Social Media Archives - Page 3 of 3

on March 16, 2011

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SOCIAL MEDIA USAGE BY THE NUMBERS

I have seen some startling statistics on social media usage recently. I have attended social media seminars full of small business owners palpably energized by hearing about the cascade of potential business in the social media universe. I can see them thinking “Is this as amazing as it sounds?” and/or “How do I do this?”

You may know the old saying, “There are lies, there are damned lies, and then there are statistics”. It is also true that statistics can be manipulated to say almost anything. However, the beauty of social media is that there are a lot of third party measures available to mitigate the filters of proprietary statistical analysis. In other words – you can believe the hype.

Here are the highlights:

2 billion people worldwide now have Internet access.
There are over 500 million Facebook users and 200 million Twitter users worldwide.
70 billion minutes per month are spent on Facebook alone! 70 Billion! That is more than all the Google, Yahoo and Microsoft-related websites combined.
More than 70% of online Americans visit blogs, online communities, and social networks regularly. These sites influence the buying choices and preferences of 47% of users.
As you would expect, 20-45 year olds visit blogs, online communities, and social networks the most – at a rate of approximately 80%.
Over 50% of the 45+ crowd are visiting the same sites. This is the fastest growing demographic in the social media universe.
Nearly 4 out of 5 web users visit a social networking site on a monthly basis.
As detailed in the social media guidebook, TwittFaced, social media is not the place that people get away from businesses. According to research by Cone Inc., 93% of Americans believe that companies should be interacting in the social media space.
The same Cone Inc. study found that 85% of respondents think that a company should interact with its customers via social media. While 56% feel a closer rapport with companies using social media and feel better served. The study is now 3 years old and I would expect those rates are now higher.
From 2008 – 2012, the percentage of US companies using social media for marketing is expected to double (from 42% to 88%).
There are over 12 million small-business people on Linked In – roughly 20% of its total user base. The networking opportunities are enormous.

Retrevo, an online electronics retailer, conducted a survey of 1000 online individuals. While some of the results of the survey might seem irrelevant to the business world on first glance, I think these numbers reflect how our behaviors are changing with technology, and the direct impact they will have:

48% of those surveyed check-in on Facebook and Twitter in the middle of the night, or as soon as they wake up in the morning. Most are under 25.
56% of social media users check Facebook at least once a day. 12% use Facebook every couple of hours.
Of the under 25’s, 22% don’t mind being interrupted during a meeting, 49% are OK being interrupted during a meal, 11% don’t mind during sex, and 24% don’t mind interruptions while in the bathroom. For over 25’s, the numbers halve.

These stats make you sit up and ask “How can I make this work for me?” Unfortunately for many small business owners this is like stepping into the void. The unfamiliarity of the social media space for business, the massive initial time commitment, and the lack of knowledge of systems and applications loom large. You can see how the initial excitement easily dissipates into the realities of time and knowledge constraints.

But remember, social media is not a trend or a fad. It is the social component of the ever-quickening evolution of communication technology. It is being integrated into our daily lives at an elemental level.

Social media is not only the future but the NOW of advertising, promotion and customer relationship management. If you have a business, you must find the time, energy and resources to keep pace with the evolution.

There are social media professionals out there who can help you get started and stay the course. But don’t listen to people trying to sell you fairy dust. Building effective social media networks does take time. So let’s get movin’ …

Posted by pbc_admin

on February 03, 2011

in Social Media

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WHO’S AFRAID OF SOCIAL MEDIA?

Judging by last week’s news that there are now 2 billion people worldwide with Internet access and that Facebook has 500 million members, the question, “Who’s afraid of Social Media?”, seems to answer itself.

Of course, there are those who still do not have Internet access, let alone enough food or a roof over their heads, so they don’t know about the social media revolution. There are others who have missed the quantum developments in personal and business digital communication for any number of reasons – age, desire, fear, tradition, etc. There are the neo-Luddites who are opposed for their own spiritual, philosophical or just plain oppositional reasons, just as their predecessors tried to hold back the tide of the industrial revolution.

You may even ask yourself, “If I am happy with my life as it is and I get all the information I need from my trusted sources, why should I spend my valuable time on nefarious activities like, Facebook, Twitter, etc?”

Future generations won’t have the option to ask that question. Even if you get all your information from a newspaper, buy your airline tickets from a travel agent, or find your bargains in the Penny Saver mailer? These will not survive in the long run. You will have to be digital or distant. Then again, the holdouts will probably die out, those left behind will have to catch up and become a part of in the digital universe.

Catching up isn’t too hard – keeping up is the issue. Just try and stay up with the almost daily changes to Facebook, the constellation of new apps, sifting through the ones that were hip yesterday but passé today, or know the latest and best tools with which to advertise or make purchases. It’s a daily dose of overload that can make one feel inept. But if I feel inept at times, perhaps I am not alone? Maybe…

Maybe the digital revolution is the closest we get to democracy. Sure, we don’t control the servers, or have full access to all information. But we do have the opportunity to manipulate, improve and use the system to connect with each other without being filtered. Just ask the protestors in Tunisia and Egypt. Whatever their motivations, whatever the outcomes of the uprisings, these movements came together because of the power of social media.

I heard recently that there are 70 Billion minutes per month spent on Facebook. 70 Billion! That is more than all of the Google, Yahoo and Microsoft-related websites combined.

So it doesn’t matter how much you know or don’t know about this thing called Social Media. Just know that it exists and it’s not going away. More and more, it will be how you find out about most things in the world. If you have a business and you aren’t on Facebook, well, you’re crazy. It really is nothing to be afraid of – and there’s always someone here to help.