Showing posts with label eMarketer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label eMarketer. Show all posts

Monday, April 30, 2018

Social Media Data For YOUR Marketing Strategy?


10 Social media usage statistics you should know, and what they mean for your marketing strategy..

There is no scarcity of data, predictions, or opinions about social media trends. But it can be hard to sift through the endless white papers, reports, studies, and commentary to uncover the most significant social media usage statistics, compare any contradicting results, and come up with actionable insights and next steps.



Thankfully, We've Done That For You

Take a look at these ten current statistics from reputable sources (Pew Research, Statista, eMarketer, and more) and the implications of each for your social media strategy today. Some of them might not be surprising, and many are consistent with the direction of past usage trends. But they're all recent and relevant.

To start it off, here's one to boost your confidence in the promise of social media marketing: In 2017, social media exceeded marketers expectations for performance by eight percent—the biggest gap between expected and actual effectiveness of any other marketing effort.

Now, let's get into the usage details:



1. Over 3 billion people use social media each month—42 percent of the total global population

That's 3,196 billion people to be exact, up 13 percent since 2017. And in the United States, there are 230 million monthly active social media users, 71 percent of the total population.

This penetration is proof that social media usage is on the rise all around the world, but is 58 percent away from saturation. Social media hasn't maxed out its potential audience, and people will keep on converting along with the growth of smartphone ownership and Internet access.

While each social media network will have its own usage ups and downs, you can be confident that the global community of social media users will just get bigger. Your own audience probably isn't saturated yet, either. So continue to invest in both organic and paid tactics to gain followers, in addition to engaging your current ones.



2. Every second, 11 people use social media for the first time

When added up, it turns into one million new social media users every day—whoa. The granularity of this statistic is further evidence of the potential of social media marketing.

Just as the three billion monthly users means social media is far from a stale marketing channel, 11 new users per second really puts the growth into perspective. How many people have started exploring Instagram or browsing Facebook for the very first time, even since you started reading this article?

And as they stumble across your own social media channels, will it be a good first impression? Welcome them warmly with a cohesive and creative content strategy.



3. Mobile's share of web traffic increased by 4 percent, while desktop's share decreased by 3 percent

Nine in ten social media users opt for mobile browsing. Web traffic trends have been going in the direction of mobile for quite some time. But it's clear, now more than ever, that mobile optimization is nonnegotiable.

And beyond the mobile experience, create social media content for mobile over desktop. Get as tactical as the image sizes, design ratios, character count, device dimensions, and call-to-action copy. These details can make all the difference for small-screen consumption.

4. Mobile apps account for 70 percent of time spent on social media networks

Just another reason to always optimize for mobile. Taking up the vast majority of time spent using social media, mobile devices dictate the user experience.



5. People use mobile apps 7 times longer than mobile web browsers

This app dominance isn't groundbreaking. Especially when it comes to social media, the in-app experience is (or should be) much better than the mobile browser experience. Test your content in-app as well as in mobile browser previews.

6. The networks with the most penetration among social media users in 2018 so far are Facebook (60.6 percent), Instagram (37.4 percent), and Snapchat (30.9 percent)

What do they all have in common? These three social media networks are each big on photo, video, and live content. Other networks similarly support visual, video, and real-time content, but these are the most mature. Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat also focus heavily on the mobile experience (which brings us back to statistics three and four above).



People's attention spans aren't getting longer, so interactive and attention-grabbing content breaks through best.

With the biggest user communities and usage this year, Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat should be among your top channel considerations—as long as they are relevant to your audience.

And on the other networks you manage, keep photo and video content types at the forefront of your content strategy.

On Facebook alone, the content types with the most growth in average engagement per post in 2018 are videos (up 5.23 percent) and photos (up 4.42 percent).



7. Facebook still has the most app usage in the US (164.58 monthly users) but is growing only among users ages 65 and older

Older generations might be just starting out with Facebook (the 65-plus age group grew by 20 percent in 2017), but Facebook usage is declining among social media users under 25. This accounts for a total loss of about 2.1 million users.

The takeaway? Don't let size deceive you. Facebook's algorithms now prioritize engagement and personal interactions. So put it in its place in terms of engagement—not just reach.

Launched in 2004, Facebook was one of the first social media network to rise to popularity. Many of the early users (the declining 25-and-under crowd) have moved on. And younger generations are skipping Facebook altogether, getting hooked early by the instantaneous and addictive nature of social media networks like Snapchat and Instagram.



Prioritize Facebook as a marketing channel if you've got an older audience, and still keep it in your channel mix—although not a primary marketing channel—if your audience skews younger. By 2022, it's predicted that Facebook's share of Internet users will slip by 10.8 percent.

