On an absolute basis, Twitter gets more visitors in the United States than anywhere else in the world. But if you handicap it by the amount of people on the web in each country, the United States isn't the biggest, says comScore. Below is Twitter's reach by country. This represents the amount of unique visitors to Twitter.com as a percentage of the countries overall users.

As you can see, Brazil is number one. The U.S. is twelve.

At the Cannes Lions advertising festival yesterday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced plans to increase global brand marketing and advertising on the social network including countries across Europe where Facebook is more established. The move comes in addition to the company’s plans to expand global reach to over 1bn users worldwide.

The development comes as Facebook, which recently overtook Google as most visited website in the US, strives to turn its popularity into profit, with the aim of attracting brand advertisers such as consumer goods companies which have on the whole been less interested in internet advertising than direct-response marketers. Facebook appointed Joanna Shields to the post of VP EMEA earlier this year, who previously as chief executive of Bebo when it was sold to AOL, developed the experience in pitching social networks to advertising and marketing agencies.

Ms Shields told the Financial Times in Cannes more about the planning process behind the move. “Part of the transition we are making is we are much more focused on helping brands build their image and the conversation around Facebook,” Ms Shields plans to build on the phenomenon of TV audiences watching broadcasts while at the same time, chatting about the shows online “To me that is such an amazing opportunity to pursue,” and added. “If I was advertising in a broadcast and knew there was a large percentage of the audience talking with their friends on Facebook, I would take that really seriously.” The company plans to expand its teams in London and across Europe that go direct to agencies and major brands whilst the team in Dublin will take on online work for smaller advertisers. According to the Financial Times, Facebook’s promise to advertisers is a scale and “reach” that rivals big TV audiences, as well as a deep “engagement” with brands over much longer periods than a traditional 30-second TV ad. As reported in this blog earlier this month, Facebook’s vice-president of global sales Mike Murphy said Facebook has more than quadrupled the number of its advertiser clients since the start of 2009, and describes the company as “absolutely core to marketing campaigns”.

Mederma taps ShareThis to deepen consumer engagement

Hitwise, the web analytics firm, has a report out today that claims that social networks now receive more UK Internet visits than search engines.

Which, if the case, would imply that Google should be considerably worried about its future battle with the likes of Facebook and Twitter, as online marketing spend will surely follow Internet foot-through. Or does it? According to Hitwise, during May, social networks accounted for 11.88% of UK Internet visits and search engines accounted for 11.33%, representing the first ever month that social networks have been more popular than search engines in the UK. At this point, it’s worth noting that Google-owned YouTube is lumped into the social networks group – is YouTube really a social network? – so that in itself significantly skews the results. But, nonetheless, social, and in particular Facebook and Twitter, continue in its ascendancy.

Facebook now accounts for 55% of all UK social networking visits, almost three times as many as the next most popular social network, which Hitwise pegs as YouTube. Twitter, on the other hand, is now the third most popular social network in the UK, putting it ahead of Bebo (no surprise) and MySpace, which seems pretty significant considering how popular the Murdoch-owned property once was with Brits.

Robin Goad, Research Director for Hitwise, comments: “although social networks and search engines perform different functions, they both act as gateways to the wider Internet. This data perfectly illustrates the key role that social media now plays in so much online behavior.” But the money isn’t yet following, with Goad noting that “the majority of online marketing spend is currently diverted towards search, and this is likely to remain the case in the short to medium term.” Search remains the “primary source of traffic for most websites”, particularly e-commerce, such as online retail, finance and travel. “Many marketers and brand owners have yet to grasp the full potential of social media marketing, but spending on the channel will increase as more proven success stories emerge.” Success stories, you say.

But can social media marketing really overcome the issue of intent? Too often, ads on YouTube and Facebook work like traditional advertising, forcing themselves onto people and interrupting the conversation or getting in the way of the content. Not only is it an issue of obtrusiveness but that advertising is out of kilter with the user’s self interest. However, when a user searches on Google, there is an intended action at the end of it, which is very often making a purchase or researching one. In which case, the interests of the user and advertiser are perfectly aligned.

Nobody is interrupting anyone. Regardless of today’s report, it’s only once somebody really figures out how to tap into intent on Facebook that Google should be worried.

Very worried.

Once you find time for social media and move from social chatter to using social media for a purpose, you’ll see firsthand how difficult it can be to get noticed.You might be using social media for marketing, campaigning or bringing attention to a worthy cause, but you’ll be battling against every other person who has the same intention or is just there for a fun time.

How do you cut through all the social media noise and get people to notice what you have to say?

Fact is, it’s not always easy.  To help you, here are 10 ways to make your message more likely to get noticed … 

#1: Simplify Your Message

If your message is complex, don't expect it to spread.

Your first job is to edit your message down to the bare essentials. What are the facts? Can you use the most simple language to get your point across? Could it be misinterpreted? This doesn’t necessarily mean you should be super-brief, but it does mean that you can crystallize your ideas and make sure you’re very clear on what the recipient should understand, take away and do.

Develop a hook. Why is this interesting, why should anyone care and what’s different in a beneficial way?

