What is Social Media?
Social media isn't just for young people, reports The New York Times:
According to Forrester [Research], use of social media among those 35 to 54 jumped 60 percent in the last year. Half of online adults in the United States interact on social networks and more than three-fourths used social media in the last month.
Most of the adults online regularly visit sites with user-generated content, like blogs and Google's YouTube, Forrester found. Only a quarter actually post stories or upload video, though that is growing with easy-to-use online tools. The number of adults who joined social networks last year grew almost 50 percent from the year before. Today, only 18 percent of online adults do not use social tools, down from 25 percent last year.
Social media is extremely powerful because, unlike traditional media, it isn’t just one-way communication. Social media enables you to connect with your customers through two-way conversations. Because others must give you permission to connect with them, you know you’re reaching people who are genuinely interested in your products and services. Moreover, once you connect with your customers, you can reach them again and again at no additional cost. Social media also lets your customers tell each other about their experiences with your products and services. Studies show that people are three to five times more likely to use a product that’s used by someone else within their social network.
A recent study finds that social media tops the list of mediums professional marketers intend to use in 2010:
Social networks may still seem like an emerging medium, if an ad medium at all, on some parts of Madison Avenue, but a new report on the media buying plans of advertisers and agencies indicates that having a "presence on social networks" is one of the top priorities of their media plans for next year. The report, the 2010 Media Planning Intelligence Study, which is being released today by the Center for Media Research in conjunction with InsightExpress, found that 57.7% of respondents "ideally" plan, and 56.3% "realistically" plan to include social media in their media plans next year.
That finding is significant, because it shows the rapid speed with which social media, including social networks like Facebook, micro-blogging services such as Twitter, and other new and emerging formats connecting people to each other online have taken a precedent with both consumers and marketing and advertising industry professionals.
Email marketing was the No. 1 medium, cited by 56.8% of respondents as being a realistic part of their 2010 media plans, followed by:
- Social networks (56.3%)
- Keyword search (49.7%)
- Radio (42.2%)
- Magazines (42.1%)
- Online display (40.5%)
- Event sponsorship (36.9%)
- Rich media display (35.5%)
- Direct mail (34.7%)
- Regional TV (32.8%)
- Regional newspapers (31.7%)
- Out-of-home (31.2%)
- Email sponsorship (29.5%)
- Online video (26.7%)
- Mobile SMS text (26.1%)
- National TV (18.2%)
- National newspapers (14.8%)
Learn more about New England Social Media's approach to social media marketing.