“A day to celebrate the revolution of media becoming social. Celebrate Social Media Day with Mashable by attending or organizing a meetup near you June 30th. Connect with your social media community!”

Mashable is hosting the first worldwide celebration for Social Media Day today, June 30th. As of now, Mashable has over 350+ social media day meetups planned around the world! Who doesn’t use social media these days??

Here are some social media facts that I discovered on Socialnomics:

1. 1 out of 8 couples married in the U.S. last year met via social media
2. Years to Reach 50 millions Users:  Radio (38 Years), TV (13 Years), Internet (4 Years), iPod (3 Years)…Facebook added 100 million users in less than 9 months…iPhone applications hit 1 billion in 9 months.
3. If Facebook were a country it would be the world’s 4th largest between the United States and Indonesia (note that Facebook is now creeping up – recently announced 300 million users)
4. comScore indicates that Russia has the most engage social media audience with visitors spending 6.6 hours and viewing 1,307 pages per visitor per month – Vkontakte.ru is the #1 social network
5. 2009 US Department of Education study revealed that on average, online students out performed those receiving face-to-face instruction
6. 1 in 6 higher education students are enrolled in online curriculum
7. % of companies using LinkedIn as a primary tool to find employees….80%
8. The fastest growing segment on Facebook is 55-65 year-old females
9. Ashton Kutcher and Ellen Degeneres (combined) have more Twitter followers than the  population of Ireland, Norway, or Panama.  Note I have adjusted the language here after someone pointed out the way it is phrased in the video was difficult to determine if it was combined.
10. What happens in Vegas stays on YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, Facebook…
11. The #2 largest search engine in the world is YouTube
12. Wikipedia has over 13 million articles…some studies show it’s more accurate than Encyclopedia Britannica…78% of these articles are non-English
13. There are over 200,000,000 Blogs
14. If you were paid a $1 for every time an article was posted on Wikipedia you would earn $156.23 per hour
15. Facebook USERS translated the site from English to Spanish via a Wiki in less than 4 weeks and cost Facebook $0
16. 34% of bloggers post opinions about products & brands
17. 78% of consumers trust peer recommendations
18. Only 14% trust advertisements
19. Hulu has grown from 63 million total streams in April 2008 to 373 million in April 2009
20. 25% of Americans in the past month said they watched a short video…on their phone

Clearly social media is becoming a huge part of all of our lives! I use Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, our blog and many other websites to help gain online visibility for my event planning company. Social media has become the best way to non-invasively spread the word about what you’re doing, so I will very happily celebrate this day. Afterall, It has saved me from dreadful sales calls.

Jed Singer, the coordinator of the Social Media Day celebration in Philadelphia said, “I just love how social media tethers everyone together, and brings people closer in the real world. It’s amazing how far we’ve come from forums and message boards, to blogging, uploading video, microblogging, geolocating,” he said. “The fact that anyone can instantly publish anything to the web has really changed the world.”

Want to participate??

• Meetup Everywhere Mashable: Sign up to attend or organize your own event on the Meetup Everywhere Mashable.
• RSVP to the Facebook Event: RSVP and upload photos from your meetup to Mashable’s Facebook event page.
• Upload to Flickr: Upload photos to Flickr and tag them with #smday.
• Follow @mashSMday: Follow @mashSMday on Twitter for updates and developments on the celebration.
• Tweet: Use the #smday hashtag on Twitter. With so many participating, it will be a trending topic on Twitter on June 30.

There will be prizes for those that tweet or post the event on FB! How has social media helped you??

Overview of Hulu TV: Hulu is a great website that allows networks such as NBC, FOX, ABC & others to broadcast movies and television shows after they have been broadcasted live. As of now, Hulu is only offered to users in the United States and they make sure that international users outside the US do not have access to the videos. Hulu blocks many anonymous proxies and virtual private networks. In addition to NBC, ABC and FOX programs and movies, Hulu carries shows from other networks such as  Current TV, PBS, USA Network, Bravo, FX, NFL Network, Sundance, E!, A&E, and Oxygen. Each supplier receives up to 50-70 percent of advertising revenue resulting from its content.

