Oh, man! I don't wanna...

    Over the past few months I have heard many friend and clients talk about why they haven't taken the time to sign up for all those social networking sites like Twitter, FaceBook, and MySpace. Basically the reasons they have given include:
    1) There are so many social networking sites out there that I wouldn't know where to begin.
    2) Those are mostly for kids, aren't they? They don't apply to me.
    3) I don't have the time to:
                a) figure out how which one(s) are relevant to my business
                b) learn how to use them.
                c) Keep updating them all every day
    4) It's a fad. It'll die out soon.

My reply to them is always this: "If you could advertise your business and bring potential customers to your website without spending a dime, how much of your time would that be worth to you?"  Because you can do that with social media!

First of all, HOW POPULAR ARE SOCIAL MEDIA SITES?

As a webmaster, it falls to me to keep track of the success of my clients' sites. One of the ways I do that is by seeing how well they rank on Alexa.com - a useful resource to gage the popularity of a site. The most popular site (Google - are we surprised?) is ranked number 1. The second most popular site (Yahoo) is ranked number 2. Etc..

Since there are somewhere around 200 million websites on the Internet today, the ranking for my clients' small business websites is usually a pretty big number, even if it's doing pretty well. For example, my wife's Bed and Breakfast website, www.FirstFarmInn.com is currently ranked the 4,315,023rd most popular website. Yes, that means there are over 4 million websites more popular than hers, but if you look at it statistically, She's in the top 2 or 3 percent of all websites in the world... not bad!

So, how popular are those social media sites? According to Alexa.com (as of today):
Google                     1
Yahoo                       2
YouTube                  3
Facebook                4
Blogger.com           8
MySpace                11
Twitter                     21
Flickr.com              31
LinkedIn.com        82
Delicious.com    628
Plaxo.com        1,450

Of course we know that Google and Yahoo are used by everybody - no big surprise. But  YouTube, Facebook, Blogger, MySpace, Twitter and LinkedIn are all in the top 100 - Holy social media, Batman!

Okay so they're popular, but WHO USES them?  And if I use them, who will I be socializing with?  Well, according to QuantCast (who specializes in generating these types of demographic statistics) as of June 2009:

Google - more than half the  users are over 35
    13-17 year olds:  10%
    18-34 year olds:  37%
    35-49 year olds:  30%
    50+ year olds:      22% 

Yahoo - more than half the  users are over 35
    13-17 year olds:    6%
    18-34 year olds:  38%
    35-49 year olds:  32%
    50+ year olds:      24% 

YouTube - is almost split down the midde between those under 35 and those over 35
    13-17 year olds:  19%
    18-34 year olds:  35%
    35-49 year olds:  24%
    50+ year olds:      19% 

Facebook - is used primarily by those under 35, but the middle aged group and the Baby Boomers are both growing rapidly
    13-17 year olds: 21%
    18-34 year olds: 47%
    35-49 year olds: 19%
    50+ year olds:     12%

Blogger - more than half the users are over 35
    13-17 year olds:   4%
    18-34 year olds: 42%
    35-49 year olds: 32%
    50+ year olds:     22%

MySpace - leaning more toward those under 35
    13-17 year olds:  26%
    18-34 year olds:  46%
    35-49 year olds:  17%
    50+ year olds:        9% 

Twitter - is split right down the middle at the 35 year old mark
    13-17 year olds:    7%
    18-34 year olds:  43%
    35-49 year olds:  30%
    50+ year olds:      19% 

Flickr - is split right down the middle at the 35 year old mark
    13-17 year olds:  10%
    18-34 year olds:  39%
    35-49 year olds:  31%
    50+ year olds:      19% 

LinkedIn - The 35+ group TAKES A DEFINITE LEAD
    13-17 year olds:    0%
    18-34 year olds:  22%
    35-49 year olds:  49%
    50+ year olds:      28% 

Note: You can look up demographic statistics on many web sites by going to www.quantcast.com  and typing in the URL of the site you want info about. It also provides general education and financial statistics

So, which demographic(s) are you trying to reach? All of these media venues reach an incredible number of people. Pick your demographic(s) and you know which social media site(s) will best reach your desired audience.

But how many do I need to subscribe to? I don't want to have to keep up with a bunch of them... Ah! now that's where another social media service comes into play. You can subscribe to a Social Network managing service (minggl.com, ping.fm, mashable.com) and set up your account so that you make 1 entry - and they update all your social networks for you!
Just do a search for "manage social networks" and you'll find dozens of services to choose from.

SO, you have no excuse now!  You can promote yourself, your business, your favorite cause or charity. You can do it without spending a dime and without wasting hours of your time. All you have to do is... be sociable!