The figures speak for themselves. Gone are the days when we think this social media stuff is just for spotty college kids.

Including that magic 500m registered users figure. Nice compilation here.

The social media policies from a number of organizations compared.

A new discovery for me in the social media aggregation space. Check out the latest buzz from Twitter, Digg, Google Blog Search, YouTube and more...

183m US households watched online videos on the Google site in May.

Other stats:
Registered members worldwide: 50 million members
Unique tags: Over 40 million

According to ComScore figures, 30% of smart phone users accessed social networking sites. Unsurprisingly, Twitter and Facebook lead the pack.

Bear in mind these numbers are looking at visits, not pageviews, which puts Facebook clearly out in the lead

figures from google's doubleclick ad network show facebook head and shoulders above all other publishers

According to eMarketer, 50% of US female internet users follow brands' social media presences.

a collection of graphs showing the current state of Twitter. Much of this is comparison of Facebook versus Twitter.

If these stats are to be believed, LinkedIn is a much more popular network for B2B marketers. Question: could other parts of the organization be running Twitter/blogs?

"The key of a Social CRM is the fine bond between non pushy social relationship building and business objectives." Learn how Alex Shultze uses social CRM to transform the sales process.

Great insight into the fact that follower numbers can be misleading. Starbucks has far more followers than Dunkin Donuts but DD fans are 35% more likely to recommend the brand.

According to Edison Research, awareness of Twitter has exploded from 5% of Americans 12+ in 2008 to 87% in 2010 (by comparison, Facebook's awareness is 88%). Usage is still eclipsed by Facebook.

Trend data from eMarketer shows that the proportion of the internet population who watch videos has risen sharply since 2008, with interesting predictions into 2014.

Whilst over the same period all other media show a decline.

Latest data from Chirp developer conf reveals stats from the microblogging giant. Also of interest: 75% of users access service through a client rather than via the website.

A look at comment length and quality on YouTube and MetaFilter.
"If, for some reason, you are required to restrict comment length, I would recommend to set the limit at around 2000-4000 characters. At this point, the return in quality for additional comment length seems to diminish."

Hubspot study shows small businesses that blog get 55% more traffic.

Unsurprisingly, 90% of respondents in Lee Odden's survey felt that blogs are important as part of an SEO strategy.

An insisght into some of the finest blogs covering social media. Interesting that Read Write Web didn't make the cut.

According to Pingdom, January 2010 had 16 times as many tweets as January 2009. Figures on activity - unfortunately not on growth in user base.

When it comes to choosing a login authentication service, Google leads the pack with almost 40% of users selecting their Google account.

Examples from around the web, such as Wine TV Library numbers that show they gained 1,800 new customers from Twitter.

According to the latest data from Hitwise, Facebook's traffic grew 185% year-on-year (whilst Google only saw growth of 9%).

Just in case you were wondering whether social networks like Twitter are an American storm in a teacup.

A new study from Connected Marketer and DemandGen 'Inside the Mind of the New BtoB Buyer' reveals some very interesting shifts in the behavior of BtoB buyers,such as 37% of the sample posted questions on social networking sites looking for suggestions/feedback.

Even though there is a slight increase in spending on print advertising, this will be eclipsed by the digital spend. Methods generating the highest B2B ROI are topped by advertisers’ own websites, followed by conferences, exhibitions and trade shows; direct mail; search engine keywords; and e-marketing/e-newsletters.

Facebook and Twitter users say they are more likely to buy from brands with whom they are fans or followers. Most become fans to receive discounts and promotions.