Even though small businesses in Australia lag in Internet adoption with most small businesses either not having a website established or not having a fully integrated, functional website, in contrast, Australian consumers are quite techno-savvy.

According to recent research, 37% of Australians use smart phones and is predicted to be 50% by the end of 2011. 92% say they use smart phones while consuming other media; 46% while watching TV, 43% while listening to music, 36% while online. A whopping 26% say they have purchased something on their smart phone. Average number of apps is 25, with 8 being purchased. Nearly 50% browse the web every day on their phones.

Nielsen research shows Australians are #1 in usage of social networks

Neilsen reports that Australians spend 7 hours 17 minutes per person each month on social networks and blogs. Australian social media usage was highest for the second year running, out of Nielsen’s Internet-metered markets including: Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland, U.K., and U.S. This means Australians used social media 25 minutes more per month than the previous year. That’s quite a bit more.

Most small business owners still don’t fully appreciate the value of social networking for business purposes.

A lot of it is due to ignorance (not knowing) and confusion. For example, there’s a common misconception that links last a lot longer on Facebook than Twitter, because the newsfeed moves slower than the stream, but recent research confirmed this is not the case.

The half life of a link (i.e. the time it takes to receive half its total clicks from when it’s first shared) is on average 2.8 hours on Twitter and 3.2 hours on Facebook – not a massive difference, although on YouTube links last considerably longer.

What’s more interesting is that a link pointing to a topical news story – like an earthquake – is likely to have a lot shorter half-life than a link pointing to something oblique (like lolcats).

The graph below illustrates this phenomenon, but once again ignorance (not knowing) can be damaging. The concept of the half life of a link is important if you’re in the news business, but if you’re a business looking to stay in business for years to come, what is important and relevant to you is the value of the individual links established, not the half life.

Half Life Of Internet Links In Social Media Networks

This is a vitally important concept we will cover at our Business Blogging For Sales Lead Generation event, it’s an exclusive by-invitation-only event that you need to contact us if you want to attend.

Why is a blog important for business?

Blogs are used to establish contact and communication with a business. A website by design is static, whereas a blog and Facebook are interactive, engaging the prospect. More importantly, he/she can read and assess the type of communications others have had with you/the business.

In this day and age, it’s not a nice-to-have sales and marketing tool, a blog is a must-have sales, marketing and customer support and brand building tool.

Let’s face it, if you’re not blogging, you’re just not serious about sales lead generation.

At our upcoming (and last ever) Exponential Internet Marketing Bootcamp, we’re going to go well beyond explaining Social Networking as shown in the video below. We’re going to cover the risks and pitfalls of getting sucked into the Vortex Of Mediocrity where countless hours are wasted by people who fundamentally don’t have a life and therefore have no cash to spend. That being said it doesn’t mean it can’t be leveraged – it surely can, but not in the way the Internet Spruikers want you to think. Internet Spruikers want to sell you systems and solutions so they can make a fortune.

What we do for our clients is cut through all the CR_ _ to uncover what works. Like the $25, 15-minute strategy that increased a jeweller’s web traffic by 25% within a week. These are real results for real brick and mortar businesses. The strategies are so good and easy to implement, that we now guarantee them… That’s right, when you become a VIP Bootcamp ticket holder, we GUARANTEE you’ll make at least $30,000 in the next 12 months. That’s putting our money where our mouth is.

As you might already know, I am not a fan of Facebook. As Betty White proclaimed on NBC’s (US TV network) Saturday Night Live after a Facebook campaign created enough buzz to make it happen AND make it one of the highest rated shows ever… “I didn’t know what Facebook was… Now that I know I think it’s a massive waste of time.” I concur. Unless you’re Betty White and you have a lot of people willing to waste their time for your benefit… Well you can decipher my bias.

That’s why when Michael Pye of Sydney sent me these images, I thought they were hilarious! Michael’s wife Bronwyn Pye is a Sydney Chiropractor click on the hyperlink to check out her site.

