As well as obviously investing in promotional products, is your organisation linked as well as it could be with social media platforms?

Facebook has passed the landmark of half a billion global users, and has released fresh statistics about time spent on the site. This announcement means that 7.4% of the estimated 6.79 billion world population is now signed up to the site.

It has taken only five months to add the last 100 million users, while the first 100 million took it almost five years. Since February this year, when Facebook last released statistics on reaching 400 million users, the total time users spend on the site has increased by 40% to 700 billion minutes per month.

This works out as a rise from 20 hours and 50 minutes per month for the average user to 23 hours and 20 minutes per month. The average user is now connected to 80 pages, groups and events, up from 60 pages in the same time period.  Coinciding with the announcement is the launch of the Facebook Stories application, which aims to show the power and reach of Facebook through real life stories.

The NHS rolled out a £25,000 ‘Cocktales’ campaign designed to highlight the dangers of drink to young people specifically in Derbyshire, only to see it taken off YouTube.

The video shows a young woman who urinates in the street, falls over and is then jeered at by a group of passing young men. When I saw this clip, I just presumed it was a fly on the wall documentary about Preston, and didn’t think anything of it. However ‘Bloody Mary’ received 15,000 hits in the eight days it was on YouTube and was also distributed to local media.

Alison Pritchard, from Derbyshire Primary Care Trust said: ‘This video does have a dark humour in it designed to capture the imagination and show what can happen if you overstep the mark on a night out. ‘It has been banned from YouTube because of its content which we realise some people may find controversial. We want people to think about the main messages of safe drinking and use the information to make informed choices on their nights out, particularly around the Christmas period.’

If you’re the kind of person who likes to go out of their way to be offended, just to confirm they will be offended, it can still be viewed at the campaign website. The second instalment tantalizingly involves a man dressed as a turkey, who unfortunately gets run over.

The centre of everyone’s universe, Facebook is set to make a few more changes to its design, even though their tech people have only just finished re-jigging things. These are set to be alterations to their homepage, as well making their search function more important.

However there is no pleasing the general public, as people’s lives were turned upside down, when previous alteration about notifications and the general layout of things came into place. These tweaks have come from screen shots seen on a French technology blog PCinpact.com. However Facebook has not confirmed whether the pages shown by PCinpact are genuine.

Would you like some interesting facts about Facebook? Well you’ll get them anyway; more than 350 million active users, 50% of our active users log on to Facebook in any given day, more than 35 million users update their status each day, more than 55 million status updates posted each day, more than 2.5 billion photos uploaded to the site each month and pages have created more than 5.3 billion fans!

South African brand Savanna Cider is launching its biggest ever UK on-trade promotion, focused around the world of Facebook. The online competition invites drinkers to “Win your own Savanna party” for you and 99 of your closest friends. The quirky alcoholic drink, is marketed along the lines of; “its dry but you can drink it”.

Their Facebook app allows users to enter 100 friends for their preferred party list. This is then circulated virally to encourage more people to enter, with other links on sites like Bebo and Twitter.

The DJ hosted bash, worth £10k will be held at the Big Chill House on Saturday 19th September, in the big smoke. Not only will you get your very own party coordinator (how do you get that job), they’ll also chauffeur drive you and three of your favorite mates from the party.

This refreshing beverage is made from the finest Granny Smith Apples in South Africa and is imported into the UK by Babco. The owners of the drink Distel, are also having a promotion were drinkers collect codes on a lemon shaped neck tag and then input them at www.savannacider.co.uk. The Great Golden Giveaway has been extended for another month, so there are over 45 additional prizes to be won.

Who would have thought car insurance would have made such a viral sensation, especially in the form of a Meer Kat in pyjamas. Price comparison site Comparethemarket.com last weekend unveiled its latest television and viral ad starring billionaire Meer Kat Aleksandr Orlov.

Aleksandr explained: “Despite many fans of previous advert, peoples still making mistake. New ad will let peoples know about my Meer Kat business, not other website, Comparethemarket.com, which is for humans searching for cheap deals on their car insurance.”

Created by creative agency VCCP, the advertisement has been an outstanding success. According to the company the introduction of the Meer Kat character has boosted quote activity on the site by 80%. The popularity of the ads matched with the quirky nature of British humour, has even led to an increased interest in the animals as pets.

I know a good friend of mine has since developed an addiction to Meer Kat Manor, a potentially hilarious programme which follows the trails and tribulations of a group of Meer Kats. Disappointingly none of these Meer Kats seem to have the same entrepreneurial mind set as Aleksandr Orlov, but they are entertaining none the less.

