“If you can’t beat ‘em, tweet ‘em!”
There is a point when the constant ringing of the words “twitter”, “facebook”, “linkedin” and/or “blog” start to feel like a persistent fly, badly in need of swatting. But how do you stop the incessant tweet-tweet-tweeting of the social media bug? You’ve tried ignoring it… but it won’t go away. You’ve tried talking louder… but it’s shouting above you. You’ve started some exploratory conversations over dinner but, quite frankly, it’s dull. It’s a tool made for teenagers. For the sad who don’t have reality friends. For those who should be doing a real job. Certainly not for you…
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| image source: http://www.moneysmith.com |
…Apart from the fact that those words have now been echoing non-stop for years now. And, apparently, that geezer down the pub just said that he’d won a multi-million euro contract by doing nothing more than a couple of tweets here and there. There’s even a guy down the road who has married a Caribbean beauty thanks to nothing more than a rather clever [though somewhat misleading] facebook profile.
…and so now we begin to find that social media is a little intriguing, after all.
Well, the truth is that nothing comes without effort. But social media is a phenomenon that cannot be ignored. 2009 saw a landmark achievement when there was more online activity via social networking than there was via porn.
There are currently 500 million facebook users. On any day, 50% of facebook users will have logged on and the average user spends over 700 billion minutes per month within the platform.
Twitter has over 106 million users. Every day there are an additional 300,000 new users. Collectively, these users send over 55 million tweets every day.
But you still believe that most of those users are kids looking up rude video clips and computer games? Then you’d be wrong. Over 60% of both facebook and twitter users are over 35 years of age. Admittedly some of these will still be looking up rude videos.
Even the powerhouse of Google has decided that it is impossible to beat these social media giants and has chosen to join them. Google now includes social media discussions in its search engine results and rates a website on the amount of attention that it has received through the social media platforms. And therein lies another reason not to ignore these tweeting, chatting, gossiping online fellows – it is those users who will give you the power to leapfrog all of that dedicated SEO investment and jump straight to the top of the internet.
Do you need one more fact to peak some interest? Well, the evolution of mobile telephone technology has now given way to 250 million active users on the move. That is, 250 MILLION PEOPLE tweet, facebook, blog, myspace, skype, youtube, fickr, kaboodle or link in whilst they are out doing the shopping, or in between meetings, or picking the kids up from school, or feeling a little bit hungry and wondering where to eat... And if they find themselves in need of a little more information, they will google it, and the whole process will start all over again.
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Do you still pine for the days when “networking” meant a day on the golf course or a day of wining and dining in the city? Well, that may still exist but it is a lot less efficient than a couple of strategic messages released through the correct mediums. When Nike released a viral marketing campaign for the World Cup 2010, it was played and commented on more than 9 million times by facebook users and viewed on YouTube more than 20 million times. |
More recently, Charlie Sheen made a rather interesting public recovery from being sacked by hit sitcom “Two and a Half Men” by breaking a twitter record in March 2011. He advertised for a social media intern and 95,333 tweeters responded within the first hour. Forbes Article
As James Farley, CMO Ford said “You can’t just say it. You have to get the people to say it to each other”.
So here’s the silver lining to the world of social media. You don’t have to tweet or blog or chat online, Pudding Creative can manage your social media marketing for you and ensure that people are saying all the right things about your company online!
Call us for a free consultation: www.puddingcreative.com
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