A recent article from Social Media Today discusses how teenagers are starting to use Facebook less frequently. The average Facebook user has risen from 38 to 41 since 2010 and it seems that while teens are moving away from this social media platform, their moms are signing up. To further that, the number of active Facebook users in the U.S. has decreased by 7.37% in the last 6 months. These findings discovered that teenagers are beginning to prefer their phones and mobile apps over Facebook.
Such demographic numbers should be monitored by marketers so as to ensure correct targeting efforts on this platform. Many marketers assume teenagers are an easy target via Facebook, but recent data is showing this is not the truth. Overall, such statistics are extremely important and they cannot be overlooked.
Thursday, April 25, 2013
Sunday, April 14, 2013
The Facebook Emoticon
Once again, Facebook has a new addition. The new Facebook Emoticon will take users statuses to a new level. Statuses will now ask users to express how they are feeling, what they are doing, eating or drinking using brands tags. While Facebook currently allows users to tag brands in their posts, this new addition will actually "guide" users to use the tagging feature.
This feature allows for less interruptive advertising and has clear implications for businesses. They should begin focusing on how to get users to talk about their brand so the tag will appear in more and more feeds.
Overall, this is just a new tool for marketers to learn more about consumer habits. Hopefully, it will not cause too much interruption for users and will instead be beneficial to everyone involved!
This feature allows for less interruptive advertising and has clear implications for businesses. They should begin focusing on how to get users to talk about their brand so the tag will appear in more and more feeds.
Overall, this is just a new tool for marketers to learn more about consumer habits. Hopefully, it will not cause too much interruption for users and will instead be beneficial to everyone involved!
Sunday, April 7, 2013
2013: The year of the video
An article posted recently on Socialmouths focuses on the growing significance of Youtube and claims that 2013 is "the year of the video." Youtube is often underestimated as a key search engine and social network, but in reality it is the #2 search engine and a valuable social network.
Video should be a part of businesses content strategy for many reasons. Not only is video easier to consume than the written word, but videos appear in Google search. They are also beneficial to humanize your brand while entertaining and educating your audience.
The numbers really say it all. At this time, there are over 800 million monthly unique vistors, over 72 hours of video uploaded per minute, more than 1 million partner program members and over 4 billion hours of video viewed each month. And these numbers are growing, making it critical for brands to see the importance of adding YouTube to their social media strategy.
Video should be a part of businesses content strategy for many reasons. Not only is video easier to consume than the written word, but videos appear in Google search. They are also beneficial to humanize your brand while entertaining and educating your audience.
The numbers really say it all. At this time, there are over 800 million monthly unique vistors, over 72 hours of video uploaded per minute, more than 1 million partner program members and over 4 billion hours of video viewed each month. And these numbers are growing, making it critical for brands to see the importance of adding YouTube to their social media strategy.
The importance of visual content
A recent post on Socialmouths discusses the shift to visual social media. Research shows that consumers are more drawn to visual content than words and there are many ways for brands to capitalize on this idea.
With that said, brands should use visuals to share their message instead of words whenever possible. This can be done using videos, photos, animations and the like but brands should strive to use original content that is emotional and shows a connection to the audience. It is also beneficial to crowdsource visual content by asking fans to create and share their own content. The key, however, is to mix it up by sharing different sources of visual content!
With that said, brands should use visuals to share their message instead of words whenever possible. This can be done using videos, photos, animations and the like but brands should strive to use original content that is emotional and shows a connection to the audience. It is also beneficial to crowdsource visual content by asking fans to create and share their own content. The key, however, is to mix it up by sharing different sources of visual content!
Sunday, March 24, 2013
Facebook's Hashtag
Aaron Charlie's recent article on Social Media Today titled, "How Facebook Hashtags Will Affect Advertisers," discusses Facebook's newest addition to their site: the hashtag.
