Naysayers who pronounced that social media is nothing more than a fad may have to think twice. Universal McCann released a report on social media trends based on their worldwide survey. This is the third wave of this ongoing study of active Internet users (those who go online everyday or every other day), and the results show that from the first survey in 2006 to the latest one earlier this year, key markers have gone up across the board.

Video. It’s the fastest-growing social media platform. Asked if they’ve ever watched clips online, 82.9% responded with a “yes”, in contrast with the first survey in 2006 when it was only 31%. The current figure translates to roughly 394 million pairs of eyes – a huge market by any standards. Curiously, people are also shedding their passive restraints. From just over 20% last year, 38.5% of users have now uploaded clips on video-sharing sites.

Blogs. Second only to videos in terms of reach, 72.8% of active Internet users read blogs, personal and otherwise. That’s 346 million readers, and 21% of them said they visit blogs every single day. In terms of content generation, 184 million readers said they also write on their own blogs. That’s 38.7% of the population, in comparison to last year when it was a little over 30%. Another form of blogging content generation is leaving comments, and this year 54.8% of those surveyed said they’ve done so – much better than last year’s 43%.

Photos. Sites where users can share their pictures also gained in their popularity. A good 63.2% revealed that they’ve visited one or more of these sites, up from around 53% in 2007. Among different media (video, text, audio, images), users seem to be most eager to share photos with 52.2% having uploaded their snapshots online.

Social Networks. One of the most closely followed platforms right now, 57.3% of active users indicated that they’ve created a profile on a social network. This is a big jump from the 36% gathered from the year before. The global picture isn’t a two-prong battle of MySpace and Facebook, but a much more segmented regional market.

It’s clear from all this data that people are becoming engaged in online discussions and letting their voices heard. All over the world, the trend is towards participation, from places like the Philippines, to India, to the Netherlands, to the US. The next generation will grow up differently from all of us, who were raised in one-way consumption of the TV, radio, movies and newspapers. Doubtless, this emerging powerful media has a huge potential for businesses. However, they have to adapt and do it quickly to capitalize on this trend, or they may very well go the way of the dodo.

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1. Link Bait – The content on your site should be stuff that’s interesting and/or useful, the type that other people would want to link to and share with their friends. There are many ways to do this: having a blog on your site, offering free white papers, gathering breaking news, how-to articles, pictures, videos, statistics, and collections of multiple resources and tools.

2. Others First Policy – A common mistake rookies commit (including myself when I was starting out), is that they submit their own content to social media sites exclusively, right from the start. That’s a no-no. Build your reputation first as a source of great sites within the communities of these sites. Digg or Stumble other people’s content. Only when you get yourself a sizeable following should you start submitting your own.

3. Presentation – Now when you send other people to your site, make sure they’ll like what they see. Great content badly presented will not be terribly effective, negating all your hard work. So, make sure your ads, if any, don’t clutter up your pages. Check for the site design’s compatibility to major browsers and screen sizes. Add life to your pages by including relevant images. To make reading easier for your visitors, break the content down to sections and highlight the titles.

4. Buttons – All the popular social bookmarking sites have their own little buttons you could put at either the top or bottom of your post. If you’re using Wordpress or some other CMS, make them part of your template.

5. Discuss – Social media sites have their own groups and forums. Try to join the discussions on topics related to your site. If there are questions you can answer, by all means offer your take on things. This helps to boost your ranking among the community. In forums that permit it, you can put a link to your site on your signature.

6. Reciprocate – If someone Diggs your article or posts it on a forum, write a thank you note to that person. If he or she has a blog, try to see if you like any of the entries and return the favor. You can also ask if this person wants to exchange links, which is mutually beneficial for climbing the search engine rankings.

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How do you become a power user?

1. Observe. Choose your preferred social bookmarking site and particular niche, then subscribe to it. The more specific the category, the better. Get a feel for the trends. Know what works and what doesn’t.

2. Keep ahead. Also, subscribe to the top blogs or sites related to your niche. Your RSS reader should have at least 20 of those. Some of these are probably among the most dugg sites already.

3. Branding. Join the site using a short catchy username, and an equally memorable avatar.

4. Get personal. Go to the Upcoming section and try to digg the ones you think will make it to the top. More importantly, be the first one to add comment of support. Add them as friend and check their profiles constantly to digg their other submissions. If you do this, they’ll most likely return the favor.

5. Test. Once you’ve accumulated about 50 friends or so, start digging posts from your own blog, one at a time. Don’t spam or you’ll get banned. Only your best posts should be dugg. See how much diggs you can get automatically, and how close you can get to Digg’s homepage. You might need to ask a little help from your friends first so that they know about your site. If you fall short of the number of diggs needed, just go back to #4 and expand your network. Remember, it’s all about being social.

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There are, however, some pointers you can follow, and if lady luck should smile upon you, your content may just spread like wildfire. So before you click that “Publish” button, check if you have done your due diligence on the following:

Quality
Content will not go viral if it isn’t special. Your topic should be unique, and your grammar near flawless. If it has pictures or videos included, a bit of polishing may be in order. Also, make sure you do thorough research on the subject, which should be relevant to your niche.

Quantity
Lists are some of the perennial fixtures in the viral content sphere. It’s been proven that people love “Top 10” and “Best of” listings. If you can extend that to “Top 100”, better - as long as you don’t sacrifice the overall quality of the article, of course.

Originality
With the sheer volume of content flying around, you’ve got be quite unusual to get noticed. Either that, or you’re the first to announce something huge that will blow people away. The point is, viral content must be something that jolts people and makes them go, “OMG!”

Controversy
It’s true what they say: “Bad publicity is still publicity.” Don’t be afraid to publish unpopular opinions. Debate and controversy make people engaged in a discussion. If they get emotionally invested in your story, they’ll be more likely to tell other people about it.

Study
Learn what other people are doing. Go to Digg, Delicious, Stumble Upon, and all the other leading social bookmarking sites. Find out what’s hot and analyze what makes them click. Get some tips on how to write a proper viral headline, and see if there’s a common denominator in terms of writing styles.

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