Facebook now has 650 million members who use it regularly. You can’t ignore Facebook as a place to market your business.

I never plug other people’s stuff unless I believe it 100%. Well I believe in Gary Vaynerchuk and his book 200%. Yesterday, in NYC, I got a chance to meet the man himself when he personally signed my copy. If you don’t yet know about Gary or his book, Google it.

“CEO of the decade” and marketing genius Steve Jobs uses neither Twitter or Facebook as part of Apple’s marketing. So, what does that say about Social Media and the need to make it a key part of a marketing plan?

My analogy…

During the Gold Rush, the guy who got really rich with an explosive business was not a prospector. He was the guy who made the pants for the prospectors — Levi Strauss. Steve Jobs is today’s Levi Strauss.

The modern day Levi Strauss.

Listen to John Follis and other top marketing thought leaders discuss the most relevant topics of the day. http://themarketingshow.net

To give you an idea of 500 million, that’s the popuations of the US, Japan and Germany, combined. Watch ABC clip.

According to a new study from Nielsen showing Internet usage in April 2010, 22% of the time, you’re engaging with social media. Also, a few more telling takeaways from the report:

• Currently, three quarters of Internet users worldwide visit a social network or blog when they go online — that’s a 24% increase over last year.
• Joe Average (the international version) spends 66% more time on these sites than he did a year ago — for example, your average user spent 6 hours on these sites in April 2010, while last year he spent 3 hours, 31 minutes.
• Facebook, YouTube and Wikipedia make an appearance among the world’s most popular brands.

See full report at: http://mashable.com/2010/06/15/time-spent-online-nielse