Since the emergence of online and social media there has been a steady decline in the use of traditional media – newspapers, TV, radio. It’s no surprise that this ‘revolution’ has mainly been driven by the younger generation, namely those who have grown up with social – the so called ‘digital natives.’ These new channels have massively gained in importance and have now become trusted sources for various types of information and news among consumers.

A new research of how Generation Y (or millennials, i.e. those aged 14-30) substantiates exactly this shift in social news sources:

• 68% of millennials rely on social media for news, only 33% on newspapers;
• however, millennials place great importance on the accuracy of information and currently 66% are not confident the news they receive is accurate (so brands transparency is crucial!).

What these figures and the ones below in the infographic show is that there has been a fundamental shift in trust in news sources – social media has surpassed traditional media.

To be totally honest with you I cannot wait to graduate! September is quickly approaching and I'll be incredibly happy to finally have a full-time job. I have so far had the study and the practical experience and I must say I do like work life a lot more than being a student. Which is why I am utterly excited about the next few months so that when I came across Arianna Huffington’s commencement speech at Smith College I made sure I got myself a nice cup of tea and sat down to carefully listen to her talk.

I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed her speech! It was so honest and also so, so funny, but it most importantly provided some great advice based on the personal experiences of Arianna Huffington. For those of you who do not know much about her, she is one of the most influential people in media and is best known as the creator of the very successful Huffington Post. Her career is a true inspiration to me because as a foreigner living abroad it gives me hope that I too am going to have a stellar career regardless of my origin.

In her speech Arianna urges us

I am in a desperate need of a real summer – sun, high temperatures, sea and tan. Unfortunately, I currently live in Germany, where the winter this year has been endless! Just last week I was wearing my winter jacket... So, because the reality doesn’t include summer any time soon, I have to dream of it and the campaign below I saw recently certainly facilitated some nice sunny thoughts.

7up came up with a brilliant idea to promote its products in a fun and engaging way. The company created the first ever melting vending machine. Yes, that’s right – melting! For the ice to melt, you need of course hot weather, which is why the stunt took place in Argentina and obviously not Germany.

So, in the middle of a busy square in Buenos Aires

Last week Social Media Examiner published the results of their fifth annual social media marketing report. This year more than 3,000 marketers took part in the study and revealed some interesting facts about their activities and use of social media for marketing purposes as well as their efforts for the future and investment plans. The report basically covers the “who, what, where, when and why” of social media marketing. And there are some truly fascinating findings this year, which I am going to show you below.

Top social media questions marketers want answered:

• 90% of marketers: What social tactics are most effective?
• 88% of marketers: What are the best ways to engage my audience with social media?
• 87% of marketers: How do I measure the return on my social media investment?

Are you addicted to Facebook? Come on, be honest! I think I might be... And I am pretty sure there are thousands, no, millions of other people out there who check their Facebook at least five times a day. Considering that Facebook has more than 1,11 billion active users where the regular member spends close to seven hours a month on the platform and that 67% of all internet users are actually on it, the reality today is quite simple: if your brand is not present on Facebook, then it might as well not exist at all. In the 21st century your company cannot afford not to be on Facebook – it’s just how our always-on, everywhere-available society now ticks.

Lately, I’ve seen plenty of articles talking about how people are getting fed up with Facebook and stop using it. One even said that “Facebook is dead among young people.” Imagine that! I can only say, Facebook is certainly not dead among us, the young people, and is not going to be anytime soon because we have grown up with Facebook, it’s our most beloved communications channel and we are not going to ditch it anytime soon. So, brands, if you are not yet on Facebook, please seriously consider creating a presence there, because we, the young people, are your future customers, employees and leaders – we expect you to be available on social media, otherwise you don’t really exist for us because we can’t find you. (Harsh, I know, but this is becoming the prevailing reality.)

If that’s not convincing you,