Now you can easily watch TV on the internet! You don’t have to download from iTunes or create a Netflix account because Hulu TV shows and movies are free and easy to watch.

• What Can I Watch on Hulu TV?: Hulu TV offers full-length movies and tv shows, sports events and short video clips.  You are able to watch current programs, like the latest episode of True Blood, or go back and find old classics.
• How Much Does Hulu Cost?: Hulu TV is free! Most programs begin with “limited commercial interruptions” meaing that every 10 minutes you’ll have to watch a 30 second commercial clip.

Do you watch TV shows or Movies on Hulu.com? If so, do you enjoy this website and find it to be better than NetFlix or iTunes? If you’ve never tried Hulu.com before, you’ll be pleasantly surprised on how many shows you’ll find!

Did you know that you can save money with calls to landlines and mobiles? By using the Skype application on your iPhone you are able to reach your contacts anywhere in the world at great rates when using Skype. You are able to text with “pay as you go credit” or with a subscription and receive unlimited calls to landlines and to even some mobiles in specific countries. Skype’s screens are able to sort contacts alphabetically and enables you to chat online with contacts as well. Skype-to-Skype calling on 3G is free until the end of 2010, after that there’ll be a small monthly free.

As an event planner, Skype can be especially useful for long distance meetings and interviews. It makes it much easier to keep in contact with event partners and those involved with the production of the event. Using video conferencing for meetings can not only be more cost effective than face to face meetings, but can make the brainstorming process move much quicker. This is much better than regular telephone conferencing where you can’t even see a person’s facial expressions. Video chatting makes the process much more personal.

Call and be called on Skype- wherever you go!

How amazing is it that you can make free Skype-to-Skype calls to phones abroad on Wifi or 3G? Skype for Iphone truly delivers Skype experience and now you can video chat from your phone from anywhere in the world which, makes conference calls easier too!

Top 4 Reasons to Love Skype for Iphone:

• Near CD-quality sound for Skype-to-Skype calls using wideband audio on iPhone 3GS or 2nd generation iPod touch and onwards.

• Enhanced call quality indicator, which will help customers choose the best moment to call.

• Improved start-up time

• Rapid access to the dial pad from the home screen

Have you ever used Skype for meetings? The bigger question on our minds, however, is just how big a blow FaceTime on the brand new Iphone 4G will deliver to Skype and other competing VoIP services.

Google TV will make your TV smarter and easier to use! It is television that is combined with internet and works just like a Google search. When you turn on your Google TV, you will be greeted by a search bar. Just type in what you’d like to watch and it will allow you to select and tune that channel. TV is becoming so much more complicated but also easier to use!

• Combines the web with TV
• Combines your TV with your phone
• And runs apps

Here is a short video that explains how Google TV works:

Would you choose Google TV or Apple TV?

We wanted to extend a big thank you to those who supported BoxTone’s INspired Tour and Launch party for the Apple Developers Conference (WWDC) that took place on June 9th at Mezzanine here in SF. ABCey Events was hired to produce and manage this event for BoxTone which showcased a history of Apple Tech including the original working Apple 1 & 2 computers. We created a mod style museum filled with first generation computers and Apple’s current technology, such as the Ipad. The BoxTone community are big fans of Apple tech and wanted to share their excitement by launching and celebrating a new Apple “fan-based” iPhone/iPad application and throwing a big bash. We had over 300 people attend and the party was a huge success! Gift certificates for the Iphone 4G and the IPad were won by a few very lucky attendees.

Below are some pictures that were taken during the event that show the museum style tour of the history of working Apple technology dating back all the way to 1976.

