The Millennial Generation, those aged 18 – 29, are poised to take over the world. There are 1.7 billion of them in the world, 77 million in the US and you need their support.

Luckily, Millennials are willing to go the extra mile for a brand they love, but they do expect a few easy rewards in return.

Aimia released the first part of a study today called “Born This Way: The US Millennial Loyalty Survey.” In it, they compare the attitudes and responses of Millennial consumers to those over 30 (Non-Millennials) in regard to loyalty programs.

Right now, 77% of US Millennials said they participated in a loyalty program, slightly less than their over-30 counterparts. But 78% said they were more likely to choose a brand that had a reward program over one that didn’t.

To quote an old cigarette commercial, you’ve come a long way, baby. As recently as 2009, social media ad revenue barely crossed the $2 billion mark. This year, eMarketer predicts the number will hit $5.54 billion, rising to $9.99 in 2013.

Right now, the US is responsible for most of the spend, but the rest of the world is coming on strong. By 2013, 51% of the ad revenue will come from outside the US.

As you can probably guess, most of the money is going to Facebook, but Twitter is pushing for more and more. eMarketer added LinkedIn to their predictions this year, figuring them for 3% of the ad revenue in 2011. This represents a big jump over the last few years, but eMarketer says that growth spurt is already leveling off.

Let’s keep this one short and sweet.

The chart below was put together by Michael Degusta who blogs at The Understatement. What this shows though is no understatement at all. In fact, it could be one of the most interesting points about social networking you can make. Is it really just for the commoners? Look at how little Google’s own team uses what appears to be a linch pin service for the company moving forward.

What does this say about Google’s commitment to Google+? It’s like the stockbroker who sells a stock to his “clients” all day long then tells his buddies at the bar after work “I wouldn’t buy that piece of junk with your money!”.

Your thoughts?

In an effort to continue to differentiate itself from Facebook, Google+ has turned its attention to giving users more freedom with regard to just how public their posts are. As Facebook keeps moving itself in the direction of Mark Zuckerberg’s “share everything” mantra, Google+ is taking what might be considered the privacy and user rights high road. Here is a video that was embedded in a post (a public one of course) by one of the engineers on this team, Ebby Amirebrahimi, regarding the ability to now lock a post and turn off comments before publishing.

If you’re reading this post, then chances are you use social media to market your business, but what else do you use it for?

A new study by Booz & Company and Buddy Media, shows that social media is coming into its own as a customer service tool, a way of conducting market research and even a way to handle internal communications. It all points to the fact that companies of every size are getting serious about social media and that means more money and resources going to support the cause.

The new study, called “Campaigns to Capabilities: Social Media and Marketing 2011, takes a closer look at the role social media plays in a variety of companies. The results are hardly startling, but interesting nevertheless.