26 Social Media Statistics to Back Up Your Strategy
 by Mandy Edwards

26 Social Media Statistics to Back Up Your Strategy

“Social media is not just a spoke on the wheel of marketing. It’s becoming the way entire bicycles are built.” – Ryan Lilly

 

I came across the above quote and thought it to be a great illustration of how social media has molded itself into a business’ marketing strategy. Yes, social media is taking over marketing. And the world.

 

Of course any good marketing strategy is built with statistics and data behind it – behaviors, interests, patterns, demographics, etc., and any good marketing strategist will make sure said strategy truly has the measurable data to back it up.

 

Being a fan of data and statistics, I love finding different bits of information among the common data we social marketing professionals regularly use. Some bits are eye-opening, some are really odd. Some make you sit and really evaluate what your actual usage behavior is, while some just make you laugh. Below are 27 social media statistics I have found while doing client research and putting together my weekly Marketing Fact Friday series (which you can follow on my Instagram account). If you want to dig deeper, I’ve linked the source for you.

 

Social Media Usage

  • Generation X (ages 35-49) spends the most time on social media: almost 7 hours per week versus Millennials, who come in second, spending just over 6 hours per week. (Nielsen)
  • Almost 80% of time spent on social media platforms happens on mobile. (MarketingLand)
  • 81% of millennials check Twitter at least once per day. (Pew Research Center)
  • Nearly half (43%) of weekly Facebook activity and a third (33%) of weekly Twitter activity occurred on Sundays. (Nielsen)
  • The number of active social media users worldwide is 2.78 billion, out of the world’s population of 7.47 billion. (we are social)
  • Smartphones accounted for 78% of adults, ages 18-34, total weekly social minutes. (Nielsen)
  • Adults ages 50+ spent 64% more time on social media in 2016 than in 2015. (Nielsen)
  • 85% of people rely on Twitter and Facebook for their morning news. (Byte of Data)

 

Social Media + TV

  • There were 11.8 million TV-related interactions on Facebook from 5.9 million people on average each day this fall. (Nielsen)
  • On an average day, 42% of those interacting with TV on Facebook are Generation X, 40% are Millennials, and the remaining 18% are Baby Boomers. (Nielsen)
  • 81% of engagement with TV-related Tweets comes organically from the audience. (Nielsen)
  • 57% of people who used their tablet while watching television said they visited Facebook while doing so, compared with 24% who said they visited Twitter. On smartphones, those numbers were 58% and 20%, respectively. (Nielsen)

 

Social Media + Business

  • More than 2 million advertisers regularly use Facebook to market their business. (Hootsuite)
  • While 64 percent of marketers have a Snapchat account, only 67 percent of those accounts are active. (L2)
  • 59% of Americans with social media accounts think that customer service through social media has made it easier to get questions answered and issues resolved. (Hootsuite)
  • 13% of heavy social media users clicked on an advertisement within the last 30 days. (Nielsen)
  • 30% of heavy social media users think it’s very or somewhat important to engage with social media in order to show support of their favorite companies or brands. (Nielsen)
  • 93% of Pinterest users use the platform to plan or make purchases. (Pinterest)

 

Social Media Content

  • Tweets with images received 150% more retweets than tweets without images. (HubSpot)
  • When people hear information, they’re likely to remember only 10% of that information three days later. However, if a relevant image is paired with that same information, people retained 65% of the information three days later. (Brain Rules)
  • 62% of B2B marketers rated videos as an effective content marketing tactic in 2016. (Content Marketing Institute)
  • Cisco projects that global internet traffic from videos will make up 80% of all internet traffic by 2019. (Cisco)
  • 51% of all video plays are on mobile devices — this growth represents a 15% increase from 2015 and a 203% increase from 2014. (Facebook)
  • Cisco projects that global internet traffic from videos will make up 80% of all internet traffic by 2019. (Small Business Trends)
  • Videos under five minutes in length account for 55% of total video consumption time on smartphones. (Ooyala)
  • 85% of videos on Facebook are watched without sound. (Digiday)

 

Some of these statistics you may be able to use for your own business, or for a client. Having data to back up anything you propose or want to do yourself, is always key – it gives you and what you are proposing more credibility (as long as the data is from a credible source).

