What are 2 key factors driving the social web in 2013?

Many moons ago i said that there would be three things pushing social along.

1. Being mobile. Hmm - yep that one was spot on.

2. Being photos - I think Instagram and the numbers behind vine etc tells that story.

3. Being location - this is yet to come.

According to a GlobalWebIndex study it is:

1. Mobile – with the number of people accessing the internet via a mobile phone increasing by 60.3% to 818.4 million in the last 2 years.
2. Older users adoption – On Twitter the 55-64 year age bracket is the fastest growing demographic with 79% growth rate since 2012. The fastest growing demographic on Facebook’s and Google+’s networks are the 45 to 54 year age bracket at 46% and 56% respectively.

These 2 key factors are keeping the social web bubbling along. So maybe the reason your grandparents aren’t turning up to that dinner party is that they have now discovered Facebook and Twitter!

So let’s look at some of the facts, figures and statistics for the major social networks.

Facebook

Facebook continues to grow and work out how to make money from its ads and mobile users.

Here are the latest facts and figures from its earnings call for the first quarter of 2013

• Daily active users have reached 665 million
• Monthly active users have passed 1.1 billion for the first time
• 751 million mobile users access Facebook every month
• Mobile only active users total 189 million
• Mobile now generates 30% of its ad revenue up from 23% at the end of 2012

Twitter

Twitter is the fastest growing social network in the world by active users according to a GlobalWebIndex Study.

So how does that translate into hard numbers?

• 44% growth from  June 2012 to March 2013
• 288 million monthly active users
• That means that 21% of the world’s internet population are using Twitter every month
• Over 500 million registered accounts
• Twitter’s fastest growing age demographic is 55 to 64 year olds, registering an increase in active users of 79%

YouTube

When you wanted to watch a video it used to be VCR, then it became a  DVD player, then we moved onto cable networks and now it is YouTube.

These numbers from YouTube’s own blog put some perspective on it penetration into our culture and time.

• 1 billion unique monthly visitors
• 6 billion hours of videos are watched every month
• This means that 50% more hours of video are watched in March 2013 compared to last August when it was 4 billion hours a month and last May when it was 3 billion.
• YouTube reaches more U.S. adults ages 18-34 than any cable network

Google+

Google+ is making an impact on the social media universe and is now the second largest social network.

What are some of the numbers on Google’s social network built to protect it from Facebook’s growth and data capture to ensure it remains relevant?

It is Google’s social layer that enhances it’s other online assets.

• 359 million monthly active users according to a GlobalWebIndex study
• Its active users base grew by 33% from June 2012 through to March 2013

LinkedIn

The largest professional business network on the planet continues to grow but not at the pace of Twitter or Google+

Here are some numbers from Visual.ly.

• Over 200 million users
• 2 new users join it every second
• 64% of users are outside the USA

 All of this is great stuff. 

But what really now interests me is WHO - not what - but WHO - who is going to do all this clever social things for companies? 

I truly believe that one way is to arm the next generation with training, with real know how, with business needed skills so we can all join this social revolution :) 

Which is why I started working with The Apprentice Academy - as they, like me, know that training young people to be apprentices - in established companies will be better way forward for the economy in the UK, than a couple of new companies starting up. 

Wisdom from the wise....

This is all from a rather wise lady called.... Regina Brett, 90 years old: 45 Lessons Life Taught Me

1. Life isn’t fair, but it’s still good.

2. When in doubt, just take the next small step..

3. Life is too short – enjoy it..

4. Your job won’t take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and family will.

5. Pay off your credit cards every month.

6. You don’t have to win every argument. Stay true to yourself.

7… Cry with someone. It’s more healing than crying alone.

8. It’s OK to get angry with God. He can take it.

9.. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.

10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.

11. Make peace with your past so it won’t screw up the present.

12. It’s OK to let your children see you cry.

13. Don’t compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.

14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn’t be in it…

15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye But don’t worry; God never blinks.

16. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.

