The Center for Marketing Research at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth has followed up on its 2007 and 2008 studies of social media usage by the Inc. 500. Adoption and awareness continue to trend upward, with 91% of firms using at least one social media tool in 2009 and three-quarters describing themselves as “very familiar” with social networking.
Social networking and blogging have seen the most growth in adoption, while other technologies have flattened or even declined in use, including wikis and online video. Twitter usage, of course, has caught on quickly—more than one-half of businesses reported tweeting in 2009. This was the first year respondents were polled about Twitter.
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Word-of-mouth is the top influencer for just about everything consumers do, and many social media marketers take that as an encouraging sign. After all, social media are about conversations. But, at least when it comes to video viewing, online dialogue is not as valuable as what Knowledge Networks refers to as “verbal” word-of-mouth.
Online video viewers were most likely to discover content and decide what to watch based on conversations that took place either in person or over the phone, according to the “How People Use Video Navigation” report. Traditional TV viewers were most influenced by TV ads, but verbal word-of-mouth ranked second for them as well. Social media was significantly more influential for discovering online viewing than traditional TV viewing, but still did not come close to real-life advice.
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One of the biggest misconceptions with online marketing is that social media is only for large brands. Truthfully, a small business that invests its time wisely can improve customer (or client) loyalty and traditional word of mouth marketing efforts.
Social media is useful for almost every type of business. Cafes, retail stores, and even professional services can build their online reputation and increase trust. By taking advantage of social media, businesses can make themselves more accessible, more personable, and maintain long term connections. For a small business looking to increase referrals, social media can be a powerful tool.
Here are five ways small businesses can capitalize on this new form of marketing.
Why use social media?
The best way to illustrate why small businesses are using social media is with a story. Think back to the days of the wild west. In those days, towns had one general store, and the store owner knew everyone. People trusted him and knew what they were getting. Enter the industrial age, and efficiency trumped personalization. People didn’t mind where they bought from, as long as goods were cheap.
Now, that mentality has changed. Consumers are once again reverting to a need for personalization from businesses large and small. The need has been rekindled by the Internet and our ability to find anything we want, as well as a mistrust of advertising (think used cars salesmen).
We’ve reached a point where the consumer wants to know the store owner’s name and that he can be trusted. Small businesses must look beyond their want to grow into corporations, and instead focus on their core customers. Thanks to social media, we’re able to foster these relationships easily and quickly.
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Earlier today, we reported that Americans now spend 17% of all of their online time on social networks. This makes a lot of sense and many readers commented that Facebook or Twitter are the first things they pull up on the web every single day.
But what types of individuals are the the heaviest users of social networks and social media? According to a new study put out by Nielsen Claritas, if you live in the U.S. and use Facebook , LinkedIn or MySpace, you are likely to be more affluent — and more urban (that is, live in a larger city) than the average American.
Demographic Differences Between Facebook and MySpace
Even back in 2007, there
was heavy discussion over the differences between the MySpace and Facebook demographics. Of course, much has changed in the past two years.
Facebook usage has skyrocketed and the types of users that flock to both services has changed (and are, on average, much older than they were in 2007). These changes seem to have created a disparity in wealth between users of the world’s two largest social networks.
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As we reported yesterday, growth for some of the world’s biggest social networks — like Twitter and Facebook — appear to be flattening. One site bucking that trend though is LinkedIn, which saw a 5.68% growth in traffic for the month of September, according to Compete.
It’s not just traffic that’s growing, users are increasing too. In a blog entry today, LinkedIn reports that it now has over 50 million users worldwide.
As the company’s announcement points out, it took nearly sixteen months for LinkedIn to reach its first million users. The last million took only 12 days.
LinkedIn Growth Chart
LinkedIn says that while 50% of its users are based in the US, 50% are international. This is an impressive stat that speaks highly to LinkedIn’s continued growth.
As more and more social networks start to expand their focus and go after more types of users, we like that LinkedIn has continued to reinforce its mission of connecting professionals to each other. Sometimes having a solid target and niche can be more effective and lead to greater consistent growth than trying to be all things to all people.
What do you think about LinkedIn? Do you use the service more than you did a year ago? Let us know in the comments!
Reprinted from Mashable.com ” LinkedIn Surpasses 50 Million Users” by Christina Warren