8. Instagram is growing the fastest, with global users up by a third, and is predicted to increase by 13.1 percent in 2018

Outpacing Facebook for growth, although still behind in total users, Instagram now has a total of 106.17 million app users as of February 2018. Growth trends are the ones to watch when projecting the promise of social media networks. Instagram's combination of visual, video, and live content makes it an all-in-one channel for users.



The largest demographic on Instagram are 18-to-34-year-olds, with 64 percent active users. If your key audience falls in this age group, or even older, consider Instagram as an ideal channel—it will likely just keep on growing. It's predicted that user growth in 2018 will focus on those 35 and older.

9. Ranked by popularity, YouTube (73 percent) and Facebook (68 percent) are used the most by US adults and LinkedIn (25 percent) and Twitter (24 percent) are used the least

That isn't to say you should remove LinkedIn and Twitter from your social media mix. Remember, it's all about knowing where to find and engage with your own audience.



Here's the full popularity breakdown of top social media networks based on percent of US adults who use each:

--YouTube: 73 percent of US adults
--Facebook: 68 percent of US adults
--Instagram: 35 percent of US adults
--Pinterest: 29 percent of US adults
--Snapchat: 27 percent of US adults
--LinkedIn: 25 percent of US adults
--Twitter: 24 percent of US adults

10. On a daily basis, US users visit Facebook (74 percent) and Snapchat (63 percent) the most and LinkedIn (40 percent) and Pinterest (23 percent) the least

The personal nature of Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram make it likely that daily usage is far above that of other social media networks. Let these daily usage insights inform your publication frequency. You probably don't need to publish daily on LinkedIn, but keep up the cadence on Facebook and Instagram.



To fill in the gaps for percent of US users who visit each social media network daily:

--Facebook: 74 percent of US users
--Snapchat: 63 percent of US users
--Instagram: 60 percent of US users
--Twitter: 46 percent of US users
--YouTube: 45 percent of US users
--LinkedIn: 40 percent of US users
--Pinterest: 23 percent of US users

Guest Authored By Christine Warner. Christine is is a freelance writer and digital marketer with agency, brand, and non-profit experience developing integrated campaigns and content platforms for diverse brands such as Uber, Samsung, Walgreens, Victoria’s Secret, Dunkin’ Donuts, and Dignity Health. Her digital marketing specialties include content marketing strategy, customer relationship management, brand product marketing, digital media planning, social media marketing, and search engine optimization. Currently, she is the Senior Manager of Digital for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, where she oversees the digital marketing efforts for the various non-profit communities and ministries throughout Southern California. As a freelance writer, she contributes regularly to various lifestyle and marketing publications. Follow Christine on Twitter.





"With these ten social media usage statistics in mind, revisit your social media strategy to make any necessary overhauls or tweaks.

The global and national scope of this data gives you a solid grasp on current social media trends, but know that your own social media strategy should first rely on the presence of your specific audience on each social media network.

Know the community data points, even memorize them, but take action on your audience data points. -ChristineWarner


    • Post Crafted By:
      Fred Hansen Pied Piper of Social Media Marketing at YourWorldBrand.com & CEO of Millennium 7 Publishing Co. in Loveland, Colorado. I work deep in the trenches of social media strategy, community management and trends.  My interests include; online business educator, social media marketing, new marketing technology, skiing, hunting, fishing and The Rolling Stones..-Not necessarily in that order ;)
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    Location: Loveland, CO 80538, USA

    Monday, January 15, 2018

    Social Media Marketing Mistakes To Avoid?


    Most companies have social media marketing teams, strategies, and eventual goals. Yet, many don't understand how these best tie in to existing business goals..



    Any company that uses the Internet to drive business will engage in social media marketing. However, many businesses incorporated social media after their businesses reputation and goals were established. This can force a business to reconsider their overall business strategy.

    Avoid this in 2018 by dodging these three basic social media marketing mistakes.

    1. Social Media Should be a Marketing Focus, not an Add-on

    According to eMarketer, almost 90% of U.S. companies are using social media marketing in their business strategies. Despite that, most companies use social media platforms as an add-on to existing marketing strategies. Instead of crafting a strategy for social media marketing in general and for each platform individually, companies often use social media merely as a new medium to spread an existing marketing message.



    Many companies then work in reverse to link relevant social strategies to business strategies. This allows them to prove the ROI of the marketing plan with greater clarity.



    Nevertheless, a CMO survey shows that nearly half of these businesses' marketing teams are incapable of detailing the specific returns of their social media marketing investment.

    Another way marketers lose focus is by getting trapped in the social-media gratification loop. On a given platform, marketers look to gather large numbers of likes, comments, followers, and shares. These numbers look great during presentations, but what do they actually mean?

    If you can't quantify the value of a high number of followers, chances are your social media goals aren't correlating to specific business goals.

    In order to understand the ROI of every social media marketing strategy, you have to be sure to connect overarching business strategies to social media marketing strategies from the very beginning.