17. Get rid of anything that isn’t useful. Clutter weighs you down in many ways.

18. Whatever doesn’t kill you really does make you stronger.

19. It’s never too late to be happy. But it’s all up to you and no one else.

20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don’t take no for an answer.

21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don’t save it for a special occasion. Today is special.

22. Over prepare, then go with the flow.

23 Be eccentric now. Don’t wait for old age to wear purple.

24. The most important sex organ is the brain.

25. No one is in charge of your happiness but you.

26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words ‘In five years, will
this matter?’

27. Always choose life.

28. Forgive but don’t forget.

29. What other people think of you is none of your business.

30. Time heals almost everything. Give time time.

31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.

32. Don’t take yourself so seriously. No one else does..

33. Believe in miracles.

34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn’t do.

35. Don’t audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.

36. Growing old beats the alternative — dying young.

37. Your children get only one childhood.

38.. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.

39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.

40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else’s, we’d grab ours back.

41. Envy is a waste of time. Accept what you already have not what you need.

42. The best is yet to come…

43. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.

44. Yield.

45. Life isn’t tied with a bow, but it’s still a gift.

Lead up....

Seth Godin as always has some great stuff to say - and today it rings home to me perhaps more than other days.

"Do what you were trained to do: wait for a good, generous, munificent, tasteful, smart boss or client to tell you what to do.

If that doesn't happen, blame the system, blame the boss, blame the client. If the work is lousy, it's the client's fault. If the boss doesn't see or understand your insight, that's his fault. You are here to serve, and if they don't get it, well, that's too bad for all concerned.

What you might consider: Lead up. (Thanks to Pat Tierney for the phrase).

A great designer gets great clients because she deserves them. One of the ways that she became a great designer was by leading her clients to make good decisions, to have better taste, to understand her insight and have the guts to back it. That doesn't happen randomly. It happens when someone leads up.

A successful middle manager gets promoted when she takes the right amount of initiative, defers the right amount of credit and orchestrates success. That success might happen despite (not because) of who her bosses are, and that's just fine, because she's leading up.

In many ways, we get the bosses and clients we deserve. If they're holding you back, change them.

We have an astonishing amount of freedom at work. Not just the freedom to call meetings, make phone calls and pitch ideas, but yes, the freedom to quit, to find a new gig, to pick the clients we're going to take on and to decide how we're going to deal with a request from someone who seems to have far more power than we do. "Yes, sir" is one possible answer, but so is leading from below, creating a reputation and an environment where the people around you are transformed into the bosses you deserve.

When you do this with intention, it gets easier and easier. From afar, it seems impossible, and it will be until you commit to it.

Do it on purpose
Tell stories that resonate with those in charge
Demand responsibility, don't worry about authority
Reflect credit, embrace blame
Earn the right by taking small steps
Convene, organize, learn, teach and lay the foundation
If they don't get it, go somewhere that does [slash] hire better clients, regardless of the fee"

Wise words Seth - wise words.

Here I might take my lead from a chap called Phil Jones but that is another story.

If you're a learner - would you like 65% off learning with Udemy? And .... if your a trainer... What if you could earn six figures teaching to a quarter million users on a single online learning platform?

What if you didn’t even need a blog or audience of your own to bring your courses to the masses and earn a living from them?

Well, people are doing just that with Udemy.com. Which I joined a couple of years back - but my goodness - like everything in life you get out of it what you put in.

In case you are unfamiliar with Udemy, it is a website that enables anyone to teach and learn online. Launched in 2010, Udemy tries to democratize online education by making it fast, easy and free to create online courses. Oh and if you are here for the code - then it's at the bottom of the blog.

If you are a trainer and interested in the platform - then read on :)

First thing I will say is that when it was born - Udemy was UGLY. Sorry but it was and this is why I didnt do much with it.

However, without me, Udemy has done rather well in the last two years as it now:

Gets over 500,000 unique visitors a month
Has over 250,000 users in under 3 years
Can help you deliver your own course (free or paid)
Is redefining learning online
And has launched a b2b offering which is really rather clever too

And lets you (the trainer) keep 70% of the revenue from your courses (or 85% if you directly refer the customer to the course).

