Should my business use social networks?

Fort Worth Business Press:

If you’ve watched a newscast…you’ve probably heard references to Facebook or Twitter. Social media has received a lot of coverage lately. Many business owners are asking,  “Does my company need to be using social media?”  Before we answer that question, let’s examine exactly what social media is.

Simply put, social media is people having conversations online. That’s it. This happens on thousands of sites every day. People talk about everything from environmental issues to what they ate for lunch. At first glance, it can seem overwhelming, but it can actually add tremendous value to your business and provide a hefty return on investment.

Read the entire article

US Military Using Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube

According to a recent NPR article, the US Forces have begun to embrace social media and social networks.  For example, their Twitter page has been used to announce non-combat related deaths and news.  Their Facebook page has a similar purpose, but is also used by friends and family to send messages to their loved ones serving in Afghanistan.

British Taxi Dispatcher Uses Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube to Generate Buzz

NBC has an interesting article about how a taxi dispatcher used social networks like Facebook and YouTube to generate buzz for a movie he had reportedly made for $70.

Also interesting from the article was Iran’s decision to block websites like Facebook, due to the democratic nature of social networks in the midst of the country’s upcoming elections.  God bless America.

Social Networks Demographics

Social Network demographics can be very useful for individuals and businesses that are looking into where to focus their efforts.

MySpace

Although MySpace was not the original social network, I do give it credit for helping make social networks mainstream.

According to OperationRedState, as of May 2009, MySpace had an estimated 64 Million users.  That number is difficult to ignore.

Furthermore, 14% of the users are Hispanic - which I thought was interesting.

Facebook

In January of 2009, Facebook announced that it had exceeded 150 million users worldwide.

Almost 50% of Facebook’s users are in the 18 - 34 age bracket, although the ages that are showing the largest growth is the baby boomers.  For example, as of August 2009, people 55 years of age and older accounted for 25% of Facebook’s growth.

As of October of 2009, Facebook has 300 million users.

YouTube

YouTube gets 81 million views a month in the US alone.  The demographics of YouTube users were surprising similar to that of Facebook.  However, I haven’t heard any reports of a growing number of baby boomer users like Facebook.

An interesting fact about YouTube was that almost 50% of the website’s users did not have a college education, but high schoolers only made up about 20% of that.

Twitter

Twitter has probably seen the fastest amount of growth.  Between March and May, it was reported that Twitter doubled its users, reaching 23 million users.  Also, Twitter’s users seem to be evenly split between household income brackets.

“$0 to 30k : 22%, 30 to 60k : 28%, 60 to 100k : 23%, 100k+ : 27%”

Final Thoughts

The most interesting thing I found about social network demographics is that every site is almost split 50/50 between male and female users.

Another thing that I haven’t been able to wrap my head around yet, is that even though most social networks had a thriving population of users between the ages 18 and 34, most of the websites have not been profitable.  This seems nonsensical since that age range is typically a marketers ideal demographic.  I’m sure with Twitter’s recent 1 Billion dollar valuation and with Facebook finally earning a profit, that we are well on our way to learning how to monetize social networks.

New Zealand Tweets more than United States

According to Scoop.co.nz and Stuff.co.nz, New Zealand uses Twitter more than the United States.  This is surprising, considering how popular Twitter has gotten with businesses and the general public over the past 12 to 18 months.

From the articles:

“…the rising use of Twitter is in line with New Zealand’s growing acceptance of social media as an every day means of communicating both socially, and increasingly, for business reasons too.”

Maybe the United States will increase its use of social media when older people finally realize that social networks are here to stay.

“survey of 1000 New Zealanders aged between 15 and 65 showed 58 percent use Facebook, 18 percent use Bebo, 7 percent use MySpace and 3 percent use LinkedIn. And 88 percent said blogs, streaming video, podcasting and social platforms were here to stay.

The survey also found 83 percent of people used online banking to check balances or pay bills while 72 percent regularly shopped online.”

This just goes to show that social networks are becoming almost as mainstream as shopping online and internet banking.

How to Promote your Business on Social Networks

The Jim MacMillan, Pulitzer Prize Winner, Story

Over the past 2 years Jim MacMillan, a Pulitzer Prize Winning photojournalist, has gained quite a following by blogging, sharing his photos, and using social networks such as Twitter.  In that short amount of time, he has gained over 14,000 followers on Twitter and stays connected with almost 500 people on Facebook.

This type of marketing is amazing considering the organic nature of what Jim has done compared with how much money businesses are spending on social networks.  For instance,

MediaPost reported that businesses spent $2.2 billion on social-networking in 2008, nearly twice as much as they did in 2007, primarily through advertising on popular sites like MySpace and Facebook.

The reason for the shift in organic marketing is probably due to:

…entertainment used to be watching TV or buying movie tickets…That shift is a desire to connect with the artist and to support [him or her] directly.

By being connected with the brand personally, consumers often become evangilists for the brand, just like friends and family members support each other.  With over 200 million users on a social network, the numbers add up quickly and reciprocation can be amazing.

Read Jim’s Full Story at Knowledge@Wharton

Social Networking 101 for Businesses

Social Media Marketing differs from traditional marketing, in that, instead of being targeted by marketers, consumers want to interact with marketers.  Below is a collection of excepts to help businesses get started with social media and social marketing.  Stay tuned for more tips!

Nowadays, everybody is talking about Social Media Marketing (SMM) and how great it is for promoting a business. The truth is, most people are really confused about SMM, and they feel very frustrated because they want to take advantage of it but just don’t know how. The goal of this article is to help those people plan and execute a successful SMM campaign.

…

Give Before You Take. Share your expertise, help others, post articles and answer questions. Don’t start asking for business on day one. Social networking is for building relationships and trust.

Be Active. Spend 15 minutes every day building your network, posting comments and contacting other community members. If you aren’t noticed in your community, you might as well not be there.

Share Your Knowledge. If you are one of those people who wants to join social networks to benefit from what others know, but you’re not willing to be generous and share your own knowledge, you will never be successful at SMM. When you start sharing what you know, people open up to you. That’s when you start building valuable relationships. If you are always giving, people will want to reciprocate.

Source: PartnerUp

Which Social Network Would You Pay For?

Abrams Research

It is obvious businesses are getting comfortable using social networks to promote their brands. However, companies are still trying to figure out which social networks to use and how to use them.

According to Abrams Research 32% of “media leaders” say that they would pay for Facebook, given the choice of purchasing a single social network. However, when asked which social network you should pay for, Twitter beats Facebook at 39%.

See the rest of the results at Tech Crunch

Tampa Ikea and Crate & Barrel Social Comparison

Ikea

VS

In May 2009, 2 major trendy furniture stores opened in Tampa, Florida - Ikea and Crate & Barrel.  According to the May 4th, 2009 issue of the Tampa Tribune, Ikea’s Facebook page members far outnumbered Crate & Barrel’s 228,186 to 2,681.  However, this number makes sense since the average age of Facebook users is closer to Ikea’s average customer age than Crate & Barrel’s.

Why Social Network?

Social Networking can help you get a job, get signed to a record label, or attract new business.

Nathan Egan has 5 good reasons to start using social networks.