Make Your Own History with Social Media

I hope this won’t end up sounding like one of those “I used to walk three miles in the snow without shoes” kind of stories your dad told you when you were a kid (or possibly still does, even though you’ve now got kids of your own). I recently saw a post by the Royal Pingdom that provided global usage stats for the web for 2010. I was just awestruck by the numbers and had to share them.

According to their data, which was gathered by more than a dozen credible Internet and traditional research sources, there are now over 1.97 billion Internet users worldwide surfing over 255 million websites. I still remember back in 1996 working as part of the initial marketing team for the startup website sportsline.com (now www.CBSSports.com). We used to joke about whether “this whole Internet thing would catch on.” Back then, those of us in the business were sure it would – but certainly we weren’t in the majority.

Sure, there was the whole boom and bust, but hindsight shows us that was simply natural selection at its finest. At the time, we believed we were making history every day with our ideas since there were no textbooks on the “right way” of doing things. It was an environment where the next big idea could come from anyone in the company, no matter your position or work experience.

What’s exciting about these newly reported numbers by Pingdom? The tremendous growth we’re continuing to see in both the social media and video usage spaces. Again, we are dealing with media where there is such a short history that anyone can come across the next big thing. Even kids in a college dorm room can become billionaires and affect the lives of millions.

So, check out the numbers, and don’t be afraid to make your own conclusions and even take a bold move or two. Hindsight might be 20/20, but I’m willing to bet this whole social media thing isn’t going away either.

Have a similar story to tell? Don’t be shy and share it with us!