This video by Jess3 gives some insight into the sheer size of the internet and the volume of information… neat watch.

JESS3 / The State of The Internet from Jesse Thomas on Vimeo.

There is, to my mind, no reason to need to create any ‘case’ for social media any longer. Profitable companies get it.

As evidence, PR Firm Burston-Marsteller did a survey of Fortune 100 companies. 79% of these companies are using at least one of Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, or a blog.

65% of Fortune 100 companies have Twitter Accounts. In the US, the average Fortune 100 company has 6.6 ‘official’ Twitter accounts.

You can view the stats in a slideshow format

The full PDF report

Facebook released some new growth statistics at a press conference in the UK yesterday.

They took a shot at rival Twitter by pointing out that Farmville, a 3rd party Facebook app, has more active users.

1.4 million photos are uploaded every single second… that’s a lot of photos of teenagers pouting into a mirror.

Moment Factory, a Montreal production house that creates multimedia experiences and the like, has created an interactive LED wall on Rue Sainte-Catherine in Montreal. The wall of 35 000 LED bulbs includes motion tracking sensors and ‘interacts’ with passers by at street level.

Advertisers, take note.

Lately I’ve been putting together some pretty elaborate plans for a couple of different organizations who are not currently active in marketing themselves in social media space, or even online.

This morning I awoke with a realization that sometimes we’re missing the forest for the trees. We spend a lot of time talking about how companies can use tools like Twitter and Youtube and Facebook, but we’re not spending nearly enough time talking about what marketing in 2009 really means.

Tools are just tools, and they’ll all go away. Twitter is great, but it’s only going to be great for a finite amount of time–that’s just how the internet works. It may be great for ten years, or we may wake up tomorrow and realize that a technology has emerged that is a complete game changer. Even Google will eventually be usurped by something bigger and better. That is just how the internet business the world works.

The ‘how’ paradigm of social marketing can change in a matter of weeks and days as people migrate towards more engaging online tools. I may suggest today that a company CEO starts creating content that will build connections with potential future business partners, but if we try to implement some long term 3 year strategy using Facebook and Twitter we’re doomed to failure. Facebook and Twitter may not even exist in 3 years, but I can assure you they won’t look the same as they do now even just months from today.

So what can companies looking to market themselves online do? 2 things. (1) Adopt a culture inside the organization that embraces a “let’s try this” attitude. The only way to adjust to an ever changing internet is to remain open and adaptable all the time. Some initiatives will fail. (2) Engage your customers where they choose. While tools may change, this whole thing called the internet is not going away anytime soon–or more accurately the societal shifts that have already happened since the internet became available to the public are only going to continue evolving.

So stop worrying about tools, and start worrying about fostering a company and culture that is based on adapting to and engaging with your customers.