[Show as slideshow]

[View with PicLens]

Thank you for supporting INspired’s Tour & Launch party! We look forward to the WWDC 2011!

“OpenTable is the leading supplier of reservation, table management and guest management software for restaurants. In addition, the company operates www.opentable.com, the world’s most popular website for making restaurant reservations online.” (opentable.com)

Open Table has been around for awhile now but it never seizes to amaze me how convenient this website is, especially when the application came to the Iphone. They have also just joined forces with Yelp to make reservations even easier. This will allow logged-in Yelp users to make a reservation at many restaurants without leaving the site. You won’t need an OpenTable account to take advantage of the system, but if you use the same e-mail address for both accounts, they’ll continue to earn dining reward points on OpenTable, which can add up to credit at certain restaurants.

The App: Being an event planner, this can be extremely useful at times when you need to scout available venues on the fly! This application/website not only finds nearby restaurants but can book your table as well. Calling restaurants and being put on hold is now a thing of the past. It will even give you directions to the restaurant from wherever you are. You are shown only nearby restaurants, and while it doesn’t filter by type of cuisine or refine your search as easily as you can on the website, it’s still very functional. They have also just created a new app for the iPad which will allow a lot more information on one single screen, and is more user friendly than the Iphone app.

For more info on the iPad app, check out OpenTable iPhone App Now Available For iPad [OpenTable Restaurant Reservation App Is Now Available For iPad] » TFTS – Technology, Gadgets & Curiosities

Dining Points: Every time you make a reservation and show up, you receive dining award points. The points can be anywhere from 100-1000 depending on the restaurant and time you chose, and are not awarded for cancellations/no-shows. They can later become a “dinning cheque” which can be used at any OpenTable restaurant world wide.

Have you used the OpenTable app yet?

SF New Tech is San Francisco’s largest and longest running regular tech event and community group and hosts a series of regular events for VCs, journalists, hackers, techies, recruiters, CEOs—and you. It’s for people who want to see the latest and greatest new technology in their own backyard and are currently over 5,000 strong and growing!

Tonight, 6/16, SF New Tech will be throwing a Geo-local Smackdown! The event will be a special evening of live demos and and a panel discussion with the leaders in geo-locational services.

Guests will hear from:

- Brightkite’s Jonathon Linner, CEO
- Where’s Dan Gilmartin, Vice President, Marketing
- Booyah / MyTown’s Conway Chen, Director, Business Development
- DoubleDutch’s Lawrence Coburn, CEO & Co-Founder
- PlacePop’s Kent Lindstrom, CEO.

The panel discussion will be moderated by Perry Tancredi, Quova’s Sr.
Director Product.

The first 150 people get free tacos!

Tickets are still available:
$22.50 for all other (late bird) online tickets
$25.00 cash at the door if not sold out
Buy your tickets here: http://june16sfnewtech-rss.eventbrite.com/

Where:
Mighty
119 Utah Street
(Cross street is 15th. Look for the big black doors!)
San Francisco, 94103
21+ venue.

Schedule:
5:30 pm – Doors & Bar Open
5:30 -7:30 pm – Schmooze and Free Tacos!
7:30 – 9:00 pm – Live Demos
9:00 – 11:00 pm – Schmooze

Instead of waiting in lines outside of designer sample sales, you can now shop from home, work, or on your iphone! If you haven’t heard of Gilt, actually formed in 2007 and over 1.7 million members strong, it is a pioneer in the U.S. and one of the leaders in the very hot e-commerce “deal space” industry.Sample sales have often been defined by inconvenient times and locations, and only a small number of people actually had access to them. Now, this concept is alive online and can be brought to people all across the country.

Really loving the deals on this site so here’s some info we came across that we’d like to share:

Invitation Only Shopping
Gilt Groupe offers access, by invitation only, to Men’s, Women’s, Children’s and Home desired fashion and luxury brands at prices up to 70% off retail. The sales last for 36 hours and present hand selected styles from a single designer.

