How age, income and ethnicity affect time spent social networking

The Nielsen Company reported in June that, on average, the global consumer spends about 1 in every 4.5 minutes online on blogs or social networking sites. According to a report by market researcher Morpace, among US Facebook users time on Facebook rises to 1 in 3 minutes spent online.

Unsurprisingly, despite Facebook’s growing appeal to older users, 18- to 34-year-olds spend the most time on the site per week, at 8.5 hours out of 22.4 spent online. Weekly Facebook time drops to 4.6 hours among users ages 55 and older, representing a lower proportion of that group’s average of 21.5 hours per week on the internet.

Broken down by race and ethnicity, Morpace found Facebook usage heaviest by Asians. Not only did that group spend the most hours per week on the site, but they also devoted the greatest percentage of their weekly internet time to Facebook (39.6%, compared with 35.1% among blacks, the second-highest group). Hispanics spent the fewest hours on Facebook, and even compared with their low average time online came in last.

Managing your online network is critical, whether you’re looking for a job, trying to advance in your career, or you’re starting a business. Think of the Internet () as a global talent pool that has more contact information than the White Pages. In fact, 80 percent of available jobs are never even advertised, with more than half of all employees finding their jobs through networking, according to BH Careers International.

Social networks have connected and exposed us to more people than ever before. With all the online friends and followers you’ve accumulated, it’s become increasingly complicated to make sense of your social graph and use it to your advantage. It’s also never been more important to build your contact database, organize it, and then put it to work for you. The old adage “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know,” is true, so consider your rolodex more valuable than your wallet when it comes to achieving success in business.

Here is how to create a basic contact management strategy, stay connected and organized from your desktop to your phone, and give you some insight onto how to expand your network.

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Your Contact Management Strategy

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You will always have different tiers of relationships, from family, to friends, to associates, to acquaintances and everyone in between. In order to organize your database, you need to have specific categories in mind. Consider things like the strength of your relationship, how important the relationship is to you, the last time you connected with them, three things about them, what company they work for, their location, and their contact information (e-mail, phone, address, LinkedIn ()). You can use a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, an Access Database, Act!, or another similar software package to help manage your contacts, using these columns. Aside from these software packages, there are other applications listed below that can help you. By organizing your contacts under these main categories, it will allow you to reconnect with the right people, and expand your relationships.

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1. From Your Social Graph to Your Desktop

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It’s very important that you have physical copies of your contact database as a backup. Although, you may participate in a handful of social networks, that data resides in the cloud, and not on your desktop. Backing up your social graph means that if, for some reason, your social media profile disappears, is removed entirely, or the social network collapses and you lose everything, you’ll be protected regardless. Try to get in the habit of exporting your contacts so that you have a copy on your desktop in an Excel file.

Here is how to save your social friends, contacts, and followers on your desktop:

Facebook (): Although Facebook might appear as a wall garden, there’s actually a trick to capturing your friends’ phone numbers and e-mail addresses. Create or use your existing Yahoo! e-mail account and import your Facebook friends right into your address book. Then download the .CSV file to your desktop.

LinkedIn: After logging into LinkedIn, go straight to the “connections” link in the global navigation area. At the bottom of the page, you’ll see “export connections.” From the next screen, you can download the .CSV file to your desktop.

Twitter (): You don’t have the ability to view email addresses or phone numbers of your Twitter followers. You can, however, download a .CSV file of 100 of your followers to your desktop by using Twitter Export. The information in the spreadsheet will be the name, user name, follower and following count, and their bios.

Another great article by Mashable. Please leave me a comment below if you enjoyed this post.

Now you’ve gone and done it. You’ve come across a list so enormous, so useful, and so awesome, our futile attempts to describe it have been lost in the tubes of cyberspace.

We’ll just say this: No matter what you’re into — Twitter (), Facebook (), Mobile Apps, Business Development, or good-old-fashioned YouTube () hilarity — you will find it below.

So put down your barbeque, send out another huge thanks to our men and women in uniform, and limber up your scrolling finger — it’s a big one.

If you dig the uber-list, be sure to send some comments our way down below!

