socialnetworks

You’re Not Getting Older, You’re Getting Better (Networked)

If you don’t recognized the headline of this post then you’re likely not among those in the latest survey of Boomers about social networking (The slogan is from a 1970s ad for Loving Care hair color).  AARP just released the results of its national telephone survey: Social Media and Technology Use Among Adults 50+.  Among the [...]

If you don’t recognized the headline of this post then you’re likely not among those in the latest survey of Boomers about social networking (The slogan is from a 1970s ad for Loving Care hair color).  AARP just released the results of its national telephone survey: Social Media and Technology Use Among Adults 50+.  Among the results of adults age 50 and over 2/5 of them consider themselves extremely or very comfortable using the Internet. That number of comfortable Internet users rises to almost half if you look at adults ages 50 to 64.

The most popular networking site among the  over-50 crowd is Facebook followed by MySpace, LinkedIn and Twitter.  Kevin Donnellan, the chief communications officer at AARP says the latest data tells us that social networking is becoming a part of everyday life for Americans 50 plus, and boomers in particular.

In terms of news preferences:

• Most adults 50+ prefer to get their news from print newspapers and magazines  (40%) or through a combination of print and online news sources (26%)
• Among adults 50+ who use social media websites, three-quarters (73%) are connected to relatives other than children and grandchildren, three-fifths are connected to their children (62%), and one-third (36%) are connected to grandchildren.
• Among those introduced by a family member, three-fifths (63%) said it was their child.

See the survey: http://www.AARP.org/socialmediasurvey

Social Networks Put You At Center Stage For Inauguration

Early reports from this morning’s inauguration indicate record-breaking Internet traffic for numerous social networks and video distribution sites. While, it has not been the heaviest traffic day across the Internet, but the day is not over yet. Before I give you the numbers, it’s worth mentioning that CNN.com Live partnered with Facebook to create a [...]

Early reports from this morning’s inauguration indicate record-breaking Internet traffic for numerous social networks and video distribution sites. While, it has not been the heaviest traffic day across the Internet, but the day is not over yet. Before I give you the numbers, it’s worth mentioning that CNN.com Live partnered with Facebook to create a fantastic user experience.

The interface had a live video window on the left and a live feed of the user’s Facebook status feed on the right. This enabled users to talk with their friends about what was happening on the live video feed. There was also a tab to view all users status posts. Many people were also concurrently posting comments in Twitter, the leading microblogging site. Based on the lively conversation, I’d say the CNN.com Live and Facebook partnership was a huge hit. I thought Steve Garfield’s comment below summed it up nicely.

I assume that CNN was patrolling the status feed looking for interesting content. My friend C.C. Chapman was called by CNN to do a live interview this evening. I presume to discuss his video post about the CNN Facebook partnership. CC calls the interface a game changer for the Web and TV. I’m not sure it’s quite that groundbreaking, as Ustream has a similar setup chat + live stream. As CC says though, it’s nice to have your friends as a live discussion feed and not just public chatter.

Now, on to the numbers as of around Noon EST:

Facebook,  partnered with CNN for a live feed of “status”
•    As of 10:15 a.m. PT, 600,000 status messages set using the CNN app
•    Average of 4,000 Facebook status updates were set every minute during the inauguration
•    8,500 status messages set in those 60 seconds
•    Obama’s page on Facebook has more than 4 million fans and more than 500,000 wall posts
•    “Millions” of members logged in during the live broadcast

Akamai, content delivery network:
•    5.4 million visitors per minute to online news outlets

CNN, 6 a.m. ET, CNN.com over 18.8 million live video streams
•    1.3 million concurrent streams just before Obama’s address

Mogulus, live-streaming video service
•    Powered online inauguration video streams for C-Span, USA Today
•    Broke Mogulus’ network record with 105,000 concurrent viewers, over 1 million visitors total

Hulu, Ustream, Joost, No streaming stats available

How did you watch the inauguration? Leave a comment and let me know.