Social media still gets flack for being a "fad" or "pointless" while well over 25,000 people are getting updates from a fictitious, inanimate object and are INTERESTED and ENGAGED. There are countless companies, brands and celebrities that lept to being a household name through social media (Justin Bieber included).
Social Media will evolve, yes but the odds of it just "poof" disappearing are slim to none:
- Over 800 million people have Facebook accounts. (over 200 million of those users are over 35)
- 77% of consumers say that they interact with brands through social media.
- 56% of consumers are more likely to recommend a brand after seeing a post on social media.
- The average consumer spends 3 hours a day on social media sites (yowza).
- There are over 3.5 BILLION articles, images and brands that get shared each week on Facebook alone.
- There are over 100 million active Twitter users.
- Many consumers are adding a new step to their decision making process "validate my decision" which involves seeing what others are saying about you and checking to see if your company has a presence online (social media being one of the key resources for this).
- Interesting content is 92% more likely to get shared (see Beyonce's record breaking pregnancy announcement Tweet rate of over 8 thousand Tweets a second).
- 77% of companies say that they have acquired a customer through Facebook.
- Pinterest was launched in early 2010 and has a current estimated value of over 1.5 billion dollars, this giant really picked up steam in 2012 and is now driving in more traffic than all other social media sites combined for several major retail chains.
- Interestingly, the odds of someone shopping or dining OUT is more likely amongst those that are actively using social media.
Social media is not a fad, it is a mighty tool to reach out to your current and future buyers/fans and keep them coming back for more.
Here is a choice tip for achieving results with social media, if you do not want to run the accounts or update them, assign those functions to an upbeat personable member of your team. Social media is not an activity that should be taken on begrudgingly and does take some time to get rolling.
Engage, interact, be fun, have fun, push the envelope and most of all, realize that this is the wild west of social media and if you play your cards right, your brand/name/product can also become a household name.
If Miley Cyrus' hair can do it, so can you! (Sorry, it's not every day that you can say something that rediculous).
Brought to you by : Amy Hanson, resident retailing blogger for One Step Retail Solutions