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Social Media

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• HOW TO: Disable Facebook’s “Instant Personalization” [PRIVACY]New menus on the Facebook home page this week took users by surprise, and left many concerned about the privacy implications of being suddenly more “connected” to their favorite sites and interests. If you’re looking for ways to opt out of these new features, this guide will show you how.
• HOW TO: Spring Clean Your Twitter AccountAn untended Twitter feed can quickly become overgrown with useless tweets and dead weight users. These great tools will help you streamline your Twitter account in no time.
• How Freelancers are Using Social Media for Real ResultsSocial media can be a boon for those who make their living gig-to-gig. Sheer networking is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to landing work via the social web. We spoke to freelancers in a variety of fields to find out how they make it happen.
• 9 Essential Social News and Bookmarking Sites for Designers
  The design community is always hungry for content, inspiration, and tutorials. These nine networks are a great place to discover and share creative resources.
• 4 Ways One Non-Profit Uses Location to Increase Engagement
  The National Wildlife Federation has been getting creative with their social media awareness campaigns, particularly when it comes to location-based technologies. This post discusses some of their innovations.
• Tim Ferriss: 7 Great Principles for Dealing with Haters
  For all the personal connections and open sharing done on social networks, you’ll always find a fair share of scathing negativity. Tim Ferriss, author of The Four Hour Work Week, gave a talk at The Next Web ‘10 event in Amsterdam, and had these seven points to share on the subject.
• Gowalla CEO Talks About the Future of Social Media [INTERVIEW]
  We sat down with Josh Williams to discuss the origins of his location-based network, and what current trends in the space mean for the future.
• 5 Free Services for Pre-Scheduling Your Twitter Updates
  Whether for marketing purposes, event promotion, or just keeping your account fresh while you’re on vacation, a tweet scheduler can be a handy tool. Check out these five great ones, all of them free.
• How Twitter’s New Media Blog Aims To Teach By Example
  Twitter’s new blog highlights news organizations with smart Twitter integration in the hope of becoming a resource for the media. We spoke with Twitter about their strategies and goals.
• Top 10 LEGO Movie Tributes on YouTube
  Those stop-motion goodies are back, this time reenacting our favorite flicks in all their colorful plastic glory.
• Top 10 YouTube Cover Songs
  For better or worse, YouTube has become the ultimate repository of musical tributes. From guys in their bedrooms, to a capella cleverness, to guitar-wielding toddlers, this hand-picked list highlights some of the best around.
• 5 Ways to Support World Malaria Day Online
  The fight to end malaria in the developing world has become a rallying cause on the social web. Check out these five easy ways you can make a difference online.
• How Non-Profits are Using Social Media for Real Results
  Social media has become an essential tool for non-profits in their efforts to spread awareness and raise funds. Check out some real-world examples of how some organizations have put the social web to good use.
• Why Content Curation Is Here to Stay
  At times, content creators and content curators have been at odds. But the sheer volume of “stuff” and noise on the web has made curation essential. This post discusses the status of the curator on today’s social web.
• Social Enterprise: 5 Tips for Getting Execs on Board
  There’s no longer much question about whether corporations need to be engaged in social media, but convincing the head honchos of the value can be challenging. We spoke to some of the top names in social strategy and got some great tips on bringing the boardroom up to speed.

Another great set of useful Social Media site from our friends at Mashable. If you liked this, please leave me a comment below.

The best part of the iTunes App Store is that you don’t need to spend a single cent to fill your iPhone with amazing applications. There are tons of developers dishing out quality free applications daily.

So in honor of cheapskates everywhere, this article features 100 free and useful iPhone apps. The apps are organized into ten categories: Social, Business, Productivity, Financial, Utilities, Mobile & Remote File Access, News & Weather, Travel, Food, and Audio & Video.

A few of these are free for a limited time only so be sure to act fast!

Do you use a Mac? Be sure to also check out our roundup of 100 Incredibly Useful & Free Mac Apps!

Social

Twitter – Discover what’s happening right now, anywhere in the world with the official Twitter for iPhone app. Realtime search, Top Tweets, trending topics and maps show whats happening now everywhere and nearby. Tweet, send DMs, share photos, videos and links to your friends and the world. Don’t have an account? Just sign up from the app!

Facebook – Facebook for iPhone makes it easy to stay connected and share information with friends. Use your iPhone to start a conversation with Facebook Chat, check your friends’ latest photos and status updates, look up a phone number, or upload your own mobile photos to Facebook while on the go.

