More From StomperNet 7

Yesterday I talked about my experience at StomperNet Live 7.  Today I want give you another “Take-a-way” that I brought home with me.

Many of the speakers at SN7 focused on Social Media and the new economy. And with good reason I might add. Everybody seems to be jumping in, but no one (well perhaps a few really know what they are doing.

The social media experts at SN certainly do. Perry Belcher was amazing. High energy, great story, and pertinent usable advice on how to leverage Twitter to build your personal brand. Great stuff.

Both Perry and Stephen Pierce for example drove home the point that the change from the old economy to the new economy has already happened. So you have let go of your comfort zone and dive in now. Get your feet wet and find your way, but make sure you have a “plan” first or you’ll go nuts trying to juggle it all.

The rules have changed and the shift we all keep hearing about regarding the way consumers buy things online is here and its fundamentally changing the way people buy and research things online.

Managing the social media monster is a huge undertaking and fraught with pitfalls that can cause you real problems, but on the flip side if done with careful planning you can  use to explode your business in a very short time and it’s free.

But the paradigm has changed. It’s not just kids using social media any more. Businesses are diving in head first and so are the baby boomers. In fact, the fasted growing population on FaceBook is now over forty.

A report came out yesterday that shows social media eclipsing email in popularity as a communications medium.

Some other key findings from the report:

- Globally, Facebook reaches 29.9% of global Internet users, versus 22.4% for MySpace.
- MySpace remains the most profitable social network, generating an estimated $1 billion in revenue versus $300 million for Facebook in 2008.
- Facebook is the top social network in all countries except Germany, Brazil, and Japan (Nielsen still has MySpace as tops in US in the report, but as of January ’09, that had changed).
- On Twitter, CNN, The New York Times, and BBC have the greatest reach among mainstream media companies as of late February.

See the full report here

So the takeaway here is that social media is here to stay. How will you use it to grow your business?