First Come, First Served
The sales take place on www.gilt.com and the full collection of merchandise will always be available at the start of the sale. It is important for members to log on early before everything is sold out!

Advance Preview
Each brand is introduced a few days before the sale begins. Gilt presents designer bios and show previews of upcoming sales.

Jetsetter:

Invitation-Only Travel Sales
Jetsetter gives members insider access, knowledge, and elite deals on the world’s best vacations. All the hotels featured are hand-selected by Jetsetter, and the sales last five to seven days.

Some Current sales:

Hotel Maya – Long Beach, CA
Hotel Teatro – Denver
Hotel Commonwealth – Boston
Alladale Wilderness Lodge – Scottland
The Pines Lodge – Beaver Creek
Tiamo Resort – The Bahamas
The beach House Inn – Maine

On Monday, Steve Jobs announced the phone that we’ve been waiting to hear about all year: The Iphone 4G! This phone is 10x more impressive than the last Iphone 3G and I can tell you that I am very impressed. I am definitely buying the new Iphone and can’t wait to get it in the palms of my hands, regardless of the long lines!. Enough talk, let’s see what the new Iphone has to offer. It comes with 100 new features, so take a look here at some of the best ones.

Features of the iPhone 4

9.3 mm thick (that’s 24% thinner than the iPhone 3GS)
Front-facing camera
Micro SIM
LED flash for the camera
A second microphone for sound cancellation
Integrated antennas
Glass on the front and the back
326 pixels per inch display
Powered by Apple’s A4 chipset

FaceTime brings video chat to the iphone 4G

This front-facing camera is going to be very useful to make video calling.
Here’s a video to see how this works:

A huge improvement is: A bigger battery. This means the Iphone can last a lot longer than before!!
7 hours of 3G talk time
6 hours of 3G browsing
10 hours of wifi browsing
10 hours of videos
40 hours of music
300 hours in standby

Also,check out the integrated antennas
If you look at the edge of the iPhone 4G, you can see 3 lines that are part of the structure of the device. With the iPhone 4G, Apple introduced something new.

Retina Display makes the iPhone 4G an HD device

Retina Display dramatically increases the pixel density by 4 in the same amount of space.The result is that you get far more precised display.

What do you think of the iPhone 4? I’m personally really excited about FaceTime…Are you impressed?

This is a great opportunity!

On November 9th, 2010 – San Francisco will host the first international social media award show for Communication and marketing professionals, known as The Bees Awards. The Bees Awards will recognize the best social media firms.

“Social media is a growing phenomenon that calls for a new communication and marketing expertise. Contrary to advertising, social media is “real”: it involves real people, real conversations, real products, real companies and real brands. It has nothing to do with something that you create in a board room. David Ogilvy and Bill Bernbach would have loved it and would have jumped in right away!” Bastien Beauchamp, Founder of The Bees Awards.

The Bees Awards Launch from BeesAwards on Vimeo.

The Bees Awards will offer awards to these categories in social media marketing.

BEST 140 CHARACTERS (SMS, TWEET)
BEST USE OF A MICRO-BLOGGING PLATFORM
BEST USE OF A SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM
BEST USE OF MOBILE
BEST RELATIONSHIP WITH BLOGS
BEST CONVERSATION WITH CUSTOMERS
BEST USE OF ALTERNATIVE TOOLS
BEST USE OF MEDIA PRESS ROOM
BEST WRITING
BEST ART DIRECTION
BEST SOCIAL CRM
BEST STUDENT WORK
BEST INNOVATION
BEST CAMPAIGN
AGENCY OF THE YEAR
CLIENT OF THE YEAR

Social media competitors can start entering the event now and the deadline will be October 1, 2010. The nominees will be declared on October 21st. The event will be live-streamed on the internet for free!

For more information

Website: http://www.beesawards.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Bees-Awards/
Twitter: @beesawards

Media relations:
media@beesawards.com