010) . It’s not something that you should ignore and figure is for kids only. With the average age of a US player being 48, social gaming is something to take serious. Gaming definitely has a hold on us.

Article Written By: Emma Loggins

I have some interesting social media bits that we’ve pulled from articles recently. Definitely check these out and if you have any other recent articles on social media – feel free to leave links to them in the comments section!

Are Your Friends Making You Fat?
At Nuffield, Christakis tells the story of a friend of his, Brian Uzzi, who has used the impact of social networks to analyse the success or otherwise of Broadway musicals. “He finds that if the key players – the director, costume designer, sound person, producer, etc – all worked together before, and everyone knows everyone else, then the show is a flop. He also finds that if you put together a group of people, who have never worked together before, the show is also a flop. But if you put together a group of people some of whom have worked together and some who haven’t, then the show is a runaway critical success with enormous financial rewards.”
Guardian.co.uk

66% of Government Agencies Use Social Networking
66% of all government agencies currently use some form of social networking – from blogs and wikis to instant messaging and discussion boards, according to the study. 31% of those surveyed have embraced social media as a means of providing a more efficient customer feedback channel.
WebProNews

Social Media & Haiti
CNN is the poster child of this blending of social media and traditional news gathering. While they reportedly have at least seven reporters on the ground in Haiti, they’ve filed highly compelling stories constructed from social media sources. Check out “What we’re hearing via social media.” 80% of this story is shaped by attributed quotes from Twitter users and bloggers in Haiti. CNN’s citizen-filmed iReports spread the word in a personal way.
Sys-Con

Facebook CEO Zuckerberg Causes Stir Over Privacy
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s contention last week that privacy is becoming less important to online users caused a stir across the Internet and among privacy advocates.

Zuckerberg told an audience at the 2009 Crunchies Awards ceremonies in San Francisco on Friday that social norms are changing and people don’t expect or want nearly as much privacy as they have in the past.
Computer World

It’s important to know what your consumers are saying about your business and your services/products. While people voice their opinions pretty openly on social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook, they save the details for their blogs.

Why are bloggers and what they have to say so important? Simple, we trust “real people”. Critics may say a restuarant is fabulous, but what does the general public think? Say you have a well-trafficked personal blog and you go out to a restuarant with horrible customer service. More than likely you’ll come home, and write about how no one should ever go there again. Other potential consumers may find that post when searching for information about that restuarant. So naturally, it’s important to keep an eye on your online reputation. Addressing potential issues before they harm your business.

It is estimated by Technorati that over 120,000 blogs are created each day – with no signs of stopping. As of last year, there were over 112.8 million blogs, a stat which doesn’t even include the 72.82 million Chinese blogs as counted by The China Internet Network Information Center.

A few useful blog outreach tips:

• Find bloggers who have written about you positively recently and offer them a special discount on your products and services for the next time they visit
• If a consumer has had a negative experience with your company, reply to their post showing your eagerness to right whatever mistake was made. Ask them to contact you personally. The consumer may not contact you, but at least others will see that you addressed the issue professionally.

Article By: Emma Loggins

The common myth with social media marketing is that it’s free. While much of social media is “free”, your time is not. To truly maximize your social media presence, you need to be spending between 10 -15 hours a week making sure you keep information updated, keeping followers engaged, and  activity prosuing new clientale. If you can’t make that time commitment, it’s best to outsource it to a company that can.

It is no longer effective web marketing to just have a website. You need to have a social media presence as well. This presence won’t only help to keep loyal customers informed, but also to bring in new clients. It also helps to increase your ranking on major search engines. Just this year, Google has started indexing Facebook – meaning links to your site and mentions of your business on Facebook can help you rank higher.

LNP Studios has several social media packages that will not only create, optimize, and maintain your social media presence, but also monitor your online reputation. We can help you find out about what people are saying about you on online communities and also help you connect with these individuals. Blogger outreach can be a powerful way to market.

Need help managing your social identity? Call us today for a free consultation at 404.228.5167.

A recent Rapleaf business report found that Sports fans tend to be social media fans, with more that 60% of respondents having more than 50 friends online. Other stats found:

• At 6.58 hours per month, time spent on content sites which provide news, information, and entertainment is up 88% from five years ago. Despite the emergence of social networks, and in particular the rapid growth of Facebook, it is the content sites which engage web surfers’ attention the most these days. (OPA, 2009)
• As per compete.com, In August, football sites were up 92.2% over July. NFL.com led with 6.5 million unique views, fanstasysports.yahoo.com came in 2nd with 4.75 million unique views (up 79%), and fftoolbox.com was up 350% with 579,000 UV’s. 43%