I consider our generation to be lucky to have this much power to communicate on a global level. Good things are easy to get used to and a lot of people quickly accept them as a given. The fact that we didn’t have Twitter until 2006 may come as a surprise to many. Only 7 years later, they handled 1.6 billion queries as a daily average. Social media as a whole has a lot of impact on a global level and are becoming a requirement for the business environments.
On an individual level there are tons of benefits that Social Media that can bring to an experienced user if you know how to approach them. We are here to discuss some very interesting facts about social media. We are going to focus information about the major social networks as well as some overall stats to put things a bit more into perspective. We are also going to give you a few practical tips which you can use to better communicate on your private or business social media profiles.
1. Which social networks will be relevant in the future?
We all still remember the speed at which MySpace lost to Facebook and the great migration that happened then. When thinking about investing into a particular social media account, whether that be investing time or money, you need to know that your account is going to have a future. The top three most stable social networks at the moment are Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest but LinkedIn is worth mentioning as well due to the rate at which it is growing and the fact that it can now be used as a pretty decent blogging platform.
2. The visual side of Twitter
Twitter can really seem confusing for most new users, no matter the age. It is very easy to turn your stream into a jumbled up informational chaos, you will have absolutely no use for but after a while most people catch on and start getting at least some activity from this social network. Still, at low levels of social authority it might be difficult to engage people. Here is a pro tip if you are just starting out. A tweet with an image attached will gather 5 to 9 times more retweets and 40% more favs.
3. Twitter requires a quick response
Let’s stick to Twitter a bit more. It is important to note that if you want to gather a loyal following on Twitter, you need to be there. Regardless of the fact that you are a proud owner of a 100k followers Twitter profile, numbers of this sort are just for show. You need to nourish your follower base in order to keep them interested. The thing you need to be aware of is that the majority of Twitter users expect a response within the hour. As many as 53% of users expect a response that is that quick.
4. Important demographic facts you should know
While a recent study showed that the Facebook audience of most powerful publications like BuzzFeed, Guardian, Huffington Post and the likes, is predominantly male, college educated and has a techy background. The fastest growing age group on Twitter is between the age of 55 and 64 with basic to average understanding of the online environment. You should also understand the different motivations behind the use of different social networks. Facebook is used for interaction with friends and socialization while Twitter is mostly used for news. This is why it is not surprising that people in their 50s and 60s are gravitating towards Twitter.
5. Social media and blogging
Ok, content marketing is officially everywhere. I don’t care if you are a company, a small pack of hungry freelancers or a group of designers, you need a blog. It is just a great way to engage customers, audience and establish a name for yourself and offers a lot in terms of SEO. Still, we are here to talk how it relates to social media. Traditional social media profiles for companies are dull due to the lack of any content. This is where blogging steps in, to bridge the gap and provide companies with the material they can use to engage their followers. Blog posts are not by any means purely textual. They should include images and videos, carefully placed to enrich it and make it more engaging. If you truly want your Facebook audience and Twitter followers to interact with your brand, rely on quality content.
6. Instagram and high level of engagement
While most people see Instagram as a casual, social network for sharing photos and disregard it when it comes to business purposes. Still, the numbers show great potential when it comes to business opportunities on Instagram. Namely, this network has a better engagement rate than Facebook and Twitter combined. The average engagement rate on Instagram is 2.81% in compression with Facebook’s 0.25% and Twitter’s 0.21% engagement rate and you should definitely invest time into an Instagram account.
7. Pinterest is a female domain
If your goal is to reach a predominantly female audience you can sidestep Pinterest. Why? Well, 80% of the 70.000.000 users on Pinterest are female and there is no better social network to reach them on. According to some research there is a day for different topics on Pinterest:
- Monday: Fitness
- Tuesday: Technology
- Wednesday: Quotes
- Thursday: Fashion
- Friday: Humour
- Saturday: Travel
- Sunday: Food/Crafts
Still, this doesn’t mean you need avoid any other topic except Fitness on a Monday. The user base has more interest in this topics on particular days but regardless of this they will still react to engaging content.
8. Pinterest also work great for eCommerce
There are no limits to what you can do in the Pinterest when it comes to selling products. Still, you need to make sure that you photography is top-notch and that it is relevant to the boards you are pinning them on. Don’t be pushy, or spammy and you should be able to get pretty good numbers with a decent product. Respect the context and contribute to value of the boards you are allowed to pin on.
As you can see each and every social media platform has its own quirks and specificities that can make a world of difference to you. Still, be sure to analyse stats related to you and your goals, not raw numbers. Keep your goals in mind at all times and make sure that you are marketing to people not chasing numbers. In the long run, this always pays off.
Featured photo credit: Photo by: Ed Gregory via stokpic.com