Andrew Powell from Montreal Canada sent me this article about a kid in the UK. What a global world we live in! This article busts wide open the myth that Twitter is popular with kids amongst others… Read on for an eye-opening challenge to popular held beliefs in this social networking phenomenon…

The world according to Matthew Robson aged 15 and a half

Radio With online sites streaming music for free they do not bother, as services such as last.fm do this advert free and users can choose the songs they want instead of listening to what the radio presenter/DJ chooses

Newspapers No teenager that I know of regularly reads a newspaper, as most do not have the time and cannot be bothered to read pages and pages of text while they could watch the news summarised on the internet or on TV

Internet Facebook is the most common, with nearly everyone with an internet connection registered. On the other hand, teenagers do not use Twitter

Music They are very reluctant to pay for it (most having never bought a CD) Teenagers from higher income families use iPods and those from lower income families use mobile phones

Directories Real directories contain listings for builders and florists, which are services teenagers do not require. They can get the information free on the internet

Viral/Outdoor Marketing “Most teenagers enjoy and support viral marketing… Teenagers see adverts on websites (pop-ups, banner ads) as extremely annoying and pointless…they are portrayed in such a negative light that no one follows them.”

Cinema Teenagers visit the cinema more often when they are in the lower end of teendom but as they approach 15 they go to the cinema a lot less. This is because of the pricing; at 15 they have to pay the adult price. Also it is possible to buy a pirated DVD of the film at the time of release, and these cost much less than a cinema ticket

Mobile phones The general view is that Sony Ericsson phones are superior, because of their long list of features, built-in Walkman capacity and value.

For more details, you can access the original article at: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article6703399.ece

As you know by now, my short blog posts are rare. This is one of them. This YouTube video is a must watch for anyone involved in Internet Marketing. It is absolutely priceless. I know you’ll want to watch it more than once and forward this blog link to colleagues and friends.

The Social Media Revolution Is Here

Should I spend time on FaceBook? I get this question a lot. Here’s my answer… Time is our most valuable resource… If you’re having fun, that’s cool. But realise you’re having fun – not achieving your goals by chatting, tweeting and following other peoples’ lives…

What would happen if you invested that much time into your income generation, business-building efforts, can you imagine what you could achieve…?!?!?

But then again life is NOT about just working… REALLY IT’S NOT!

Read More »»

You might have read this in a recent e-mail, but it’s worthy of repetition here.

• The easiest and quickest way to start getting MORE FREE TRAFFIC to your website is to link in to my LinkedIn network. Go to www.LinkedIn.com and invite me to join your network. By doing that, you will INSTANTLY get over 1 MILLION CONNECTIONS. Connections are people who will begin to be aware that you exist and that you have products and services to offer.
• I just cut and pasted this from my LinkedIn.com profile today: “Your profile has been viewed by 11 people in the last 12 days. In the last 2 days, you have appeared in search results 14 times.” Just so we’re clear, this is an average of 7 people/day x 365 days = +/- 2,500 people PER YEAR who are seeking information about me and what I have to offer. You can start to get this FREE PUBLICITY/EXPOSUREwithin the next 5 minutes. Do it now by clicking here.

• By linking in to me on LinkedIn.com, you will get more than just people looking for you and your products, you’ll get improved search engine optimisation which means EVERYONE on the Internet will be able to find you more quickly and easily. When you do setup your profile, be as descriptive as possible, keep it up-to-date and maintain your activities current. We teach our clients how to optimised Linked In with a 4-part article series called “How to get from 0 to 7 Million Connections in 3 Days”. It’s a bonus when people sign up for our Silver Internet Mastery Momentum Membership. BUT I DON’T WANT TO SELL YOU ANYTHING TODAY – I want you to know that this stuff works and you can get started right now for FREE.

Today’s post is about realising that when you take action, you create momentum that takes on a life of it’s own… It’s almost like magic.

When Google and the other search engines get involved, you have their power working for you and that is truly exponential — and EXCITING don’t you think?

If you haven’t linked in to me yet, please do it now. Time is money and 2,500 people want to consider buying from you…

Onward and upward!
Dr Marc Dussault

Australia’s #1 Exponential Growth Strategist

P.S.

Sometimes I think I sound like a broken record, but so be it.

This stuff is really not that hard – you just have to ‘do stuff’.

I know there are only 168 hours in a week and that everyone’s pulling at you in a million directions. I get that, I really do.

I also get that an Exponential Mindset™ by definition necessitates LEVERAGE.

Using tools and techniques such as LinkedIn are massively exponential BECAUSE THEY ARE FREE which gives them INFINITE ROI (anything divided by 0 = infinity!)…

That is not just semantics. BUILDING an Internet empire on a shoe string budget is many peoples’ dream, but only a few ever reach the summit of profitability…

Go on and link in to me and see what happens!