Did you just say 107 TRILLION E-mails ?

This week Prof Boone assigned us an article titled Communicative Informatics: An Active and Creative Audience Framework of Social Media written by Professor Boone herself and Professor Gallant from Emerson. The topic of this weeks class discussion was the role of social media in PR. We compared the new rules of PR to the old rules of PR.
It is most important to note that Social Media gives PR professionals the ability to directly communicate with their audience. So long are the days where PR agents must rely on the media to get the attention of their potential clients and current stakeholders. It is vital to practice a two way form of communication, where  not only do you give out information, but you also take some in. You listen to your customer and pay attention to any feedback they are offering.
While Social Media is paving a new path for those practicing Public Relations it is also opening the door for us to access more information than we could ever conceive. One line in the article listed above, Professor Boone specifically pointed out to us states; " Every two days now we create as much information as we did from the dawn of civilization up until 2003... pictures, instant messages, and tweets all add to this."
Do you have any idea how much information that is ??? Lets have a look at some of the numbers posted by pindom blog

in 2010:
107 Trillion - emails were sent on the Internet
255 Million - number of websites as of December 2010
1.97 Billion - internet users worldwide ( this is a 14% growth since last year)
152 Million - number of blogs on the Internet
25 Billion - number of tweets sent in 2010
600 Million - number of people on facebook at the end of 2010
30 Billion - pieces of content ( links,  notes, photos etc) shared just on Facebook along per month in 2010
2 Billion - the number of videos watched per day on YouTube
35 - hours of video uploaded to YouTube every hour.
5 Billion - photos hosted by Flickr

Those are amazing, astonishing and scary numbers !
Now what is important is to find a way to differentiate your information and your story from the trillions of other posts added to the web each day. How will you make sure your company does not get lost in the shuffle ? You must get creative. One proposition listed in the Communicative Informatics article is that the Audience is Creative.
Each day new photos, videos, releases and articles are being published on line. We live in a creative world with the most imaginative, inventive and inspirational people.

The Internet has truly revolutionized our way of life and social media is right there as well. Social media has provided us with ways to reconnect, ways to  tell our story and share our ideas. It has introduced us to a new form of communication and with this ability to freely communicate you have endless opportunities at your finger tips.... now we just have figure out how to best apply these opportunities.

New Semester, New Class, Same Internet

Today marks the beginning of the Fall 2011 Semester at Suffolk University. Its hard to believe that summer vacation is over. One of the courses i am taking this semester is New Media and New Markets which of course focuses on the Internet, marketing, web design and new media. Millions and Millions of people use the Internet. An estimate of 2,095,006,005 people are estimated to use the Internet as of March 2011. But how do you use the Internet ?

If i had to guess why people use the Internet i would have to guess... 1) Social Networking 2) Communication 3) Research 4) Entertainment 5) Marketing.

I know i personally use the Internet for social networking and for communication purposes at work.
I of course am a member of facebook and as sad as it is, i cant remember life before facebook ( i know i know - don't judge) I use facebook to keep in touch with friends, make plans, see what everyone is up to, etc.
My job 100% relys on the Internet. You learn the hard way when Internet goes down for a day and i cant get anything done - only left to play major catch up when the system is back up and running. I am constantly e-mailing, sending out reminders, logging ticket requests, setting reservation, making travel plans. Every aspect of my job relies om the world wide web. To be honest, i don't think my job could exist ( or at least function properly) without the web.
My friends and family do not rely on the Internet when it comes to work as much as i do. My mom uses it to play bejeweled, forward us those silly e-mails or check up on us on facebook ( there should be a rule that a mother cannot be friends with her daughters on any social networking sites) My father uses it to watch comedy videos before going to bed or catch an early new segment when he wakes up. My sister is always logged onto facebook catching up with friends.
There are quite a lot of people using the Internet right now -but each for a different purpose.
Why are you logging on ?