What a change, hu? Today,
social media is marketing/advertising 101 – but no one can deny it is a
challenge to maintain the brand image and engage the customer.
In December 2012, Nielsen put out fabulous a report called The State of the Media: Social Media Report. Here are some interesting stats from the report.
These stats compare 2011 to 2012:
- Mobile usage is up and PC usage is down:
- Mobile Web access increased by 82%
- Mobile App access increased by 85%
- PC access decreased by 4%
- Facebook still dominates as the most accessed social media site regardless of means of access (PC vs. mobile); however, others are catching up
- 41% of people connect while watching TV and 33% of people Tweet about the TV programs they watch
- 47% of people use social media to comment, complain, inquire about products or brands and 1 in 3 people prefer this means of business contact over the telephone
- While 33% of people HATE social media advertising, 26% of people are willing to pay attention to ads posted by friends
- The funniest stat is by far WHERE people connect: 32% log in to their fav social network in the bathroom. We are a multitasking civilization!
So beside the fact that people love to access social media while on the
toilet, what does this mean?
I don’t think that any of this is too much of a surprise but I want to
share one more interesting thing – a conversation I had recently with a few teenagers.
I don’t recall how the conversation started, but I asked something about Facebook.
The reply I got was a surprise to a dinosaur like me (kidding). They said “No one uses
that anymore, it’s old”.
After some additional inquiry I find that amid the teen crowd – the new
pop sites are: Twitter, Instagram, Ask.FM, and Tumblr. When I asked why these
sites were better, they all agreed that these media allowed for better
information exchange, more back-and-forth interaction. They said that people
only post comments on Facebook, never questions and replies to comments are
empty, meaningless chatter. They described Facebook as an ‘about me’ page – not
a place to talk. Further, with regard to business Facebook pages and celebrity
pages, there is little interaction and pages are rarely updated. Very interesting!
I firmly believe that if a business wants to stay ahead of the curve,
it needs to listen to the opinions of the younger generation. They strongly
influence their parents buying decisions and they are the next buyers. This is
priceless information.
In follow up, I researched these sites a little more. While Twitter is
nothing new to me, I have never used Instagram, Tumblr or Ask.FM. I can’t say I was overly
impressed by Instagram or Tumblr, they seem a little copycat to me (but then others like then –
so it they're worth some attention). Ask.FM, however, has some serious potential!
Ask.FM is a site where people can ask questions and get answers. The
concept is not rocket science, but it is highly engaging! Can you imagine the
traditional marketing driven webinar being replaced by an engaging QA session? real-time
‘RFP’ answers? While I am still new to Ask.FM and don’t yet know all the
ins-and –outs, it seems like this is a great opportunity to engage customers
and prospects while having more control over your brand image.
If you aren't familiar, check out Ask.FM. I think that we will be
seeing a rise in the popularity of this site in 2013.