Test your message to make sure it’s understood. A complicated message isn’t going to be fully understood, won’t be remembered, and therefore will certainly not be forwarded or acted on.

#2: Find Your Space

If noise is getting in the way of your message being noticed, don’t add to your problem by choosing the most busy times and locations!

Yes there will be more people who might potentially see your messages at peak times, but you have to weigh that against the fact that there are more competing messages at those times too. The same with venue. If everyone else is competing for attention on a certain site, in a certain group, presenting in a certain way, you need to test to see if an alternative time, location or format is going to work better for you.

#3: Use Appropriate Channels

Following the previous point, where and how you present your message is as important as what you say.

Rather than just stating your facts, perhaps you need to tell a story. Pulling at the heartstrings with a human interest narrative often has more impact than a set of bullet points. It might be that all you need to do is zig when others zag; for example, use short headlines when others are wordy, or a long headline when everyone else is brief. Perhaps others only use text and you can use video. Break out of the mold and find your place to breathe.

#4: Spread Your Message

When you've honed your message, don't be afraid to spread it. Don’t think you have to stick with one medium.  There’s no reason why you can’t go with all of them. Re-purpose your content into whichever packaging is required.

Get it into the hands of colleagues, contacts and friends. These are your seeders and sneezers who will start the viral process.

Tell people you want them to share, email and retweet your message far and wide. Tell them why it’s important and exactly what they need to do.

You need to make it as easy as possible and remove barriers such as opt-ins or logins. Just give them the content and the tools to share it. Make it as easy as one click with an obvious benefit and they’ll do the rest.

#5: Get Help

Ask for help. You can't do this on your own!

Stop thinking solo. You’re not going to be able to get much reach on your own.

Reach out and ask for help. Pitch your message directly to key influencers.

Yes, some will reject you. Some will listen, then not follow through. But it’s a numbers game, and worth the effort.

Don’t make it about you or your mission, make it about them and their audience.

Explain briefly what the hook is and why they should care, tell them how to take the next step and leave it for them to come back to you.

#6: Appeal to Ego

People are most engrossed in their own self-interest, so play into that.

Use “you” and “your.” Make it about them, their needs, goals, wants and desires. Relate it to their own history, situation, reputation and behavior.

#7: Cut the Clutter.

You need to remove anything that doesn’t directly support your message or argument.

Remove fancy phrases, clever wording or embellishments. Use short words and sentences.

#8: Appeal to Primitive Instincts.

Danger grabs attention

Observe the newspapers. They sell sex and fear because that’s what people respond to. We’re hardwired to look out for danger and problems and to follow other base instincts.

If you’re having trouble being heard, try turning your message into a warning, highlight a problem or emphasize the dangers.

#9: Use Keywords.

Another element of our brain programming is to be on the lookout for keywords and phrases that interest us. Rather than using clever headlines, key into the words people are looking for, not just in searches but while scanning down headlines. People are always on the lookout for what interests them, consciously and subconsciously, and when these particular words or phrases pop into view their reticular activating system will say “Hey, look!” If your message is about Apple or the iPhone, mention those words. If you’re talking about Seth Godin or Natalie Portman, use their names.

#10: Stick to One Point.

This whole article builds to one argument. One point. Do the same.

Summary

Getting your message out there is not always about what you say but as much how you say it. Don’t just shovel your messages out into your social media channels. Think carefully about your audience, what they like and react to, and what else is going on within those services and networks.

Most of all… It’s not what you say that matters, but what your readers hear!

It’s your job to keep crafting and honing your message until you get it right. If people don’t “get it,” keep working until they do!

By Chris Garrett

The Google AdWords blog announced new features for Google Ad Planner and AdWords content network today.

The big news is that Google publicly released a list of the top 1,000 sites by unique users as measured by Ad Planner. The list ranks sites based on category, unique visitors, reach and page views. Not only has Google come out with this list, but they are also allowing advertisers to specify that they only want their content ads to show on these top 1,000 sites.

To activate this filter in AdWords, go to your AdWords account and select “non Ad Planner 1000″ within the “category filters” section.

The top list lists facebook.com as the number one ranking site globally with 570,000,000,000 page views and 540,000,000 unique visitors. The list will be updated monthly and does not include adult sites, ad networks, domains that don’t have publicly visible content or don’t load properly, and certain Google sites. Yes, Google removes some of their own sites.

Where does this data come from? Google explains it comes from “aggregated Google Toolbar data from users who have opted in to enhanced features, publisher opt-in anonymous Google Analytics data, opt-in external consumer panel data, and other third-party market research. The data is aggregated over millions of users and powered by computer algorithms.”

The other Ad Planner features released today include a way to export your Google Content Network Placements from Ad Planner to AdWords and you can now create lists within Ad Planner.

For more details, see the Google AdWords Blog.

Facebook has 570 billion pageviews a month, says Google's Doubleclick. 

• That's 8X as many pageviews as the No. 2 site in Google's list of the top 1000 web sites in the world, Yahoo (which has 70 billion).

• It's 15X as many as MSN (39 billion).

• It's 72X as many as Wikipedia (7.9 billion)

Anyone out there still think Facebook is going to go bust?

Anyone still think the recent privacy fracas means anything at all?