Social media usage in Australia

comScore has released the results from a study on 14 August 2009 which has found that more than 70 percent of Internet users in Australia visited a social networking site in June, up 29 percent from the previous year.

Top Social Networking Sites in Australia Based on Unique Visitors June 2009 Total Australian Internet Audience*, Age 15+ – Home & Work Locations Source: comScore World Metrix
	Total Unique Visitors (000)
	Jun-08	Jun-09	% Change
Total Internet : Total Audience	11,044	12,386	12
Social Networking	6,862	8,857	29
FACEBOOK.COM	3,125	6,102	95
MySpace Sites	3,369	3,530	5
Windows Live Profile	N/A	1,962	N/A
Bebo	1,627	1,475	-9
TWITTER.COM	13	800	6,122
DEVIANTART.COM	259	505	95
DIGG.COM	329	494	50
TAGGED.COM	246	475	93
Buzznet	269	409	52
Orkut	36	252	60

*Excludes visitation from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.

More information is available from comScore.

CeBIT publishes Twitter for Government

Twitter for Government: a quick reference on the value of Twitter to the Public Sector has just been published.

Topics covered include:

• What is Twitter:
• The value of Twitter
• What does it mean for me?
• How does Twitter work?
• Sending messages
• Sending links
• Following people
• Search Twitter
• Things to avoid

Available from the CeBIT conference site www.gov2.com.au – Suggest you download it today and add it to your social media tool set.

eGovRC – adds member’s forum – section on government websites and SEO

The eGovernment Resource Centre has just launched the eGov Forums for registered members to share information, ask questions and answer other’s on all issues eGovernment.

There is a section on Government websites and SEO as well as Social media and Government 2.0.

If your forum topic is not covered, there is a section where you can ask to have it considered for inclusion.

The forum is governed by rules and there is a help post to guide you through how it works.

Time for government web people to get involved and start sharing and questioning!

Twitter spam tips and bible

Two new articles I found today about Twitter – worth a read

“Twitter Tips: Three Ways To Deal With Twitter Spam -
You can take proactive steps to prevent Twitter spam such as unwanted direct messages promoting products and services. Here are three quick tips for keeping Twitter relevant and keeping spammers and mass-followers out.” By C.G. Lynch

and

“Twitter Bible: Everything You Need To Know About Twitter -
Our Twitter guide delivers expert advice on how to get started, practice good etiquette, network and job hunt, search smart and stay organized with the social networking service. You’ll also find analysis on how to better engage your followers, use Twitter to reach customers, and go mobile with Twitter.” By C.G. Lynch

Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/CherylHardy

Make it Easy to Share your Content on the Web

With the increasing profileration of web 2.0 tools on the web now it is great to see a service which helps you make your content easy to bookmark for sharing on a wide variety of social networking sites.

AddThis provides a bookmarking and sharing button to help distribute your content across the Web by making it simple for your visitors to bookmark pages and share them with other people. Over time this will drive more traffic back to your site, increase your link popularity and ultimately your search engine rankings.

Using this service means you don’t need to include a different button for each bookmarking service. The service is provided free of charge and also gives you statistics on its usage.

There are an extensive number of sites which AddThis provide links to including but not limited to: Delicious, Myspace, StumbleUpon, Digg, Technorati, Reddit, Facebook and so on.

Give it a try – AddThis today!

Creative ways to use social media

There is an article published today at Search Engine Land entitled Really Boring Products That Rocked in Social Media. The article shows some very creative ways people have used social media to drive traffic to their websites. I particularly like the urinals – check it out!