    2. Your Business Needs the Right Tools to Manage and Apply Social Media

    Depending on the size and scale of your business, it's important to create a social media presence across the entire company. These days, each department will need to be aware of social media and its ability to expand the scope of any sector. In order to keep standards across departments, you might even need a dedicated social media management team.

    As we've included in pretty much every digital marketing post we've ever made, you must use a robust analytics platform to gauge, study, and improve your marketing strategies. Google Analytics, for example, can give you web traffic numbers broken down by age and geographical demographics, time of day, conversion statistics, bounce rate, and types of devices used to access your page.

    This information gives you the ability to see what's working and what's not. It will tell you what domains and social media platforms are bringing you the most intention a-telltale sign of where you need to invest more time and effort.



    3. Don't Just Focus on the top Social Media Platforms

    Another common mistake social media marketers make is limiting the brand's social media real estate to only the most widely used platforms. While having a presence on many social media platforms increases authority, perception of authority, and overall marketing success, only two-thirds of the top companies are using YouTube. The numbers are even lower for fast-growing platforms like Instagram (under 50%). These numbers are from 2016, but from the chart below you can see that not much has changed since then.



    Failing to represent your company on every available social media platform could potentially cause you to miss out on business opportunities.

    Consider this: if your business wants to increase its marketing reach to the Millennial generation, but it's not using Snapchat, it's missing the mark.

    What social media marketing strategies has your business implemented? Have you ever had to restart a marketing campaign to better understand ROI?

    Guest Authored By William McKinney. William is a Writer for Edgy Labs, an English Teacher, a card carrying Nerd, and he may run for President in 2020. Follow William on Twitter.





    "No matter what industry you belong to, what size your company is, what products or services you sell or how knowledgeable you are with upcoming trends, you always have to put your best foot forward.

    In light of the latest advancements in technology, no one is an exception to the ever-evolving influence of social media any longer.." -NatalieNorcross


      • Authored by:
        Fred Hansen Pied Piper of Social Media Marketing at YourWorldBr@nd.com & CEO of Millennium 7 Publishing Co. in Loveland, CO  where I work deep in the trenches of social media strategy, community management and trends.  My interests include; online business educator, social media marketing, new marketing technology, skiing, hunting, fishing and The Rolling Stones..-Not necessarily in that order ;)
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      Location: Loveland, CO 80538, USA

      Tuesday, January 9, 2018

      Major Milestones For Social Media In 2018?


      With Facebook and Twitter at the center of national conversations about political ad transparency and fake news, the year ahead will be anything but dull for social media companies..



      Facebook’s growing dominance of digital is already well-known; this year it will account for 23.0% total US digital ad spending.

      But it will also hit a new height in 2018, taking in $1 of every $10 spent on all advertising—digital and nondigital combined.

      To put an even bigger emphasis on that point, Facebook’s US ad revenues (forecast by eMarketer to reach $21.57 billion this year) will be twice the amount spent on newspaper advertising ($10.74 billion) and nearly as much as advertisers will spend on the entire print category ($23.12 billion). In 2019 Facebook will zoom ahead, accounting for 11.3% of all US ad spending, compared with 10.0% for print.

      Meanwhile, Twitter and Snapchat will reach parity in US ad revenues.

      eMarketer expects Snapchat to pull in $1.18 billion in US ad revenues this year, vs. $1.16 billion for Twitter. Although Snapchat’s user base is growing more slowly than expected, it will still see ad revenue growth this year, thanks to improved measurement capabilities and a growing embrace of ad targeting tools.



      Twitter, on the other hand, is not growing:

      Its ad revenues are expected to drop by 4.5% in 2018. Despite its push into video programming, Twitter will continue to eke out only marginal gains in usage, making for revenue challenges as well.

      These forecasts are drawn from eMarketer's latest report, "US Social Trends for 2018: eMarketer's Predictions for the Year."

      The report looks at key eMarketer forecasts for the year ahead and examines our 2017 predictions—what we got right as well as what we got wrong. eMarketer PRO subscribers can access the full report here.

      Guest Authored By eMarketer Editors. eMarketer is the first place to look when you need data about digital. Follow eMarketer on Twitter.

      Related Article: Future-Proof YOUR Social Media Marketing Career?



      “In the latest episode of "Behind the Numbers," eMarketer analyst Debra Aho Williamson takes a peek into the future and predicts what will happen in the fast-changing space in 2018.."



        • Authored by:
          Fred Hansen Pied Piper of Social Media Marketing at YourWorldBr@nd.com & CEO of Millennium 7 Publishing Co. in Loveland, Colorado. I work deep in the trenches of social media strategy, community management and trends.  My interests include; online business educator, social media marketing, new marketing technology, skiing, hunting, fishing and The Rolling Stones..-Not necessarily in that order ;)
        Published by at No comments:
        Labels: , , , , , ,
        Location: Loveland, CO 80538, USA
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