Not only this but Udemy now says that a quarter of its approved instructors will finish the year with more than $10,000 from sales of their self-created courses on subjects ranging from web development and entrepreneurship to yoga and photography.

Believe you me that is a LOT more than my own online video marketing course Your Marketing Trainer will make this year!

The company declined to share the total number of instructors offering classes on Udemy but said the figure has climbed 300 percent in the last year. About 60 percent of all instructors on the site are “approved,” meaning their courses meet a checklist of standards and can be searchable by students online. The site has attracted about 400,000 registered students, which is about a 520 percent increase from last year.

“[Teaching] doesn’t just have to be a service that is hourly work,” said Dinesh Thirupuvanam, VP of marketing for Udemy. “It can have more scale and that can reach more people.”

On Udemy, anyone can create a video-based course on a range of topics – from web design and entrepreneurship to yoga and photography. Instructors can choose to offer them for free, but the average price for a course is $19 to $199. Many of the top classes draw about 500 students, with some reaching students in the low thousands. For each class, Udemy takes 30 percent of the earnings.

Thirupuvanam said dozens of instructors in all kinds of disciplines are making upwards of $10,000 but the highest earners tend to teach more technical topics (Microsoft Excel and Python, for example) or business and entrepreneurship. The most popular instructors, he continued, are especially passionate and knowledgeable about their material. And they put in about 30 to 40 hours or more to prepare the curriculum, produce high-quality video and interact with students via message boards. Instructor Victor Bastos, for example, has earned $325,000 over the past 12 months from his class on web development. But even a class on the “art of black and white photography,” taught by photographer David Nightingale, has made $31,000 in just four months.

Still, success depends on several factors, including demand for topic, the experience of the teacher, student reviews and, importantly, the instructor’s own marketing efforts. Which I must confess for myself I did nothing at all.

But like all search social engines and platforms, Udemy’s algorithms will flag classes that are gaining traction on the site and then the startup will promote them to students via email and better placement in the marketplace. But it’s on the instructors to take early steps to get the first few students and reviews.

Earlier this week, New York based peer-to-peer learning marketplace Skillshare similarly reported impressive earnings for instructors of its online classes. Both platforms offer online video-based classes on professional and creative skills, but Skillshare also includes offline classes and even its online classes offer students live interactions with instructors and peers. And on Thursday, CourseHero, a startup offering different online education tools from flashcards to study guides to courses, also launched a marketplace enabling subject matter experts to make money from their knowledge.

As online education grows, it’s encouraging to see not just platforms like Udacity and Coursera that let professors and educational institutions reach millions more online, but learning marketplaces that allow all kinds of people with expertise to earn compensation for teaching. And the growing success of sites like Udemy and Skillshare point to a future of more open education and opportunities for lifelong learning.Whereas sites like memrise - i think point to an amazing future of learning with a more gamified experience.

Udemy, which was launched in 2010, has raised about $4 million from 500 startups, Lightbank and MHS Capital, as well as individual investors like Yelp cofounder Jeremy Stoppelman and Square COO Keith Rabois.

Funny to think I had emails with the owners back in the day as they started off. I really was a very early adopter.

But maybe its time to stop being right intellectually online - and get involved online as well.

I do so love to train people in digital marketing - and have at least 17 different workshops I could put online.

Oh and by the way here is 65% off any* course with coupon code MAYNSL65.

Discover a course today. Thanks Udemy - remember it what you know as well as who you know....

I love the #deadgiveway tune - along with 11 million other people but does this "meme" count as culture? And could my advertising the meme damage race relations?

So are meme's really that powerful that I should stop my charles ramsey appreciation facebook page?

I don't know but reading into it a little more perhaps my harmless fun and exercise in youtube marketing (made for a workshop) might be seen as more than just #greatmarketing but an actual real life statement.

This is what Clair Byrd says about it all and she is the Director of Content and Community for Scoop.it. For her musings on social tech, writing, and cute owl pictures, follow her on Twitter (@theclairbyrd).

