Apr 15, 2013

The Importance of Social Media in your Business

Some interesting stats:

To reach 50 million users:

- Radio took 38 years
- TV took 13 years
- Internet took 4 years
-
Facebook took 5 months- Facebook averages 700 000 new members each day
- There are over 250 million blogs on the internet
- There are 250 million tweets per day
- 4 billion YouTube videos played per day
- One hour of video is uploaded every second


Information is being consumed very differently compared to 20 years ago. (Buying a car for example)

Social Media has shifted how businesses interact with their customers as well as each other. 90% or consumers trust peer recommendations opposed to 14% trusting advertisements which is why Social Media is so important for our business.

eMarketing is no longer about websites but about relationships.

Whose job is Social Media? … EVERYONE’S!
Social media is a ‘Hybrid’ of marketing, advertising, public relations, customer service, consumer insight, creative and more and therefore social media must be considered as an initiative for a business, rather than a linear marketing activity.


BLOG?
- A quick and convenient platform for new company information.
- Connecting with your customers/viewers on a personal level (we must write about things that our target audience can relate to)
- Great for encouraging visitors to view your website and inbound links to boost your Google ratings.
- Gets the interest of potential clients which discover your company online
- Feedback is very fast and simple for the viewer.


FACEBOOK? Connecting people personally
- 850 million users (50% log on to Facebook everyday)
- People spend over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook
- Average member has 130 friends (who see their info shared etc)
- More than 30 billion pieces of content shared each month (web links, blog posts, notes, photo albums etc)
- 10 000 new websites integrate Facebook every day
- More than 200 million active users on Facebook mobile


Facebook objectives:
- Creating a community
- Building brand awareness
- Sharing company and industry news
- Educating your audience
- Increasing web traffic
- Getting people to interact with you and your company


Facebook pay-per-click? (Targets a very specific audience i.e. age, gender, location, likes and interests, education and work, connections on Facebook etc)
Marketplace ads can cost as little as R5 per day.


Objectives:
- Increasing likes on a company’s Facebook page
- Increasing traffic to a company website- Building brand awareness
- Selling products or generating leads


TWITTER? Micro-blogging (small bursts of information)
- Over 200 million members
- 1.1 million South African members
- Jan 2012 – 110 million tweets per day = 1200 tweets per second
- Mar 2012 – 250 million tweets per day
- 460 000 new twitter accounts per day
- Jan 2008: twitter employed 8 staff – Mar 2012: twitter employed 400 staff


What to do on twitter:
- Share links relating to your industry (videos, free guides, whitepapers, webinars)
- Comment on topics etc relating to your industry (engage)
- Retweet valuable info and links
- Share important event info (that you are attending)
- Participate in chats #chat #marketing #emailmarketing etc etc
- Ask questions


YOUTUBE? (It’s easier to watch than read)
- Over 4 billion views a day
- 60 hours of video uploaded every minute
- Over 3 billion hours of video watched on YouTube every month
- On twitter, 700 YouTube videos are shared each minute
- On Facebook, 500 years of video are watched each day
- YouTube mobile gets over 100 million views a day


If a picture is worth a thousand words, imagine what a video is worth!
Copyright of Kaleidoscope Advertising & Marketing May, 2012

1 comment:

  1. Social media, like a 1800 Number is a very important communication tool for businesses.

    ReplyDelete