 

What kind of data and statistics are used in your business’ marketing strategy? Share with us below!

 

I wrote this article as a guest post for My Social Game Plan and has been republished with permission.

 

 

in Advertising / Social Influence / Social Media 1 comments
earn the art & science of pinterest
 by Mandy Edwards

Learn the Art & Science of Pinterest

Pinterest is for yourself, not your selfie.

 

When I attended this year’s Southern C Summit, I had the privilege of hearing Nikki Bazzani from Pinterest present. It was great to be in the room with someone who could give answers from the source. Her presentation was about the art and science of Pinterest, and yes everyone, there is a true art and science to it.

 

Here is what she shared, and every business owner using Pinterest needs to take note of this! FYI, Pinterest is second largest search behind Google 😉

 

It’s no surprise that every story is rooted in an idea. And every idea is a pin. Those pins are what helps us discover and ultimately do what we love.

 

Pinterest provides a wealth of content for anyone who is looking – the mom looking for new recipes, the marketer looking for an infographic, the bride looking for ideas for her wedding, the husband looking for birthday ideas for his wife. A good number of businesses have an audience on this platform, and they should with 150 million active monthly users pinning away.

 

But where do you start? How do you use Pinterest for your business, much less create that perfect pin that will capture the attention of the pinner scrolling through?

 

Before you put together a pin for Pinterest, keep these things in mind:

  • Text is allowed – call out unique things, get that pinner’s attention.
  • Vertical images are optimal – use – 600px x 900px (Don’t go higher than 1560px high. Pinterest is going to start not showing/decreasing visibility of the really long pins. Keep them at 900px high.)
  • Be authentic to both you and your brand.
  • Be helpful instead of clever with text overlay and descriptions.
  • Avoid looking like a banner ad.
  • Content and detail in description is encouraged (200-400 characters). Use keywords. You can have 500 characters max.

 

Knowing those few things, there is a psychology behind creating a pin, much like the psychology advertisers use in creating their ads and how you see them. Here are three principles to stick to.

 

3 Good Principles of a Pin

  1. They are visually arresting
    • The pin is a canvas, so use it. Play with text color (bright that pop), texture, pattern. Use black and white. Play with space. Add your products, logo, etc.
  2. They are inspiring
    • Motivate pinners with helpful tips, lists, and how-tos. Show the pinner what they are going to find when they go to your site.
    • Motivate with variety.
    • Motivate with novelty.
    • Motivate with trends and cultural reference (check out their Pinterest 100 trend report here).
  3. They are actionable
    • Make it easy – tell them what to do.

 

Once you have your pin planned out, that’s not the end of it. You have to nail it. Think of the pin as your piece de resistance. Ask yourself these eight questions…

    • Does this pin appeal to my desired audience?
    • Is this pin a stand-alone idea?
    • Is the idea novel, inspiring, entertaining, or helpful?
    • Would I save this pin?
    • Does this pin pique my interest enough to click and get more information?
    • Can I visually grasp what the idea or product is in less than 1 second?
    • Is the pin designed for mobile?
    • Does it stand out in the Pinterest feed?

 

Of course, there are more ways your can always make your pin more helpful…

 

Show lists and multi-products.

 

Instructions and How-tos –  let the pinner know what they are getting.

 

Detailed descriptions – use all the space you can.

 

Text overlays – just be careful not to use too much.

 

Tasteful branding – use your branding, your logo, list your website.

 

Once you start using Pinterest for your business, there are a lot of opportunities for you to grow your brand there. For example, take advantage of group boards. Look at Tribes through TailWind (an AMAZING Pinterest management tool). Pin from brands you want to work with, pin to support small businesses.

 

Monica Lavin of Lavin Label, who had partnered with Pinterest, also shared her experience and some helpful tips on how to get the most out of this platform.

 

Monica’s Tips:

 

  • For every 1 pin you pin, re-pin 2 pins from other people.
  • Pin throughout the day (You can use Tailwind or Co-Schedule to schedule pins).
  • Look at pins that are doing the best – create new content similar to that. Re-pin pins that are not performing well.
  • Take advantage of Promoted Pins!
  • Use Rich Pins from your site.

