Inside Facebook has some interesting numbers on Facebook’s overall users and growth as of late.  What used to be limited to college kids has grown into someething much more and it’s interesting to see how Facebook has evolved and will continue to evolve over the next year or so as it goes through these growing pains.

But seeing this made me think to take another peek at Facebook data for Richmond users.  I do this once in a while more for personal reference than anything but I figure some other people may be interested in the data as well.  All figures come from the Facebook Ad targeting system so they aren’t 100% accurate but do represent a good snapshot for RVA’s Facebook usage.

Total Facebook Users In Virginia: 1,794,480

Facebook Users In Richmond: 193,240

Age
13-17 – 18,620
18-25 – 76,820
26-35 – 50,580
36+ – 43,320

Sex
Male – 77,690
Female – 108,520
Unidentified – 7,080

Education
In High School – 18,780
In College – 31,960

• VCU – 17,300
• University of Richmond – 2,640
• Virginia Union – 80
• Virginia State – 360

College Grad – 22,800

Relationship Status
Single – 50,800
Relationship – 33,500
Engaged – 6,140
Married – 52,300

David All points out that Facebook will now allow you to add your party affiliation on your profile under “Political Views”. This is good for All’s purposes as a business man who is trying to target the Republican Party for clients, and for others who wish to show their pride in their party.  It’s especially good if you’re an advertiser trying to target Republican’s specifically.

But, personally, when talking about “Political Views”, I don’t think party, I think ideology. Granted, this may just be a matter of semantics, but my “Political Views” are more Conservative or Libertarian than they are Republican Party. And my ideology will trump my party if it comes down to the issues.  So I don’t plan on changing to the Republican Party.  Now if they created a new category for “Political Affiliation” that was distinct from “Political Views”, sign me up.

Books that make you dumb.

Being a Facebook friend-whore makes you look insecure!

Having succeeded in curing every political ail in America, MoveOn now will do battle with Facebook.  Spats to follow.  Does MoveOn really care or are they pandering to the 18-25 year old crowd to widen their base?

Embark’s new Facebook application College Planner lets you research colleges and apply to them without ever having to leave Facebook.  From CNet News:

Online applications, I suppose, have been thoroughly destigmatized (back in my day, there was still the concern that an electronic application wouldn’t be taken as seriously as a paper one), but it’s still a bit ironic to be applying to college through a site that’s best known as an addictive procrastination hub.

What really stands out about “social college applications” is that many people I knew (not all, obviously) were fiercely private about where they were applying, especially if the school was a “reach.” Then again, this was before high schoolers were eagerly exposing their souls on MySpace.com profiles, so perhaps privacy is no longer sacred.

AllFaceBook, CNet’s source, has a follow up post about making sure your profile is ready to be snooped at by colleges.  Folks in the workforce have known (or should have known) to do this for years, as more and more employers are turning to Google to help with background checks of prospective applicants.  It wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to expect colleges to start doing the same, finding prospective students’ MySpace and Facebook pages for whatever info they may want to judge a potential student by.