As Social Media continues to change the face of business, conversations and relationships online, those who are watching keenly should take advantage of the shifting trends. Social media has now become basic for survival of businesses online and second nature for the new media marketer. Erik Qualman of Socialnomics.com has published another great video showcasing various social media statistics as well as their massive effect on how we live and interact daily.

Take a look:

Statistics Highlights:

1. Over 50% of the world’s population is under 30 years old
2. Facebook tops google for weekly traffic in the U.S.
3. 1 in 5 couples meet online
4. Kindergartens are now learning on iPads, not chalkboards
5. If Facebook were a country, it would be the world’s 3rd largest; yet Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Google are not welcome in China
6. A new member joins LinkedIn every second
7. Lady Gaga, Justin Beiber and Britney Spears have more Twitter followers than the entire populations of Sweden, Israel, Greece, Chile, North Korea and Australia
8. 50% of the mobile internet traffic in the UK is for Facebook (Imagine what this means for bad customer experiences)
9. Over 37 Million people watched the VW Darth Vader Super Bowl Ad on YouTube. The child actor had never seen Star Wars
10. The Ford Explorer Launch on Facebook generated more traffic than a Super Bowl Ad
11. Generation Y and Z consider e-mail passé, some universities have stopped distributing e-mail accounts
12. eReaders have surpassed traditional book sales
13. Social gamers will buy $6 Billion in virtual goods by 2013, movie goers buy only $2.5 Billion in real goods
14. YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine in the world
15. If Wikipedia were made into a book, it would be 2.25 Million pages long and would take you over 123 years to read
16. 90% of consumers trust peer recommendations, only 14% trust advertisements
17. 93% of marketers use social media for business
18. The ROI (Return on Investment) of social media is your business will still exist in 5 years