"The ubiquitous internet meme comes in many forms — from iterations on top of iterations of a viral video to a random picture of a cute animals with an ironic white Impact caption. They also seem to proliferate like one of those animals with an ironic white Impact caption, if you know what I mean.

The internet meme often gets a bad rap. It gets called a waste of time, a waste of energy, and a waste of brain bandwidth.. really just more noise in an already cacophonous environment. But is this really true? Is meme only a waste of time or is there significantly more to the humble internet meme?

A case for meme

“Culture” is defined as “the act of developing the intellectual and moral faculties, especially by education.” Culture varies significantly across the world, just as significantly as the moral and intellectual faculties between people vary, and grows strong in places that foster education between people of like-mind and similar values.

By this definition, the internet is becoming its own global culture. There are (of course) differences, but in essence, the internet is allowing people to come together and develop their intellectual (consider communities like Quora, topic-based communities, etc) and moral (consider the group Anonymous or the internationally-adopted web blackout in protest of the US SOPA bill) faculties.

It is difficult to associate any major internet movement with a particular people or existing unique culture. The internet and the spread of cultural artifacts through its many channels are as diverse as all the people in the world — and through this diversity there is unity forming around similar values (freedom, democracy and expression).

Meme, by definition, is “an idea, behavior, or style that spreads from person to person within a culture.” Meme is not necessarily specific to the internet — it simply became a household name through the Cheezburger Network. We could define many important cultural evolutions as “meme,” such as 3D imaging in modern film or technology in the classroom. These — now commonplace — ideas have spread from person to person inside of a unique culture.


I propose that internet meme is the currency of a blooming global culture. Internet meme can, and does, educate morality (consider the macings at UC Davis and the massive adoption that meme saw) as well as intellectual pursuits (consider the Advice Mallard), and while there is a ton of crap in the world of internet meme, the same can be said for most more traditionally accepted cultural mediums (has anyone seen this Nic Cage film?!).

The internet is irrevocably changing the way we interact with traditional media that define what “culture” is for us. What is art in this new environment? Do you have to be a classically-trained musician to create culturally-significant music? How is cinema, food, and literature changing due to advances in internet technology? What ultimately count as legitimate “cultural” artifacts and what doesn’t?

While the internet is creating its own culture in cyber space, there is invariably spill over to the real world. People reference internet memes in casual conversation around dinner i.e. they sign #deadgiveaway or do the thumbs up sign (if you don't know what this means - it's all about Charles Ramsey) People share meme experiences with friends and loved ones, and use meme as illustrations of concepts among their peers.

They use meme to make points in arguments, to create conversations, to shame, to uplift, and to showcase triumphs and defeats. This, to me, bears greater cultural significance than simple entertainment on the interwebs™. Internet meme is most assuredly spreading ideas, behaviors, and styles between people — locally and virtually.

So a meme counts as culture in the greater global evolution of human culture?

And if so should I really be pushing a meme out there just because I love the #deadgiveaway tune (along with 11,751,434 other people.)

But the underlying theme some believe to be racist as one of the catchphrases - is:

"I knew somethin was wrong when a
little pretty white girl
ran into a black man's arms"

Which is very funny - but I think that because I am black and I have a white wife - who is pretty.

Maybe I feel bad as I not only set up a fanclub for the video and charles ramsey but I know that I will use the "learnings" from all this into one of our great marketing youtube training days.

I don't know either way - it no longer sits well with me so I will delete the facebook account - tomorrow (promise....)

Best go and copy and paste all the learning data shots then :)

8 things to do every day that will make you happier taught to me by the rather wonderful Paulo Coelho

8 things to do every day that will make you happier taught to me by the rather wonderful Paulo Coelho

These are just tiny excerpts from the post by Barking up the wrong tree

Ok how many of these do you do every day - I am getting to do at least 4

1) Thank someone
First thing in the morning, send an email thanking or praising someone. Research shows this can brighten your day.