Skype – With Skype on your iPhone or iPod touch you can call and instant message anyone else on Skype for free. You can also call landlines and mobiles and send SMS anywhere in the world, at great rates. Skype is free to download and easy to use.

Bump – Bump makes sharing with people quick and easy. Just pick what you want to send, then hold your phones and gently bump hands with another person using Bump. Share photos and contacts, compare friends, or become Facebook friends in seconds!

AIM (Free Edition) – Chat with your Facebook friends on AIM for iPhone, even if they’re not AIM users. To get started, just click Facebook Connect button at the top of the AIM Buddy List. Your Facebook friends and groups will be added to your Buddy List (with the Facebook icon next to their name). Now chatting with your Facebook friends is as easy as using AIM.

Foursquare – Foursquare helps you find new ways to explore your city. See where your friends are, learn about the places they frequent and unlock rewards as you travel through the city.

Friends Around Me – Friends Around Me is a free mobile app for interacting with friends 24/7 across social networks: check-in directly to Foursquare and share status on Twitter, Facebook. Meet new people nearby or across the world through an interactive location-based search.

LinkedIn – LinkedIn for iPhone puts your professional network just a touch away. Walk into any interview or client meeting with the ability to look up the details and connect with over 60 million professionals worldwide. Get the latest updates and messages from your network and keep them up-to-date with your status in real-time.

Messagey – ‘Messagey!’ is the ultimate free SMS app with super-fast load times and super-fast message sending, allowing you to send your messages, super-fast! It’s quick and convenient, since it brings an all new way of sending messages to the iPhone, with the introduction of our intuitive ‘Message Sliders’, allowing you to save commonly used messages – so they’re ready to send with just a few taps.

Fring – Fring is a multi-award winning mobile application that lets you make free voice calls, free video calls (one way) and live IM chats directly from your iPhone and iPod touch.

Business

Dragon Dictation – Dragon Dictation is an easy-to-use voice recognition application powered by Dragon NaturallySpeaking that allows you to easily speak and instantly see your text or email messages. In fact, it’s up to five (5) times faster than typing on the keyboard. With Dragon Dictation you can also update your Facebook status, send notes and reminders to yourself, or Tweet to the world….all using your voice. So when you’re on-the-go, stop typing and start speaking – from short text messages to longer email messages, and anything in between.

This is invaluable. Thanks to appstorm.net for putting it together!

Update: Title updated to reflect this is in-stream advertising platforms, more at the foot of the post.

In a lengthy post, Twitter has just announced it will ban all third party ad platforms that inject advertising into users twitter streams. This technically means the end of Ad.ly and potentially the just launched (as in today at TechCrunch’s Disrupt) Tweetup.

Tthe significant part of Twitter’s announcement is below:

As our primary concern is the long-term health and value of the network, we have and will continue to forgo near-term revenue opportunities in the service of carefully metering the impact of Promoted Tweets on the user experience. It is critical that the core experience of real-time introductions and information is protected for the user and with an eye toward long-term success for all advertisers, users and the Twitter ecosystem. For this reason, aside from Promoted Tweets, we will not allow any third party to inject paid tweets into a timeline on any service that leverages the Twitter API. We are updating our Terms of Service to articulate clearly what we mean by this statement, and we encourage you to read the updated API Terms of Service to be released shortly.

This is huge! Is Twitter trying to push out any ad competition in this move? What do you think? Leave a comment below…

With Apple’s World-Wide Developers’ Conference 2010 and the presumptive launch of iPhone 4 less than a month away, the Apple rumor mill is spinning at top speed.

Despite the multiple breaches in Apple’s “impenetrable security,” we still know surprisingly little about what hardware or functionality the device will actually contain (the security managed to succeed somewhere). However, recent builds of the iPhone OS 4.0 beta have shed some light on what the newest member of the iPhone family will be packing under the hood.

Here at The Next Web, we’ve puzzled through the rumors and are pleased to offer you our take on what we think is going to be included in the newest iPhone.

AT&T Tethering

The most recent build of iPhone OS 4.0 appears to (finally) include Apple’s promised support for tethering on AT&T. Sure, it’s been possible to tether the iPhone in the US with a simple jailbreak (as our own Alex Wilhelm loves to remind me). But for the average iPhone user, putting your phone at risk of being bricked is not a practical option.

The Apple party line has consistently stated that it’s AT&T’s network, so it’s their choice on whether or not to allow tethering. Given that AT&T is staying mum, Apple may be forcing their hand.

