Do you think Social Media is the biggest shift since the industrial revolution? This video details out facts and figures.

Some useful statistics for businesses:

• Only 18 % of traditional TV campaigns generate positive ROI
   
• 78 % of consumers trust peer recommendations
   
• Only 14 % trust advertisements
   
• 34 % of bloggers post opinions about products and brands
   
• 25 % of search results for the world's top 20 brands are links to user generated-content
   
• Social media has overtaken porn as the #1 activity on the web
   

There are compelling reasons why businesses should should social media.

First, it's low or no cost marketing; the only trade-off is your effort.

Second, it is one of the best marketing forms to build continual relationships with your customers and keep them constantly updated with your stories and promotions.

Third, everybody is getting in it. Many businesses are gaining huge returns in terms of followers, online presence, branding and profit.
 

This video shows up how the Internet is changing the way to communicate with consumers. 

I have no doubt that we need to throw out the old rules of marketing and PR communications.

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One note aside. This video clip has been created by Epipheo Studios to promote themselves. These guys create a kind rich-content videos that are worth watching. 
 

Finally we did know who is behind Chatroulette.com, the latest Internet phenomenon (30 million unique visitors now and counting.) 

He is a 17 years-old Russian high school student named Andrey Ternovskiy, who built the video site in three days after realizing that no one was offering a web site that allowed random video chats with strangers. 

Now he is New York City talking to investors and programmers about where to take the his project next. 

The New York Times has interviewed him. The guy (on the picture) seems to be a little confused about his future.
 

When we refer to Social Media sites, do we really know who are they beyond Facebook, Twitter, Fickr and YouTube?

Website Magazine has collected the Top 50 most popular.

My advice as an online strategist: use these tools in a smart way, and your company will gain, for free, greater brand exposure and website traffic. 

1. facebook
2. youtube
3. myspace
4. twitter.com
5. flickr.com
6. photobucket.com
7. linkedin.com
8. digg.com
9. ning.com
10. yelp.com
11. tagged.com
12. squidoo.com
13. scribd.com
14. stumbleupon.com
15. hi5.com
16. bebo.com
17. reddit.com
18. myyearbook.com
19. technorati.com
20. kaboodle.com
21. friendster.com
22. flixster.com
23. xanga.com
24. epinions.com
25. plaxo.com
26. yuku.com
27. mybloglog.com
28. metafilter.com
29. blackplanet.com
30. care2.com
31. getsatisfaction.com
32. friendfeed.com
33. clipmarks.com
34. cafemom.com
35. newsvine.com
36. omgili.com
37. gigya.com
38. ballhype.com
39. current.com
40. revver.com
41. ping.fm
42. tribe.net
43. magnify.net
44. diigo.com
45. dzone.com
46. xing.com
47. faves.com
48. tweetdeck.com
49. ecademy.com
50. twine.com

Create a viral-buzzing app and get worldwide free advertising.

That is what McDonald's has done launching AvatarizeYourself.com free app and widget. 

You upload your picture and immediately enter the magic world of Pandora.

Once you have created your Avatar, you can share it with the world posting it into Facebook, MySpace, Blogger and all other social networks. 

Creator of the campaign is the NY-based viral marketing specialist Oddcast.com. 

(Guess who is featured Avatar? Don't get scared). 

Many companies develop expensive advertising and marketing programs designed to drive traffic to their Website. But too often they loose their focus. They forget a simple rule: the Website must be content-focused. 

Eight tips to improve your Site:

• Clearly articulate your goals and understand user demographics
   
• Establish a site personality
   
• Create content for each demographic personas (don't write for you!)
   
• Post photos, diagrams, video, podcast, e-books and all kind of content that tells your story
   
• Push content at least via email and RSS
   
• Offer multiple ways for visitors to express interest
   
• Market your Site
   
• Check metrics for continual improvement

This must-watch video highlights some remarkable stats on the state of the Internet as we know it today.

Some figures:

• As of September 2009, we were 1.73 billion users. 
   
• As of December 2009, there were 234 million websites.
   
• Social Media: Facebook has passed the 400 million mark. Twitter hits 50 million tweets per day. YouTube viewers watch 1 billion videos per day.
   
• On average we send 247 billion e-mails per day. 200 billion of those are spam e-mails.
   
• Security: 148,000 new zombie computers are created per day.
   

ChatRoulette.com is a new website that brings you face-to-face, via webcam, with an endless stream of random strangers all over the world. With each click of the mouse visitor is transported into a stranger’s life.

The site has only three months, but its population is exploding: 300 users in December; 10,000 in February; over 50,000 today. Big media are covering it up this phenomenon, and even comedian John Stewart made this week a clip about it (above).

Site's founder is unknown; web searches lead back to a Netherlands-based anonimity service. The site is hosted by servers in German and can operate without too much advertising. When writing this post it had a dating service linked.

Some say ChatRoulette.com is fun for dating and very addictive; others see there just a pornographic gate. The NYT has written about it.

The reality is that it's the Internet unfiltered, and nudity and exhibtionists are hard to avoid.

In my view, it is a very dangerous place for children, since perverts can behave anonymously.  Remember the old problems of MySpace? ChatRoulette.com, as it is now, without any access restriction and no organization taking responsability for it, is a serious threat for kids under 18.

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In this video it is explained how it works.