Social Media Use is Sky Rocketing!

I apologize for being MIA from the blogging scene, been extremely busy and hectic working on some awesome social media campaigns. (Shout-out to Netplus!)

However, in my off time today I found an interesting article that will be extremely beneficial to you and your business in the next upcoming quarter.

Have you begun planning you social media strategy yet? If not, now is the time to do so and using these recently released stats from Nielsen will help you create a bullet proof social media plan for your company.

They most interesting stat I found was the following:

76% of social users feel more positive after their social networking experience.

Are people turning to social media for a little pick me up? Seeing their friends make them extremely happy? This stat wouldn’t surprise me the least with Pinterest, where inspirational quotes and images have taken the site by storm.

This would be a key stat for you and your company to keep in mind for the upcoming year when developing a campaign for Q1. Take advantage of the “New Year, New You” trend and add a unique touch of your own!

To learn more, check out the article below from Social Media Today by Chis Syme:

Social Media Use is Soaring – Time to Reconsider Your 2013 Strategy [Report]

Nielsen’s social media report for the third quarter shows some amazing growth in the use of social media. The report indicates that two factors are driving the change: more people are using mobile phones and tablets to access the networks and the proliferation of new social platforms. Two areas where social media is evolving: the phenomenon of multiple screening setting up what Nielsen calls the global living room and the use of social media as a customer care channel.

The numbers show some interesting trends:

• More people are connecting to the internet for longer periods of time. The highest increase? Use of mobile apps—up 85% from last year.
• Mobile apps also account for the place where minutes on the internet have increased the most.
• Even though PCs still account for the majority of time spent on social media networks (61%), the use of mobile apps has climbed to claim 34% of the total time spent on social networks.
• A look at the top networks? Facebook down 4% and Pinterest up a whopping 1,047%. Google Plus also making significant gains in the last year—up 80%. Twitter up 13%. However, to temper that news, Facebook still dominates the number of total minutes people spend online.
• The Pinterest audience has some unique audience characteristics: dominantly white females in the U.S.
• Weirdest stat: nearly 1/3 of those ages 18-24 social network in the bathroom.
• Sentiment stat to watch: 76% of social users feel more positive after their social networking experience. Could this be where people are going to get their motivational fix?
• Twitter has emerged as the key drive of social TV interaction.

Looking at the numbers, there are a few keys questions organizations need to ask:

1. Are we using responsive web design that automatically optimizes our content regardless of how people access our information? This is now a requirement of doing business on the web.
2. Do we have a social presence on channels that match our customer demographic? Social media is following the cable TV trend—specialization. If your product is specialized to young mothers in the U.S., you should probably consider Pinterest. If you are advertising on TV, you might want to consider being on Twitter.
3. Have you considered diversifying your content to include location-based campaigns if you are a walk-up retailer or have events? Promotions that take advantage of mobile access might be worth considering.

What are some key points you have learned from this data? How might you change your social media strategy?

Leave your comments below!