The Conversation: An Introduction to Social Media
Social media is here to stay and only going to get bigger.
By nature humans are social creatures, we like interaction, connection, and the cohesiveness being part of a group provides us.
But what does that mean for you and your business?
It means that now is the time to join the conversation and tap into the power of the group to brand yourself, and expand the reach of your products and services through an unprecedented word of mouth marketing opportunity.
Social media is an instantaneous word of mouth marketing network. How important is word of mouth?
Did You Know?
- 91% of people say that online consumer reviews are the #1 aid in buying decisions
- 87% trust a friends recommendation over that of a critics review
- People are 3 times more likely to trust a peer opinion over advertising for purchasing decisions
- 1 word of mouth conversation has the impact of 200 TV ads
Word of mouth marketing is made for social media
Social media websites are the fastest growing category on the web.
- 73% of active online users have read a blog
- 45% have started their own blog
- 39% subscribe to an RSS Feed
- 57% have joined a social network
- 55% have uploaded photos
- 83% have watched video clips
That’s a lot of people, in the conversation, participating. If your business is not yet taking advantage of this trend, now is the time to leverage social networks and get people talking about you.
If your not sure exactly where to start though, or need a primer on what aspects of social media you should be focusing on, I’d recommend you spend some time with the following presentation from Tactica Interactive Communications.
Tactica is a Canadian digital marketing company, and while a couple of the slides in the presentation speak directly to Canadian social networking, the principals they lay out are solid regardless of what part of the world you call home.
What’s Covered?
- Social Media Definition
- 10 keys to social media success
- Social media tools
- Social media myths
- 3 take away messages
The Conversation: An Introduction to Social Media
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Matt,
I pay attention to my analytics in terms of referring site, and social media is well represented there.
I’ll spend some time with this presentation a bit later, I’m sure there are great things there.
Interesting statistics here.
Cheers
George
Yeah, social media is here to stay–and you’ve done an awesome job discussing it here! Those are some cool statistics.
Have you ever tried to explain a blog–or blogging–to someone who doesn’t know about them? It’s quite the adventure!
*smiles*
Michele
Great post. I love the stats. Social media can be key for any business.
@Tumblemoose
Tracking it is important. If you know where your stuff does well, from a social media perspective you can focus your efforts on those channels.
Matt
@Michele
I have tried to explain blogging to people…some get it faster than others, the ones that you can convert into seeing a benefit are the most fun – once they see the light they become blogging machines!
Matt
Yeah, it’s a hoot! I converted my mom–how cool is that?!
She’s off to a good blogging start and has posted a few things here: Hillbilly Heaven Herbs Blog.
*smiles*
Michele
@Michele
I got my mom on email, I think I’ll stop there – haha
Matt
Ah, my mom has been on email for years–it was time for bigger, better things. LOL