2) Spend money — on someone else
Harvard professor Michael Norton, author of Happy Money: The Science of Smarter Spending, talks about this in this video: http://www.sternspeakers.co/speakers/michael-norton

3) Give 5 hugs
In a one-of-a-kind study, students at Pennsylvania State University were assigned to two groups. The first group was instructed to give or recevie a minimum of five hugs per day over the course of four weeks and to record the details. The hugs had to be front-to-front (nonsexual) hugs, using both arms of both participants; however, the length and strength of hug, as well as the placement of hands, were left to their discretion. Furthermore, these students couldn’t simply huge their boyfriends or girlfriends half a dozen times; they had to aim to hug as many different individuals as possible. The second, the controls, was instructed simply to record the number of hours they read each day over the same four weeks.

People assigned to give or receive hugs 5 times a day ended up happier than the control group.From Sonja Lyubomirsky’s book

4) Do stuff you’re good at
People who deliberately exercised their signature strengths on a daily basis — those qualities they were uniquely best at, the talents that set them apart from others – became significantly happier for months.

5) Do 5 little nice things for others
…individuals told to complete five acts of kindness over the course of a day report feeling much happier than control groups and that the feeling lasts for many subsequent days, far after the exercise is over. To try this yourself, pick one day a week and make a point of committing five acts of kindness. But if you want to reap the psychological benefit, make sure you do these things deliberately and consciously—you can’t just look back over the last 24 hours and declare your acts post hoc.

6) Create something to look forward to
One study found that people who just thought about watching their favorite movie actually raised their endorphin levels by 27 percent. Often, the most enjoyable part of an activity is the anticipation. If you can’t take the time for a vacation right now, or even a night out with friends, put something on the calendar—even if it’s a month or a year down the road. Then whenever you need a boost of happiness, remind yourself about it.

7) Spend time with friends
Having a better social life is the happiness equivalent of making an extra $131,232 a year:
There is substantial evidence in the psychology and sociology literature that social relationships promote happiness for the individual. Yet the size of their impacts remains largely unknown. This paper explores the use of shadow pricing method to estimate the monetary values of the satisfaction with life gained by an increase in the frequency of interaction with friends, relatives, and neighbours. Using the British Household Panel Survey, I find that an increase in the level of social involvements is worth up to an extra £85,000 a year in terms of life satisfaction. Actual changes in income, on the other hand, buy very little happiness.


8) Before bed, write down three good things that happened today
Every night for the next week, set aside ten minutes before you go to sleep. Write down three things that went well today and why they went well. You may use a journal or your computer to write about the events, but it is important that you have a physical record of what you wrote. The three things need not be earthshaking in importance (“ My husband picked up my favorite ice cream for dessert on the way home from work today”), but they can be important (“ My sister just gave birth to a healthy baby boy”).

Is analytics and apps (especially gaming) where the money really is?

Should I really go into mobile games analytics?

Today I have been juggling a lot of things. One being my increasing work load and my increasingly frustrations.

One of them being about an idea about games analytics and the fact that many UK games developers don't use analytics tools enough.

Believe you me I know this from a 3 month stint in a UK mobile games company and getting to know the industry.

Another thing worries me about the mobile games industry - is the ecology of the ecosystem it is part of i.e. mobile apps.

So this infographic caught my eye and I want to remember it:

Who is making money with mobile games? infographic

I love this and then read something even more inticing.

Which might move me into the creative part of it all once more - a great article by Karsten Strauss,from Forbes.

ILKKA PAANANEN says the best way to make money in mobile gaming is to stop thinking about making money. Think about fun instead. Fighting a mild case of flu and jet lag from a San Francisco flight back home to Helsinki, Paananen says that companies that place revenue above fun (we’re talking to you, Zynga) will ultimately fail. “It really is that simple–just design something great, something that users love,” says the 34-year-old.

Paananen is CEO of Supercell, a startup that has had astonishing growth almost overnight. It has only two titles in Apple AAPL +0.57%‘s App Store–a tower defense game called Clash of Clans and a social-farming game called Hay Day–but it grossed $100 million last year and $179 million in the first quarter of 2013 alone. Supercell netted $104 million in the quarter, after expenses and Apple’s 30% cut.


