Social Media is Growing Fast
We have said it before and we will say it again – marketers avoid or misunderstand social media at their peril. During a recent survey of men in the key age group 18 to 34, 75% said they spend most of their time online versus less than 20% watching TV, according to lifestyle experts askmen.com. Organizations who are sticking to the traditional media giants risk missing the boat completely. It is no longer good enough to stand by and watch for new marketing cycles to emerge before jumping on board. Now, the laid-back marketer risks being left behind completely unless engagement is prompt.
The noted Forrester Research estimates that fully 95% of business decision-makers worldwide have noticed and are interacting with social media to one extent or another. While this is a very impressive finding, it is interesting to refer to Emarketer, whose own research suggests that resistance to social media as a form of marketing comes more from the confusion surrounding its methodology and the difficulties encountered when actually tracking and testing its effectiveness.
Social media seems certain to make a fundamental change in the very way that we go about our daily lives. As mass consumers we will have a much more interactive say in our products and services and will be able to interact with producers and suppliers on a much more constructive basis. We can point to the Twitter pages of companies like JetBlue and Comcast, both of which have established highly interactive, two-way methods of communication between client and company. Some people are amazed to see how these companies are effectively “washing their dirty laundry” in public, by engaging in this form of communication with sometimes irate customers. However, advocates suggest that this will ultimately improve the breed and that client to client interaction can help to enhance the reach of the product or service and create a kind of “social buzz.”
Will we reach a point of saturation, shortly? The meteoric growth of Facebook and Twitter appears to know no bounds, but this entire industry is so volatile that we are yet to be able to see the overall size of the playing field. Facebook usage was up 700% year-on-year during April, according to Nielsen Netview.
Of great interest is the fact that many forward thinking corporate giants are now appointing social media directors and vice presidents to help steer them. Notably, Ford Motor Company chose to center their initial marketing run-out for the new Fiesta model around a social media platform, linking hand picked bloggers with Facebook and Twitter.
Social media allows companies to build prospects and clients rather quickly, capitalize on positive word-of-mouth marketing, move their customer service to a new level and micromanage their customers. Social media seems set to completely rewrite the corporate customer service manual and there are sure to be road bumps ahead as the potential legal implications of this form of “now” communication come up against established, considered channels.
Could your business survive without Social Media?
Matthew Toren
Yeah, social media is great tool. See video on YouTube – “Socal Media Revolution”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVXKI506w-E
I was shoked.
So 75/100 men who compete surveys online…..
How accurate is that as an unbiased representative dataset?
I agree with everything else you say but I think that stats can sometimes weaken the argument they intend to support.
As an owner of a large social media community I think my biggest concern with these numbers is the lack of users at blogengage. I need to find out how to reach all these users to help build our community more and more blog traffic.
Amazing how little people actually watch television now days. I would bet big money if the TV. start working more like a computer that number would once again increase. The problem is televisions is a version of web 1.0 and is read only. Our generation doesn’t like this and have always been for the web 2.0 environment.
The Social Media are an integral part of any online strategy worthy of that name – no matter the size of the business or organization.
It feels good to work in this industry each day becomes a challenge. The social media networks are growing that fast and developing new interactive ways to communicate, frequently amazes me in what will be next.
Social media, no doubt is going to dominate the online marketing market. But it’s likely to have a negative impact on our lives as whole as the dividing line between personal & professional life gets thinner and thinner.
Men spend 70% of their time online….on wives spend 70% of their time telling us to get offline and go watch some reality TV
In today’s competitive world (so called technology world) the ratio of online businesses is rapidly increasing. When it comes to interaction or information so there’s no other tools besides the social media such as facebook, twitter etc. So that’s why I think 75% is good and its keep increasing every year just like the social applications are increasing rapidly.
Social media is most popular marketing strategy for promote products & sites and it’s also use for connect to with friends & business community.