This new element to Facebook will most certainly have huge implications for advertisers. Using hashtags on Facebook, companies will now be able to promote happenings that will appear on users newsfeeds. This differs from the current system from paid promotion because clicking the hashtag will reveal anyone using it in conversation, providing businesses with a great tracking measure. The best part for brands is that they will be able to tap into a new market of consumers who may not like the brand or have friends that do.
With that said, businesses need to be aware that these promoted posts could lead users to become annoyed so planning and managing will be key to avoid a negative response. However, this holds true with any type of advertising on Facebook and such measures should always be considered.
This new element to Facebook will most certainly have huge implications for advertisers. Using hashtags on Facebook, companies will now be able to promote happenings that will appear on users newsfeeds. This differs from the current system from paid promotion because clicking the hashtag will reveal anyone using it in conversation, providing businesses with a great tracking measure. The best part for brands is that they will be able to tap into a new market of consumers who may not like the brand or have friends that do.
With that said, businesses need to be aware that these promoted posts could lead users to become annoyed so planning and managing will be key to avoid a negative response. However, this holds true with any type of advertising on Facebook and such measures should always be considered.
Thursday, February 28, 2013
In a recent blog post titled, "Humanize Your Business for Success in the Digital Age," Kaleef Lloyd speaks of the importance of brands engaging with their audience through social media. In order to best do this, he suggests throwing away the business speak and instead communicating to them on a person to person level. According to Lloyd, humanizing your company and engaging consumers is something that should be a top priority for businesses.
Companies can begin to humanize their brand by creating a social culture. By encouraging employees to utilize their social media throughout their day, they become brand influencers and grow a following that ultimately leads to increased business success.
Next, it is extremely important to focus on the customers and always reply to their posts and comments in a timely manner. This will certainly help show the human side of a brand. To go along with this, consumer relationships should be the goal of all interactions. When relationships are formed, consumers will help build your brand by becoming ambassadors.
When customers feel a brand truly cares about them, they are much more likely to respond positively. This is why engagement is so critical when brands use social media. However, this is not something that should be too difficult to do because at the end of the day, everyone behind the various social media channels is human and therefore knows how to act like one.
Companies can begin to humanize their brand by creating a social culture. By encouraging employees to utilize their social media throughout their day, they become brand influencers and grow a following that ultimately leads to increased business success.
Next, it is extremely important to focus on the customers and always reply to their posts and comments in a timely manner. This will certainly help show the human side of a brand. To go along with this, consumer relationships should be the goal of all interactions. When relationships are formed, consumers will help build your brand by becoming ambassadors.
When customers feel a brand truly cares about them, they are much more likely to respond positively. This is why engagement is so critical when brands use social media. However, this is not something that should be too difficult to do because at the end of the day, everyone behind the various social media channels is human and therefore knows how to act like one.
Monday, February 18, 2013
Will New Twitter Filter Hurt Small Businesses?
Samantha Rupert recently posted an article on Social Media Today that discusses Twitter's new filter that will take effect on February 20th. Twitter will now sort tweets based on its' value and those of more importance will be placed higher in feeds. While it has not been revealed as to how tweets will be ranked, it will most likely take into account the number of followers of a given brand. This will greatly change the nature of Twitter and wil have many implications especially for small businesses who do not have a large following.
The new addition will change how small businesses use Twitter because their content will no longer be marketed to an endless pool of consumers. Instead, they will have to change their strategy in order to keep their followers engaged.
Unlike before, users will see a lot more advertising from large brands. Hopefully this change will not take away the appeal of Twitter because it has worked as a great tool for marketers of all sorts of brands. While I understand Twitter's desire to make more money, I hope that small and large businesses alike will continue to be able to reap the benefits from the marketing side.
The new addition will change how small businesses use Twitter because their content will no longer be marketed to an endless pool of consumers. Instead, they will have to change their strategy in order to keep their followers engaged.
Unlike before, users will see a lot more advertising from large brands. Hopefully this change will not take away the appeal of Twitter because it has worked as a great tool for marketers of all sorts of brands. While I understand Twitter's desire to make more money, I hope that small and large businesses alike will continue to be able to reap the benefits from the marketing side.
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