If you’re managing social media for your business, it might be useful to know about some of the most surprising social
media statistics this year. Here are 10 that might make you rethink the
way you’re approaching social media.
The 45–54 year age bracket is the fastest growing demographic on both Facebook and Google+.
For Facebook, this group has jumped 46%.
For Google+, 56%.
Those are impressive numbers against the prevailing idea that social
media is "just for teenagers." It certainly points to the importance of
having a solid social media strategy if these age brackets fit into your
target demographic. Rethink it: Keep older users in mind when using
social media, particularly on these three platforms. Our age makes a
difference to our taste and interests.
Not only does Facebook have millions of users who don’t access it from a desktop or laptop, but mobile use generates 30% of Facebook’s ad revenue as well. This is a 7% increase from the end of 2012 already. Rethink it: There are probably more users accessing Facebook from mobile devices than you thought. It’s worth considering how your content displays on mobile devices and smaller screens before posting it, particularly if your target market is full of mobile users.
Did you think TV was the best way to reach the masses? Well if you’re after 18–34 year olds in the U.S., you will have more luck reaching them through YouTube. Of course, one video won’t necessarily reach more viewers than a cable network could, but utilizing a platform with such a wide user base makes a lot of sense. Rethink it: If you’ve been putting off adding video to your strategy, now’s the time to give it a go. You could start small with simple five-minute videos explaining what your company does or introducing your team.
LinkedIn, the social network for professionals, continues to grow
every second. From groups to blogs to job listings, this platform is a
rich source of information and conversation for professionals who want
to connect to others in their industry. Rethink it: LinkedIn is definitely worth paying
attention to. In particular, this is a place where you may want to focus
more on new users. Making your group or community a great
source of information and a newbie-friendly space can help you to make
the most out of the growing userbase.
We all knew social media was popular, but this popular? Apparently it is the most common thing we do online. Social media carries more weight than ever. It’s clearly not a fad,
or a phase. It continues to grow as a habit, and new platforms continue
to appear and develop.
Rethink it: Putting time and effort into your social media strategy clearly makes sense in light of these stats. If you weren’t already serious about social media, you might want to give it a bit more of your time now.
Although LinkedIn is gathering new users at a fast rate, the number of active users is lower than most of the biggest social networks around. So more people are signing up, but they’re not participating. This
means you’re probably not going to have as good a response with
participatory content on LinkedIn, like contests or polls, as you might
on Facebook or Twitter. Rethink it: If you’re hoping to get people involved, think about which platforms are best for that.
Only 7% of marketers say they do not use social media for their business.
That means there are lots of people out there getting involved and
managing a social media strategy. It’s becoming more common to include
social media as part of an overall marketing budget or strategy, as
opposed to when it was the outlier that no one wanted to spend time or
money on. Rethink it: If you’re struggling to make your strategy work, or you just want some advice, you don’t have to go it alone.
If 93% of marketers are using social media for business, you can
probably find someone to give you a hand. Plus, there are lots of blogs,
videos and slide decks around to help you out.
It’s pretty clear that mobile is a growing space that we need to pay
attention to. And we’ve all heard the cliché of smartphone owners who
don’t want to let go of their phones, even for five minutes. Well,
apparently that’s not too far from the truth. Rethink it: While you can reach people almost
anytime, since they have their smartphones with them almost always, this
also means you can interrupt pretty much any part of their lives. Don’t forget that having a phone in your pocket all the time isn’t the same as being available all the time.
Blogging is clearly a big focus for marketers who want to take advantage of social media and content marketing. This is great, because blogging for your business has lots of
advantages: you can control your company blog, you can set the tone and
use it to market your product, share company news or provide interesting
information for your customers.
(Of course, not all marketers work at marketing companies, but the
stats are still interesting--how many companies in any industry can
afford to hire--or already have--a full-time blogger?) Rethink it: If you don’t have (or can’t afford) a full-time blogger for your business, be
aware that having a content strategy that requires consistently posting
on your blog will mean a lot of work for your marketing team and/or
other team members in your company to keep up that volume. This
can work, it’s just important to realize how big a task it is to run
with a full-time content strategy without a full-time content creator.
We’ve seen a lot of news about social media companies and privacy. But despite these high-profile cases of security-conscious users pushing back against social networks and web services, Velocity Digital reports that 25% of Facebook users don’t even look at their privacy settings. Rethink it: Assuming that all of your customers are
thinking along the same lines could be a big mistake. Especially if
you’re basing that on what you’ve heard or read in the tech news. Remember that your customers might have very different priorities than what you expect.
Your social media strategy really comes down to what your goals are,
and who your target customers are, but it doesn’t hurt to pay attention
to the trends happening across the web. Hopefully these stats will help
you to identify trends that will affect your strategy and adjust
accordingly.
Above all this, Hyperia Limited provides you with fast speed and unrivaled Internet access to use with whatever social media portal of your choice.
