When I signed up to social media over four years ago you could almost count the number of tweets with a pen and a piece of paper.
Facebook had not even cracked 50 million users. Now it is approaching one billion users globally which is one every seven people on the planet using the Facebook social media network and that equates to nearly one in two internet users.
Today you almost need a supercomputer that can measure and monitor this deluge and torrent of big data that is exhibiting social at scale.
Torrent of Data
At a conference in 2010 Eric Schmidt the then CEO of Google stated
“Every two days, we create as much information as we did from the dawn of civilization up until 2003”
This information includes content such as emails, tweets, Facebook updates, Photos, YouTube video uploads and text messages.
Two years later we have a continuing fire hose of content creation that is shared online with the 2012 Olympics producing a staggering 306 billion items on the open Web in just 17 days.
That is every person on the planet creating 44 pieces of information in just over 2 weeks.
So what are the social media statistics, facts and figures from the 2012 Olympics?
Statistics for Social Media Sharing
As the social web grows and permeates every facet of the online world these numbers will continue to skyrocket.
- 306 billion items shared on the World Wide Web
- 208,333 shares per second on the open web
- Facebook was the winner in terms of social sharing with 102 billion shares including photos, timeline updates and videos
- Twitter handled 5 billion tweets
- Usain Bolt ran ran the 100 metres in just 9.63 seconds and by the time he reached the finish line over 2 million items were shared
- Michael Phelps generated the most online traffic and shares at 3 million items per day
It was also calculated that 27% of Americans watched the Olympics at work which is an estimated loss of $1.4 billion in productivity.
The reality is that the Olympics is now over and it is “back to work”.
Infographic by RadiumOne
Image from BigStockPhoto.com
Since our business is social marketing, it was fantastic to see the social media frenzy around the Olympics, the first time the two met in real time. Just like the events themselves, sometimes the tweets and posts were the good, the bad, and the ugly. It’s not the medium that is inherently good or bad, it’s the user. Hopefully as we grow up and learn how to use this amazing tool at our finger tips we’ll lean more toward the good.
Just like the beginning of TV, social media will improve. The next generation will undoubtedly find better ways to use as this generation improved with TV. Social media connect people of all walks of life all over the world and shows great potential in the marketing world. Social media is excitement, happiness and let everyone know in a split second what is going on immediately and can be a great learning tool.