No matter how much quality information or witty repartee we send out into our social networks, first impressions are almost always visual. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand that the first thing we see when checking out a new Twitter () follower, Facebook () friend, or LinkedIn () connection is a profile photo. And in a world of quick clicks and divergent attention, if the photo you present isn’t eye-catching, or illustrative of your personal brand, you may miss your shot at making a positive first impression.

We asked social design experts for their take on what makes for a killer profile pic, and they’ve provided some strategies on implementing your personal brand, and a few tools for snazzing up that boring Facebook self-shot you’ve been clinging to.

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1. Start With a Quality Photo

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This may seem obvious, but we’ve all come across countless social profiles with blurry, dark, or low-res images. When your initial photo is inadequate, there’s no amount of post production or digital magic that can bring it up to snuff.

“If there is one element that lets so many profile images down, it’s a lack of sharpness,” said Grace Smith, owner of Postscript5, a micro-design studio based in Northern Ireland. “Of course now there are numerous Sharpening Photoshop Actions, but in order to cut down the amount of work in Photoshop, it’s best to adhere to a few simple tips. Namely, use a tripod to avoid camera shake, shoot in continuous mode for more challenging conditions, try to invest in good quality lenses, and aim for a low ISO [image sensitivity] to keep the amount of noise low.”

Smith cites the Digital Photography School website as a great resource for learning how to capture better digital images.

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2. Be Consistent

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A rule of thumb touched on by many is consistency. Because followers and friends will be looking out for your face first, it’s important that once you find a photo that works, stick with it.

“Don’t change it every few days. Don’t even change it every month,” said Chris Coyier, web designer and curator of CSS-Tricks. “Make one, do a good job, and leave it alone for a long time. People’s attention is split a million different ways these days, and you only get a split second to try and make an impression and forge a connection. Consistency makes that easier.”

This may be especially true for Twitter, where networks tend to go beyond personal friends and family.

“Your Twitter profile is your personal brand and with any brand, consistency is key,” said web designer and illustrator Brad Colbow. “When you market yourself, your avatar becomes your logo. It will be seen on Twitter, Ning networks, Flickr (), and in blog comments, everywhere.”

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3. Be Conscious of Formats and Dimensions

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Social networks often play by different rules when it comes to images. If you plan to look your best on all your networks, you should brush up on some of the technical requirements of your profile pictures.

“To ensure that you maintain a consistent and professional brand identity in various social media/networking sites, you should rescale your avatar in a graphics editor like Photoshop or GIMP (),” said Jacob Gube, chief editor of the design blog Six Revisions. “If you upload a file that is too big or too small, the site might render your avatar in ways you might not expect. For example, on Twitter’s profile pages, the standard size is 73 by 73 pixels, while on Digg (), your profile page’s avatar size is 120 by 120 pixels.”

The ideal image dimensions are not always apparent on every network, but Gube offers a trick for discovering them. “In Firefox (), what you can do is to navigate to someone’s profile page, right-click on the avatar, and choose “View Image Info,” which will display details about that image, including the dimensions of it.”

Another great post from the masters at Mashable.

iTunes has never been great at automatically syncing new songs or folders of music, but with a little finesse and the latest version of iTunes, you can automatically sync any new music you download to iTunes, with relative ease.

Photo remixed from Shutr.

Love it or hate it, tons of people still use iTunes to manage their music library. Maybe it’s because of your love for the iPod, the iTunes Music Store, or whatever—we’re not here to judge, we’re just here to help you make iTunes work better.

When you’re done with this guide, you’re iTunes library will automatically sync up with any music you download, whether it’s via BitTorrent, the web, or even Dropbox. The guide will walk through how to set up automatic music-to-iTunes syncing on both Windows and Mac.

What You’ll Need

• iTunes
• Belvedere (Windows) or Hazel (Mac)

How It Works

The basic set up is actually pretty simple. Apple quietly added an Automatically Add to iTunes folder in a recent release of iTunes 9, which means that, while iTunes still doesn’t support watching and syncing custom folders, it does give us a pretty slick avenue for hacking together our own solution. Here’s how it works:

Thanks to lifehacker, yet again we learn a really slick simple way of handling a slightly frustrating glitch of technology.

Read the rest of this article to learn exactly how to resolve the issue of syncing your downloads to iTunes.