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"Social media's ever-growing presence can be seen across the world. Last week we hosted Google+ Hangouts to discuss the state of social media in both Asia and Latin America. Now we're turning to Europe.  \nEuropeans are becoming more socially minded everyday. An estimated 61.3% of the European population uses the Internet, according to Internet World Stats. Germany tops that list with more than 67 million Internet users (82.7% of the country's population), closely followed by Russia with about 61 million Internet users, a little under half of the country's population. Although it has fewer Internet users than heavily populated Germany and Russia, Iceland has the highest level of Internet penetration, with 97.8% of its population on the Internet.\nOverall, Europe has 223 million Facebook subscribers, the largest number of Facebook subscribers in the world, according to Internet World Stats. Awareness of Facebook is close to 100% among European Internet users, although Facebook isn't the only network this Internet savvy continent is on.\nEuropeans actively use Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Badoo and Odnoklassniki among other social networking services.\n\nSEE ALSO: Facebook Dominates Global Social Network Traffic\nSecond only to Asia, Europe is a growing digital market, and residents continue to embrace new social media tools, networks and technologies, according to the comScore 2010 Europe Digital Year in Review. \nHow might Europe be using social media differently than we do in the U.S.? What kinds of trends are emerging? What's next for social media in Europe? \nToday we\u2019ll try to answer these questions and more in a Google+ hangout with some of Europe's social media thought leaders. Join us at 8:30 A.M. EST as we chat about social media in advance of Mashable\u2018s worldwide Social Media Day celebration on June 30.\nHere\u2019s who you can expect to hear from in today\u2019s Hangout:\n\nEvgeni Makarov is the cofounder of Cloudbus and DrivePixels, a web/mobile development studio. He is the co-organizer of Social Media Day Nizhny Novgorod in Russia.\n\t\nEileen Dolidh Young is a web developer with Kenkai Projects Ltd based in Falkirk, Scotland. Young is an active social media user and helped organize Social Media Day in Scotland.\nRead on to learn more about Social Media Day and find a Meetup near you. Let us know in the comments what social media looks like where you live.\n\r\nWays You Can Participate\n\nSign up to attend or organize your own event on the Mashable Meetup Everywhere  page.\nUse the #smday hashtag on Twitter, Instagram, Google+ and any other social network of your choice.\nFind your Mashable Meetup community:\n\n\n\nHow Are You Celebrating?\nWhether you've had your event planned for months or are now inspired to get one started, we want to know: What are your plans for Social Media Day 2012? Share with us in the comments how you'll be recognizing the connected generation come June 30th. We look forward to celebrating with you!\nSocial Media Day 2012 Is Presented By Motorola Mobility\nThumbnail image courtesy gingerbeardman, Flickr.\n"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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