As 2013 came to a close, a lot of companies measured all that happened during the year, including what happened in social media. The folks at ShareThis came up with this report, showing the huge growth of Pinterest and the decline of email as a sharing medium.
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Yes, most of us use Google for so many things, but there are two other very strong search engines that are used by millions as well, Bing and Yahoo. We shouldn’t ignore them, In fact, since the competition for the race tot he top is so cutthroat and in the case of Adwords, expensive, advertisers might want to consider Bing and Yahoo as a clever move to bypass the competition. Take a look at this infographic from the folks at Market Domination Media that gives us a number of reasons not to forget other search engines.
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How do we get our share of the over 550 million Twitter users? Learn when to tweet and what to tweet is a big start in increasing engagement rates. The folks at Quicksprout have put together this infographic with some wonderful and useful tips. See you on Twitter.
![w6401[1]](http://www.the.vg/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/w64011.png)
We are of course BIG believers in blogging. We have seen the difference blogging makes in site traffic for those websites who blog occasionally and for those who do it often. What you say is equally as important as just saying it and the folks at WhoIsHostingThis have come up with this great infographic on how to blog better. We hope to integrate some of their suggestions into our blog…what about you?
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People trust peer recommendations far more than they trust advertising. However, what peers do they trust over others? The folks at Social Media Link put together some research in this infographic that shows Facebook far and away outperforms other social media outlets including blogs. What is your business doing on Facebook?
![social-recommendations[1]](http://www.the.vg/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/social-recommendations1.png)
We all have a thing for faces. We all tend to like to see people in most ads instead of just the product. In our business, we have a choice between showing just the frame, or people in eyeglasses and sunglasses. We have to say, we have always seen better results showing people in eye wear than just the glasses by themselves. The folks at Sticky have come up with this infographic showing how much better ads with faces work then those without. Do you put faces in your ads?
![sticky-getseen-infographic[1]](http://www.the.vg/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/sticky-getseen-infographic1-734x3000.jpg)
This may not come as a surprise to married men, but almost half of all women polled recently by Real Simple and The Huffington Post would rather go without sex for a month rather than their smartphones. Of course, most married women would say their smartphones are more interesting, but I digress. Over 3/4 of the respondents said they check their smartphones at least once an hour and almost half keep their smartphones on their nightstands, yet only slightly more than 1/4 of the women polled say they are addicted to their smartphones. What do you think of these findings?
![WomenTechPoll[1]](http://www.the.vg/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/WomenTechPoll1.png)
With the proliferation of so many social media networks, instant messaging, and text messaging, many have predicted the demise of email as a form of communication. Well, it turns out email is alive and well. While it may not be needed as a communication between friends and family, it is a vital part of business communications and of course a very viable and successful tool for marketers to reach customers. Here is an infographic from the folks at Extreme Networks outlining how email is working as we wind down 2013.
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We love Pinterest. It’s one of the social media sites we can spend way too much time with, looking at everything from crafts to recipes, cartoons to tattoos. Anything you can paint, photograph, draw, or describe is perfect for this visually stimulating wall of images. Turns out Pinterest is also one of the best platforms for showcasing products and driving commerce. Here is a great infographic put together by the folks at Apollo Matrix showing some of the strengths of Pinterest and why your business should be on the site.
![pinterest1[1]](http://www.the.vg/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/pinterest11.png)
We grew up when the # symbol was referred to as the pound symbol on our home phones.In the era of social media, it has turned to the hashtag. We think of Twitter as inventing and popularizing the hashtag. It was Twitter users, not the company who pushed the use of the hashtag, and Twitter was adroit enough to latch onto it and capitalize on it. Since then, the hashtag has found it’s way onto Facebook and Google+ as well. Here is an infographic put together by The Huffington Post showing the basics of hastag use and the power of the symbol in today’s social media world.
