Oh, I’m going to Las Vegas
Why is it when I tell people I’m going to Las Vegas and Atlanta this week I get of one of two responses ‘you lucky so and so’ and ‘can I come?’. How wrong can people be on both counts? Do they think this is a holiday? Do they think it is fun meeting with a bunch of people and talking about beer?
I love visiting the US and experiencing new parts of the country. This trip though I’m going to be visiting two old friends, no I’m not talking about Al and Ken in Las Vegas, but rather LV itself and Atlanta. These two cities are so different from each other but more importantly they are worlds away from Killyleagh, County Down. They are both great to visit, but there is always a feeling of satisfaction when I take my seat on Aer Lingus to take me home. By the way I’m still waiting for them to contact me (see Blog 10)!
All those hours testing samples and deciding which beer we like the best. I wish! My presentations are about the impact of Social Networking and our marketing plans for the next 6 months. I was so impressed with some of the facts that Grace found for my presentation that I thought I’d share some of them with you:
•1 out of every 8 couples married in the US last year met via social media.
•If Facebook were a country it would be the fourth largest country in the world!
•It is as common to have a MySpace account as it is to own a dog.
•MySpace sees 5 million new users register each month, that’s more than the population of Minnesota!
•Linked In currently has 37 million users growing at 1 member per second.
If that isn’t enough consider the following:
•It took Radio 38 years to reach 50 million users.
•It took TV 13 years to reach 50 million users.
•It took the Internet 4 years to reach 50 million users.
•It took the Ipod 3 years to reach 50 million users.
•Facebook added 100 million users in less than 9 month.
•iPhone applications hit 1 billion in 9 months.
When I think about Social Media I almost believe it is as interesting as beer. You didn’t really believe that did you?
Sometimes it is difficult to understand how the rest of the world views something, while sitting here in County Down. In Ireland Social Media will never replace the interaction we get from meeting people, face to face, usually in the Church or at the pub, the most widely attended places in Killyleagh. Yet in USA 12.5% of the people married last year met through Social Media! Isn’t it great this diverse world we live in! We are now so connected; I’m now in touch with people I’ve not seen for 25 years. As SLBC now has over 1,200 fans on Facebook, the majority of whom I have never met, let us not only celebrate the diversity but also the humanity that makes us want to be together. By the way if any of you people from New York or Massachusetts want to buy me a drink next time I visit feel free to comment on the blog.
Until next time ‘may the wind always be at your back’.
