From blogging to Facebook, online social media are growing exponentially in popularity among all age and gender demographics.

Social media such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter allow users to connect with others on their list of contacts, and have been used for business, reconnecting with old classmates, looking up information about potential dates (or exes), and simply remaining connected with friends across the globe.

Instant updates such as the Facebook newsfeed and Twitter's entire format are changing the way information is shared and digested. Users can remain constantly in touch with everyone, finding out the news the instant it happens (or the instant someone shares it), or can turn off these programs and connect only when they want to. News is digested in small sentences rather than lengthy heart-to-heart conversations, making it more manageable, but also potentially bombarding with information overload.

Business contacts remain in touch through social media such as Facebook, or its more professional siblings such as LinkedIn, and other networks.

Blogging is more popular than ever, by all age groups. Recent research has shown that bloggers have a more stable emotional life; apparently sharing ones feelings with The Internet is therapeutic. Bloggers are more than tech geeks and teenagers; now moms, dads, writers, cooks, educators, craftspeople, and train enthusiasts blog about their pursuits. Blogs exist for every interest, and subscribing to read blogs is simpler than ever. Blogs help solidify current networks, allowing friends and family around the world to remain up-to-date on one another's lives, but by being public create another sphere of contacts. Relationships and friendships have started, in a truly virtual way, by one finding the other's blog. New blog friends link to each other, comment on each other's posts, and new friends are made who one may never have a chance to meet in person.

New social media are continually being developed, taking the way we use the internet to share information to new levels. Privacy controls and various ways to customize applications make social online media accessible to everyone, not simply the new generation who has grown up on technology. Social media take our relationships and friendships to different levels, sustaining existing connections and forging new ones.

BNY Mellon's Pershing Advisor Solutions' Study Finds Many Financial Advisors Using Social Media to Drive Growth, Connect with Clients
JERSEY CITY, N.J., July 21 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Pershing Advisor Solutions LLC, a BNY Mellon company, announced today the availability of a new independent study entitled Creating Growth: The Increased Use of Social Media by Independent Advisors, that explores social media usage and general trends among registered investment advisors (RIAs) to support their business development and client management efforts.

Businesses Missing Out on Social Media Opportunities, Siemens Enterprise Communications Study Finds
BOCA RATON, Fla., July 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Companies failing to use social media to reach their customers and employees do so at their own peril, according to a new study on the importance of social media in business and customer communications.

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