Pinoy Blogfest 2.0 : Advocates Social Media for Social Good

Pinoy Blogfest 2.0

With Filipinos once again acknowledged as among the most active social media users — via FaceBook, Twitter, Multiply, Tumblr, Flickr, YouTube, etc. — Filipino bloggers are challenged to explore the potential of social media as a transformative force in Philippine society. “Social media as an agent for change” will be the theme of Pinoy_Blogfest 2.0, happening on Friday, 05 August 2011, at the TriNoma Activity Center in Quezon City.

Leading the discussion will be prominent social media activists Usec. Manuel (Manolo) L. Quezon III and Ms. Gang Badoy, who will share their thoughts on these two basic questions: How can we harness the power of social media for the social good? Can bloggers become positive change agents through social networking?

Both Usec. Quezon and Ms. Badoy will be the main speakers during the Blogger’s BIO (By Invitation Only) programme, scheduled from 7:00 to 10:00 pm as the culminating activity of Pinoy_Blogfest 2.0 on Friday, 05 August 2011.

Manolo Quezon is a popular essayist and blogger, who is currently an undersecretary of the Presidential Communications and Strategic Planning Office. Prior to this, he hosted The Explainer and The Explainer Dialogues on ANC cable news channel. He also headed the Speaker’s Bureau and was a columnist and editorial writer for the Philippine Daily Inquirer, and was the assistant managing editor for the Philippine Free Press weekly news magazine. Usec. Quezon has received various awards for his professional work, including being named “Opinion Writer of the Year” in 1994 and 2005 by the Rotary Club of Manila’s Journalism Awards, one of the oldest journalism awards in the country. He also won the 1st Prize for the Essay in English for the Carlos Palance Memorial Awards for Literature in 1997.

Ms. Gang Badoy is a media practitioner and alternative educator. A product of the Assumption San Lorenzo High School, UP Diliman and the Indianapolis-Purdue University, she worked first for ABS-CBN in San Francisco and became news desk editor for NBC’s Eyewitness News. In 1999, she accepted a post with the Diocese of San Jose, California, and worked closely with Catholic Relief Services. She came home to the Philippines in mid-2003 and joined Jesuit Communications (JesCom) and spearheaded workshops on “Media and Ministry” for the East Asian Pastoral Institute. Primarily a writer, Ms. Badoy founded Rock Ed Philippines, an alternative education volunteer group that works for a more interesting way of presenting socio-civic issues to the youth. She also devotes time to giving media literacy lectures in campuses all over the Philippines, and is a staunch volunteerism advocate. Ms. Badoy was awarded as one of the Ten Outstanding Women in the Nation’s Service (TOWNS) and Ten Outstanding Young Men (TOYM) for 2010.

Pinoy_Blogfest 2.0 is a whole-day event, with several Social Activities targeted at various audiences. These are open to the public, as follows: 10:30 am to 12:oo nn – The New Workplace; 01:00 pm to 02:30 pm – It’s A Digital Life; 02:30 pm to 04:00 pm – Photography; 04:00 pm to 05:30 pm – Healthy Living. With expert resource persons for each of these social activities, the public will surely find the sessions both educational and entertaining. On-site registration will give the audience a chance to win raffle prizes and other give-aways.

Pinoy_Blogfest 2.0 is organized by GADGETS Magazine, with the support of The Coca-Cola Export Corporation, Teletech, Canon, Globe, Pony, Neo, Asus, Western Digital, Archos,
BenQ, JBL, Sennheiser, Manila Bulletin, Business Mirror, and TriNoma.

StumbleUpon Surpasses Facebook, Takes Over Number One “Social Sharing” Spot

How did StumbleUpon Surpasses Facebook as the No. 1 source for social media traffic in the U.S.?

Facebook allow user to “Like” and “Recommend” accross the web with more than 750 million users which is a huge advantage versus 15 million registered users for StumbleUpon but with nearly 850 million stumbles each month.

Facebook use to generate close to 70% of traffic based on social sharing that number has falling below 40% . On January 1st StumbleUpon accounted for about 43% of the U.S. social media traffic , while Facebook accounted for about 38%. According to the latest numbers by StatCounter StumbleUpon may be small compared to sites like Facebook but it sends the most social media traffic around the web.

Traffic Generation Difference Between Facebook and StumbleUpon

-While Facebook is a tremendous traffic generation tool, it requires time and creation of relationships, ie more “likes” to a website’s page or more shares by visitors.

-StumbleUpon is different. A new site has a chance to “go viral” very quickly if the right mix of natural thumbs up come in.

Here’s a look at social sharing stats from the US:

StatCounter racked up total shares on various networks and found that while Facebook use to generate close to 70% of traffic based on social sharing that number has falling below 40% while StumbleUpon accounts for nearly half of all social shared links. To get more in-depth comparison visit: http://gs.statcounter.com/#social_media-US-monthly-201001-201101

StumbleUpon may send out lot of traffic for other websites, however it doesn't mean that it gets a lot of traffic for its own. Still Facebook is the most visited website accross the world.

Among social media sites tracked in this segment by StatCounter include MySpace, YouTube, Twitter, Reddit, and Digg. StumbleUpon and Facebook are way ahead of the other 5.