Mashable is reporting that Facebook's COO, Sheryl Sandberg, revealed that Facebook is averaging 45 million status updates from 30 million unique visitors per day. So in the last few weeks, along with this info plus the 5 billionth tweet through Twitter and Linkedin going over the 50 million mark in subscribers. Some outlets have reported stats that say that growth is starting to level off in the social media world but I am not so sure.

it may have leveled off a bit but i think we will see another surge once Google and Bing start mixing in social media updates into their serps.

From a social media research perspective, such wealth of user generated content provides lots of opportunities for Brands and PR agencies to dig through the data and find some "hidden gems" in regards to consumer insights, trends, and competitive intelligence.

I would agree with both of you and I am sure that all of these growth stats are going to start popping up in presentations from social media consultants within 24-48 hours.