A University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research study on Fortune 500 Companies social media usage show how the largest corporations of the United States use blogging and Twitter to create a public online presence. This study, "The Fortune 500 and Social Media: A Longitudinal Study of Blogging and Twitter Usage by America’s Largest Companies," was conducted by Nora Ganim Barnes, Ph.D. and Eric Mattson, CEO of Financial Insite.

Of the Fortune 500 of 2009, 22 percent of the corporations (108 altogether) had a public blog with a post in the last twelve months, their criteria for the analysis. In 2008, only 81 companies, or sixteen percent, had qualifying blogs. Of the top five this year, only three had blogs: Wal-Mart, Chevron and General Electric. The remaining two that did not are Exxon/Mobil and Conoco Philips.

The 108 corporations of 2009 represent a cross-section of the industries with the greatest blog presence. The distribution of these industries from the last two documented years follow (2008 vs 2009):

• Computer Software, Peripherals, Office Equipment: eight versus eleven
• Specialty Retail: four versus seven
• Telecommunications: five versus six
• Food Production, Services and Drug Stores: five versus six
• Commercial Banks: four versus five
• Insurance: four versus five
• Semiconductors: four versus five
• Motor Vehicle: four for both years
• Information Technology: three versus four

93 (86%) are linked directly to a corporate Twitter account, more than three times as many as members of the 2008 list. Many more of these corporations have Twitter accounts, but do not have a link from their blog to it. Either way, 173 (35 percent) have used the service for their corporation in the thirty days before the survey took place.

While the number of blogs from Fortune 500 corporations has risen from 2008 to 2009, they are much lower than the Inc. 500 numbers. While 22 percent of the Fortune 500 have qualifying blogs, 45 percent of the Inc. 500 do.

Officially announced today, Google Buzz is an integrated Gmail feature that brings Twitter-like functionality to one of the more popular Webmail services. At the Google Event this morning, the announcement team showed how Buzz is for conversation and updates as well as sharing images and videos.

The Gmail Blog explains that the service is all about real-time, social sharing. As the service rolls-out to more Gmail members, users will find that they are automatically following the people that they email and chat with the most. Conveniently, Buzz also connects with Picasa, Flickr, Google Reader and Twitter.

For anyone who has been using the real-time features of Twitter or Facebook status updates, Buzz is the same suit in a different color. The service even uses Twitter’s signature @replies to send updates directly to a contact’s inbox. A few more subtle options set it slightly apart.

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Baby Boomers expect that technology will help them live longer and keep them better connected, according to several complementary studies. Socially speaking, this section of the population are cultivating their existing relationships and creating new ones at unique rates compared to other age groups.

“Creating and renewing personal connections online is the biggest draw for these boomers,” said Lisa E. Phillips, eMarketer senior analyst and author of the new report, “Boomers and Social Media .” About 47 percent of baby boomers who use the Internet are members of a social network, she says. The contacts that they make on these networks include family, friends and colleagues.

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The latest study from the Nielsen company shows that social networking is becoming the number one activity on the Web in terms of time spent, averaging five-and-a-half hours per user per month in December 2009. It’s 82% more time than one year ago and is still growing. It’s interesting to note that the other biggest time-consuming activities on the web are blogs, IM and online gaming: these are all about connections between people. The growth of status updating (as 33% of social network users already update their status at least one time a week according to Forrester’s latest study) with Facebook and Twitter as stars will create a new web within the World Wide Web.

Two examples to confirm this evolution: the experiment “Behind closed doors on the Net,” led by French-Canadian radio journalists, should conclude the same thing: even if it’s not perfect, the new kind of interaction and sharing provided by social networking makes sense and can become a new level of knowledge and comprehension of the world. The second example is the latest moves by the two big players in search, Google and Microsoft, which signed agreements with Twitter and/or Facebook to integrate the feeds in their results and make money out of this new kind of data.

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I spend infinitely more time on social networks in 2009 than I did in 2008, as did most people, according to Nielsen.

Globally, time spent on social networks increased an average of 2.5 hours per month between December 2008 and December 2009, a growth of 82 percent year-over-year, the research firm announced last Friday.

In December of 2008, people spent an average of just under 3 hours and 4 minutes per month on social networks; in December 2009, the total time jumped to 5 hours and 35 minutes per month.

Obviously, Facebook accounts for most of this time, but it’s amazing to see that the amount of time spent on social networks since the days of static MySpace pages. Sixty-seven percent of global internet users visited Facebook last year, and those who use the site end up spending more than six hours per month on it.

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It’s fair to say that Facebook is not the best place to go if you’re trying to avoid the temptation to spend.

From the sometimes-effective-oftentimes-hilarious targeted advertising to updates on what your friends are purchasing – whether it be a vacation, dinner and drinks or Avatar tickets – the fact is that a lot of Facebook activity is predicated upon money spent, or waiting to be spent.

Until now.

Stop Me from Spending! is a Facebook app developed by Youth Media International (Youth Radio) and Context Optional to help young people budget.

“‘Stop Me from Spending!’ grew out of the recognition that young people are hugely influenced by their friends, so this was a real opportunity to tap that peer orientation in a positive way,” said Lissa Soep, PhD, senior producer and research director, Youth Radio.

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In the last five years, the number of people 65 and over using the internet has increased 55 percent, according to Nielsen.

“The over 65 crowd represents about 13% of the total population and with this increase in online usage, they are beginning to catch up with their offline numbers,” said Nielsen’s Chuck Shilling.

“Looking at what they’re doing online, it makes sense they’re engaged in many of the same activities that dominate other age segments – e-mail, sharing photos, social networking, checking out the latest news and weather – and it’s worth noting that a good percentage of them are spending time with age-appropriate pursuits such as leisure travel, personal health care and financial concerns,” Shilling said.

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IDC predicts that more than one billion mobile devices will be used to access the internet in 2013, more than doubling 2009’s 450 million mobile internet users.

To put that in perspective, the global population of total internet users just passed one billion at the beginning of this year.

“With a wealth of information and services available from almost anywhere, Internet-connected mobile devices are reshaping the way we go about our personal and professional lives,” said John Gantz, chief research officer at IDC.

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In this sluggish economy, more companies are scrounging for fewer consumer dollars - the only thing increasing is competition. How do brands differentiate themselves from the crowd?

Social marketing is one strategy that has not yet been brought to a level of finesse - unlike other marketing methods that have been quantified over a span of decades. So, today’s eMarketer wants consumer packaged goods to learn how to socialize.

CPG firms in particular have seen more success through forms of outreach than paid advertising. Brands can create a more three-dimensional personality, encourage customer loyalty, all simply by being available when customers have questions, problems, or feedback. A successful avenue for this kind of relationship between the CPG brand and their customers are social networks, like Facebook.

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There’s an old concept in religious mysticism called bilocation, literally the ability to be in two places at once. While once a way to be canonized as a saint or burned as a witch, a sort of bilocation is being made increasingly possible with technology.

A great example of technology allowing us to virtually be in two places at once are services like Alarm.com, which allow you to monitor your home security from anywhere online, via computer, PDA or phone (there’s even an iPhone app).

Through the website or app, users can monitor the status of their home – whether doors are locked, when they (or windows or cabinets) are opened, when somebody enters a specific room – as well as control the home’s environment, for example turning lights on or off.

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