The growth curve steepens: With daily revenue now at $2.4 million, Supercell is already at a run-rate of more than $800 million for 2013 and could reach $1 billion. That would make it more than twice the size of Electronic Arts’ mobile games division, which has 900-plus iOS apps. Supercell now attracts 8.5 million daily players who play an average of ten times per day.

These gaudy stats attracted a $130 million financing round in February led by Index Ventures, which invested $52.5 million, along with Institutional Venture Partners and Atomico. All shareholders, including Accel Partners (an earlier investor), sold 16.7% of their holdings to the newcomers, pegging the company value at $770 million. That much cash at once can flood the engine of a little company, and will make a VC-worthy return far more difficult. Paananen admits the round was not entirely necessary, more an opportunity to give shareholders a quick payout as both a “thank-you” for hard work and to shrug off any pressure to go public. At the very least, it will pay for much-needed space. There’s an ever growing pile of shoes defrosting near the front door.

Index’s Neil Rimer, whose firm scored with Skype and Dropbox, is convinced Supercell may be as big a deal as any he has seen: “Once in a while you get the opportunity to invest in a studio that has some kind of proprietary technology or alternative take on the market–like a Pixar or a DreamWorks–where they can apply a different methodology and generate a stream of hits over a period of time.”

Most game studios have an autocratic executive producer green-lighting the work of designers and programmers. Supercell’s developers work in autonomous groups of five to seven people. Each cell comes up with its own game ideas. They run their ideas by Paananen (he can’t remember ever nixing a proposal), then develop those into a game. If the team likes it, the rest of the employees get to play. If they like it, the game gets tested in Canada’s iTunes App store. If it’s a hit there it will be deemed ready for global release. This staged approach has killed off four games so far, with each dead project a cause for celebration. Employees crack open champagne to toast their failure. “We really want to celebrate maybe not the failure itself but the learning that comes out of the failure,” says Paananen.

Supercell is new but has a veteran executive team. Paananen and a Supercell cofounder, Mikko Kodisoja, sold their maiden startup Sumea in 2004 for $6 million in cash and another $12 million in stock to Digital Chocolate and stayed for six years before venturing out with three colleagues to start Supercell. “It felt that we had to build something from scratch again.”

Supercell secured $12 million in a 2011 venture round led by Accel at a $52.3 million valuation, then changed strategy, dropping all other game platforms to focus on tablets, namely the iPad. The company released Clash of Clans and Hay Day in the summer of 2012. By year’s end both games had held top-five positions in the App Store longer than any other game that year, and Clash of Clans was the biggest moneymaker more often than any other app to date.

One rabid Clans fan, a Finnish government official, organized a cruise to Stockholm for his 50 Clan friends. A relative of one of the company founders had his car break down and, while waiting for assistance, started playing Clans on his phone and used its chat feature to get a teammate to pick him up.

The games attract players because they’re simple to play and chock-full of immersive details such as bloated farm pigs that draw a chuckle, fish leaping up from a cartoon stream and Clash of Clans characters that resemble Hulk Hogan or Mr. T riding a warthog. “The game should feed the player some emotions,” said Kodisoja.

Players pay the game back with money, time or both. In Hay Day, you can spend to speed up production of eggs and milk, or upgrade silos and barns. In Clash of Clans, players can buy gems to speed the production of troops and convert them into gold or elixir to upgrade buildings, walls and troops.

What's a farm without chickens?

Paananen says the games are not designed to be “pay-to-win.” You can also obtain resources through committed gameplay. Some of the world’s leading players haven’t spent a dime, but Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter found himself on the losing end of most of his Clans battles until he began spending money. “The economy that they’ve built in the game is structured so that you never have quite enough,” says Pachter.

Paananen says Supercell’s plans over the next three years include Android games, Asian expansion, more global hits and “probably” an IPO. That could be a good thing for Supercell workers. In April the board voted to give stock options to all employees, not just to the senior folks. “We thought, ‘This is not in line with our values. We should give equity to everybody.”

Now this is the kind of company I would like to work for - or even build :)

So it sounds like mobile, mobile games and social mobile games might be where the money really is - even though I shouldnt think about it :)