Increasing Importance of Social Media || Marketing Teknopologist

01 Jan, 2009

Increasing Importance of Social Media

Posted by: Rohit In: Social Media

Social Media and networks have been around for quite sometime now (for instance, Facebook started operating in 2004) but in today’s scenario it has become all the more important to leverage the strengths they bring with them.

Analyzing the number of people using Social Media Services is increasing exponentially and this is clearly visible when we try to see the amount o content that is generated online by users. The last few years have seen a paradigm shift in the way users contribute on the internet. Earlier, publishers used to publish content for people to consume and the technical complexities involved made it next to impossible for people to create content. Today, with the advent of variuos tools, it is no rocket science if you want to share your opinions over the digital medium with the masses.

User statistics on Facebook(link) will help in bringing out a better picture:

Statistics

General Growth
More than 140 million active users
More than half of Facebook users are outside of college
The fastest growing demographic is those 25 years old and older

User Engagement
Average user has 100 friends on the site
2.6 billion minutes are spent on Facebook each day (worldwide)
More than 13 million users update their statuses at least once each day
More than 2.5 million users become fans of Pages each day

Applications
More than 700 million photos uploaded to the site each month
More than 4 million videos uploaded each month
More than 15 million pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photos, etc.) shared each month
More than 2 million events created each month
More than 19 million active user groups exist on the site

To see further detailed statistics, please visit facebook statistics page

In case of developing economies like India where a large proportion of the population falls below 30 years of age, there exist huge oppurtunities to benefit from targetting this age group. At the same time, increasing disposable incomes in developing countries strengthens the business case.

The fastest growing demographic on facebook consists of people who are 25 years or older, in other words, the employed population around the world. This huge chunk forms the major customer base for most of the companies. The fact that this group of people has been acquainted with social networks ever since their inception, makes them more comfortable with this media. How often did people used these services back in 2003 or 2004?? I dont think many did…

Engaging people on a platform they have been using is much more easier and will surely have a greater impact on people. Moreover, the kind of technological developments that these network have been going through enables easy conversation with the customers.

Many companies including big names like Kodak, Volvo, Starbucks etc have indulged in Social Media Marketing (SMM) and opportunities will make sure the rest follow. To see the initiatives taken in this space around the world, please visit this wiki setup by Peter Kim. The trend is catching up very fast and we can hope to see much more action this year.

Last but not the least,

Wishing all of you and your families, a very happy and prosperous new year.