The loveable little Meer Kat man is even on Facebook and YouTube, or you can buy his ring tone if you wish here too.

Remember when I reported news about Hula-Hoops requesting the public to send in videos of their fingers messing around with their favourite crisps on them?

Well they have recently launched their TV add to encourage us to get filming, which features two would be YMCA stars. Helen Warren-Piper, marketing director of Bagged Snacks at UBUK, said: “This new TV advertising campaign, along with the on-pack promotion and Hula Hoops website will drive further consumer engagement with the brand providing retailers with increased sales opportunities.

“Some brands are the keepers of undeniable truths. Hula Hoops is one of those brands — anyone who tells you they can eat a bag without first putting them on their fingers and giving them a wiggle, is a big fat fibber”.

If you have way too much time on your hands - visit their website to see people’s latest efforts and size up your competition.

The clever chaps at The Mugstore have just set up a Flickr account, showing off examples of their printed promotional mugs. These high quality images will act as a  great guide if your in the market for branded mugs, as they will give you a clear idea of what you may be investing it.

Click here to see their latest images of branded mugs they have produced, and of course feel free to get in contact with them if you have any questions. The beauty of having their branded mugs on Flickr, is that you can keep on eye on what client’s they have been working with. Also by looking at examples of their promotional mugs, you may pick up some inspiration about what you want to print yourself.

Just for a laugh they want you to send in images of your mugs and tea cups in random places, in return for a fantastic prize. So if you’ve recently been to the peak of Mount Everest, and boiled some snow for a cup of tea - send it in!

Anyone who has ever used an E-mail, thinks Spammers are as popular as Nick Griffin in a Mosque. No matter how many times you ask me, I will not be tempted to buy Viagra from Singapore (at least not for a few years). Similarly in my business E-mails, I’m not tempted to by ‘best price USB’ from Hong Kong, when Spam E-mails are written in pigeon English.

If you’re a fellow blog writer and are non to impressed by spam mailers, check out http://www.stopforumspam.com, which is a very useful website. The site was created to be used as a central database for known forum spambots – so well done guys. There search facility, which lets you browse I.P addresses particularly useful.

Here is some sound advice from the BBC: Don’t act too fast - some responses might just make matters worse. Here are some golden rules:

• Don’t reply, ever!
• Never buy anything from a spammer. Don’t make spamming worth the effort - plus you’ll get even more spam once they know you’re willing to buy.
• Think twice before forwarding chain-letters or petitions. Mass-mailings like this still constitute spam and the lists of addresses on them are later used by spammers.
• Don’t ‘mail-bomb’ the spammer who seems to have singled you out. The address included in the spam is probably forged or belongs to a mailbox the spammer ignores.

People have been going mad about Twitter, but is it all media hype? ‘Micro-blogging’ still remains in the hands of the few according to Harvard research. Despite the fact that where constantly told the whole world is tweeting about everyone else just 10% of Twitter users generate more than 90% of the content.

Estimates suggest it now has more than 10 million users and is growing faster than any other social network. However, the Harvard team found that more than half of all people using Twitter updated their page less than once every 74 days.

And most people only ever “tweet” once during their lifetime, the researchers found. “Based on the numbers, Twitter is certainly not a service where everyone who has seen it has instantly loved it,” said Bill Heil, a graduate from Harvard Business School who carried out the work.

However one could argue that Twitter is made up of two groups of people. There are individuals who use it to network amongst their friends, or  businesses looking to promote themselves to the masses. If the study removed the organisations looking for promotion, then the results may mirror other social networking sites.

Its unprecedented growth has become the poster child of social networking sites, particularly among media companies, which I think needs to be taken with a pinch of salt. This isn’t to say social networking should be taken lightly by any means. After all if Facebook was country it would be the eighth most populated in the world.

Hoola Hoops are launching a fun new competition, for any would be film directors with too much time on their hands.

Starting today, the popular crisp makers want you all to make a two minute film, with you larking about with Hoola Hoops on your fingers. If you’re interested in winning a family holiday to Hollywood, or just £50, then films can be uploaded via their micro-site.

Helen Warren-Piper, marketing director of bagged snacks at UBUK, says: “Hula Hoops is a well established brand with a loyal following. This new TV advertising campaign, along with the on-pack promotion will drive further consumer participation with the brand and will provide retailers with increased sales opportunities.”

Hoola Hoops are following in the footsteps of Barclaycard, who back in February launched a competition to recreate its waterslide ad via its own dedicated YouTube channel. It probably won’t be the most productive thing you’ll do all day, but have a go knocking some Hoola Hoops around here!