We’ve all heard of Facebook, MySpace, Linked In, and Twitter.  Maybe you have an account on one or the other, or even all four.  You, with millions of other users, are along the ride of being available 24/7 to have friends, family members, and other networks to see your information, profile, and pictures.  Now being able to share posts on your daily life exercises and thoughts, we- as a social networking obsessed world- are now officially spend 82% more time on these sites compared to the amount of time we put just a year earlier.

So much time that some of us are putting in the number of hours equivalent to a full-time job – a full-time job that doesn’t take a break on weekends. If the average person spends around five and a half hours a day, seven days a week, that leads one to a little shy of forty hours. Didn’t think you spent that much time each week, did you?

And it’s not just the United States that is infatuated with social networking. Australia, Switzerland, Brazil, Japan, Italy, Spain, and the entire U.K is shortly behind us. In Fact, the US may have the most people belonging to these groups, but Australians have the lead for times-per-day visits. Around the globe, people are interested in having people follow them and have people interested in what they are doing; all day, everyday.  Are we in a self-obsessed world, or just a world that loves to communicate with each other? With social networking up by 82% from last year, how much longer will it be before all of our time is spent on the computer?

In the recent post by Twitter’s CEO, Evan Williams, he tweets: “Across all metrics that matter, yesterday was Twitter’s highest-usage day ever. (And today will be bigger.)” All well and good, but this raises the question:  why the concern? Why the defiance? Twitter’s doing all right… isn’t it?

Doing a bit of sleuthing, we uncovered the following social media trends over the past year:

Facebook’s number of visits, as perhaps expected, are on an upward trajectory. But Twitter and LinkedIn are a different story: the number of visits are completely flatling.  The website Compete allows comparison between various sites. Go to Compete’s website > click the green “try it for free” link > create a login. Once thats done you can click on the link “compare sites” and fill in the boxes with sites you want to compare statistically. We put in Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, and clicked the one year link to see the data over the past 12 months.  This is what we saw:

What do you think are the reasons for this?  Are LinkedIn and Twitter simply trends that have passed their prime?  And what allows Facebook to be eternally popular – the increase in services, the changing interfaces, or simply the wider market?  Let us know your thoughts!

Sometimes I feel as though we get so caught up in the rapidly growing twitter that we forget about one of the best online networking sites: LinkedIn. It has proven sustainability and is an amazing way to grow your professional network. While not as zippy or hip as twitter, LinkedIn has all the basics you need. I recently read a blog post about what’s going to be the next big thing for online networking and it made me think… what about using the ones that already exist to their fullest potential. In this blog post I will talk about ways I have used LinkedIn… as well as ways that other successful entrepreneurs suggest it be used.

ABCey’s Favorite Things About LinkedIn

140 Characters +
First off, there is something to be said for a sentence or paragraph longer than 140 characters. Don’t get me wrong, twitter is a great way to spread information fast, but two of my favorite things about LinkedIn are the discussion groups and recommendations. The discussion groups allow you to pose questions directly to others in your field and receive answers. You can read other discussion threads for inspiration or connect with those in your area. It leaves endless possibilities. Another thing I love about LinkedIn is the ability to write recommendations. There is nothing that speaks to your character and work ethic more than a recommendation from a past employer. It really allows people to get to know you more than a one line bio.

Search Field
The search field on LinkedIn has really helped me to connect with the exact people I want to connect with. For example, you can search not only by company but by job title, allowing you to quickly find the relevant person in the company to your needs. Unlike a twitter account, CEO’s are on LinkedIn.

Guy Kawasaki’s Favorite Things About LinkedIn
{This is a shortened version of his blog post, which you can find here}

LinkedIn Can Help You:
1. Increase Visibility
2. Improve Connectability
3. Improve your Google PageRank.
4. Enhance your search engine results.
5. Perform blind, “reverse,” and company reference checks.
6. Increase the relevancy of your job search.
7. Make your interview go smoother.
8. Gauge the health of a company.
9. Gauge the health of an industry.
10. Track startups.
11. Ask for advice.

Mashable’s Favorite Things About LinkedIn
{This is a shortened version of an article- find the full version here}
Quick Lookup Look up who you are having that next business meeting with. You’ll be able to break the ice right away.

1. Q&A – Post questions to others in your industry.
2. Recommendations – Have clients or co-workers post recommendations, which future employers and clients can view to gauge your skill and level of trustworthiness.
3. Background checks – Look up potential new hires or freelancers. This should be right up there in an HR manager’s toolbelt.
4. See what your competition is up to
5. Introductions – Use people you already know to help make introductions. It’s a great way to get in the door with a company you need to contact.
6. Open Networking – Go out and become a LION! You are an open networker.