The solver social surfers are on the rise - so states the report from Pew Research this last week who reported that social networking continues to rise among older adults with 11% of online adults being aged 50-64 and 5% of those aged 65 an above commenting that they use social networks.

The report also comments that social networking use among internet users ages 50 and older has nearly doubled from 22% to 42% over the past year.

Should teachers use sites like Facebook to communicate with students?

One Florida school district, Lee County, is the first in the state and possibly the first in the US to introduce a policy to ban teachers from communicating with current students through the social networking sites "regardless of the reason."

Teachers - would you or do you connect with your students through social media? Whose responsibility should it be to determine connections?

Table 1: Top 5 of 15 most visible fashion brands in social media, UK

No.	Brand	Greenlight SMPI	Facebook Post Per Month	Twitter Tweets Per Month
1	asos.com	298,328	50	177
2	newlook.com	168,873	133	222
3	marksandspencer.com	132,815	449	325
4	dorothyperkins.com	39,334	53	107
5	lipsy.co.uk	34,474	494	16

Source: Greenlight

GreenlightSearch.com recently reported in it's ‘Fashion Sector Report' for the UK that womenswear continued to dominate consumer online fashion searches, accounting for 67% of searches.

The report also reveals ASOS was the most followed fashion brand in social media.

If you are marketing online in the UK check out the GreenlightSearch.com website as they have some helpful information about search.

Did you realise that Americans now spend nearly a quarter of their time online on social networking sites and blogs, up from 15.8 percent just a year ago (which is a 43 percent increase) according to new research from The Nielsen Company.

The research revealed that Americans spend a third their online time (36 percent) communicating and networking across social networks, blogs, personal email and instant messaging.

Online video grew by 12 percent from 3.5 to 3.9 percent and in June 2010 the number of videos streamed passed the 10 billion mark (the average American consumer spent 3 hours 15 minutes watching online video that month).

However how they spend their time on the mobile web is different - In a Nielsen survey of mobile web users, there is a double-digit (28 percent) rise in the prevalence of social networking behaviour, but email activity dominates on mobile devices. If all mobile internet time were condensed into an hour, the research indicates that Americans would be spending 25 minutes on E-mail and 6 minutes and 18 seconds on social networks and blogs and only 1 minute and 12 seconds watching videos and movies.

I suspect more people may watch video on their mobile device as there is an increase in smart phones and fast connectivity so that will be interesting to track in the years ahead.

How are you spending your time on your mobile phone? Does this research about how Americans spend their time online reflect your own or your customers habits?

I recently had the opportunity to meet Noelle O Connell of the Trainers Learning Skillnet who shared with me the details of some workshops taking place in October to equip trainers to deliver programmes through elearning.

I've created and delivered programmes through elearning platforms for over 15 years but today the tools are so much more accessible and lower in cost.

In addition, many businesses are much more open to elearning as a way of delivering training and continuous development for their organisation where people are located across the globe and to manage training overheads which are always under pressure especially in times of economic challenge.

Places now available on the Trainers Learning Skillnets programmes in Dublin and Limerick called Web 2.0 E-learning for Trainers.

The programmes are for trainers who wish to use new technology platforms and E-learning tools in their training design, delivery, evaluation and promotion.

This 4 day course has been specifically developed and tailored to the needs of those involved in the design, delivery, evaluation and for the promotion of training courses/materials/content.

The programme will be practical so that you work on their own content as part of the course so that you immediately commence work on converting some of your course material to the online environment during the course time.

Overview of Modules

Module 1 - An overview of Pedagogical Approaches and E-learning Perspectives

Module 2 - Web 2.0 features of the Moodle VLE platform

Module 3 - Authoring Tools

Module 4 - Adapting existing content to Web 2.0

Module 5 - Facilitating communication and e-assessment

Module 6 - Using Social Media Tools for Promotion.

Course Location: Limerick City

Dates: Tuesday 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th September 2010

Course Location: Dublin

Dates: Tuesday 5th, 12th, 19th and 26th October 2010

Course Fees: Trainers' Learning Skillnet member companies: EUR750 per partipants/Non member companies: EUR1000 per participant

Find more details and register your place online.

What do you share online?

Do you comment on blogs? Do you share photos with the family? Do you upload videos?

This is an interesting piece of research published in HBR using data from the Trendstream Global Web Index (a survey of more than 50,000 users of social platforms in 18 markets).

The info graphic shows how people share information differently in different markets across the globe.

The researchers looked at five different types of content we share online:

- blogs
- social networking profiles
- sharing photos
- sharing videos
- microblogging.

The research indicates that those people surveyed in China and India are three times more likely to use a microblog than the American's surveyed and are twice as likely to share videos.

Another great reminder that if we are using social media to reach different markets across the globe we need to understand preferences and platforms.

You can access a large copy of the infographic here.