 

Here are some best practices for all of us to take –

monica lavin pinterest

 

 

Are you using Pinterest? If so, what are your success stories? Remember every idea is a pin. Those pins are what helps us discover and ultimately do what we love.

 

Images courtesy of The Southern C Summit

 

 

in Advertising / Clients / Social Media 0 comments
Making Facebook Advertising Work for Your Business
 by Mandy Edwards

Making Facebook Advertising Work for Your Business

At this year’s Southern C Summit, I had the honor of leading a pre-conference workshop on Facebook advertising. I was blessed to have 15 fabulous ladies sign up for this session and we had a fun time digging into Facebook ads.

 

Why should businesses invest in Facebook advertising? According to Buffer, “91% of marketers invested in Facebook advertising last year. And it’s easy to understand why when you look at the data: more than 1.18 billion people use Facebook every day, and on average, each person spends more than 50 minutes a day across Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram.”

 

If that statement doesn’t convince you, take a look at these statistics from Hootsuite –

 

Social media advertising is the most cost-effective way to advertise in this day and time, with Facebook leading the way with the various, and amazing, options available to businesses.

Social advertising is the most cost-effective way to advertise, with Facebook leading the way. Click To Tweet

 

Now that you’re interested, let’s take a look…

 

When starting a Facebook ad, there’s a process you walk through in the Ads Manager to help you set up the right ad, and maximize it for the best results.

Step 1: Figure out what you are promoting and select an ad type.

When running a Facebook ad, you need to know what you are promoting and why you are promoting it.

Then there are three decisions to make –

  1. What are you promoting?
  2. Will your ad run via auction or reach & frequency?
  3. What type of ad will you choose? (Hint: Awareness ads are best for small budgets)

 facebook advertising objective

Step 2: Select an audience

Selecting your audience is the most important part – more important than the ad itself. When selecting your audience, you are narrowing in to target the ideal customer/client.

Your choices are to either –

  1. Create an audience from the options you are given (which can make unlimited combinations).
  2. Use a custom audience.
  3. Use a lookalike audience.

Step 3: Ad Placement

facebook advertising placement

Source: Facebook

Your choices for placement are:

  • Desktop
  • Desktop Right Side
  • Mobile
  • Instagram
  • Audience Network (this lets you extend your ad campaigns beyond Facebook to reach your audiences on mobile apps, mobile websites     and videos. We use the same Facebook targeting, measurement and delivery to make sure each ad on Audience Network helps you reach your campaign goals at the most cost-effective price.)
  • Instant Articles (See more here: https://www.facebook.com/business/help/825186870955247 )
  • In-stream Video

 

If you’re not sure, Facebook will recommend using the default placements for your objective:

  • Brand awareness (including Reach & Frequency buying): Facebook and Instagram
  • Engagement (including Reach & Frequency buying): Facebook and Instagram
  • Video views (including Reach & Frequency buying): Facebook, Instagram and Audience Network
  • App installs: Facebook, Instagram and Audience Network
  • Traffic (for website clicks and app engagement): Facebook and Audience Network
  • Product catalog sales: Facebook and Audience Network
  • Conversions: Facebook and Audience Network

 

For more information on ad placements, visit: https://www.facebook.com/business/help/175741192481247?helpref=related

Step 4: Set an ad budget and schedule

Ah, the budget. Here’s where you determine how much you are going spend for your ad. You have two choices: daily budget (how much you spend per day) or lifetime budget (how much you want to spend for the entire campaign).

 

Yes, you can run an ad for as little as $1/day but not every ad will let you do that. Here are the spend minimums:

  •      If the ad set gets charged for impressions, its daily budget must be at least $1 a day
  •      If the ad set gets charged for clicks, Likes, video views, or post engagement, its daily budget must be at least $5 a day
  •      If the ad set gets charged for low frequency events like offer claims or app installs, its budget must be at least $40 a day

 

For more information on ad spend minimums, visit: https://www.facebook.com/business/help/203183363050448

Step 5: The ad

 

Now the second-most important part of the whole process – creating your ad.

 

You can choose an existing post as your ad or you can create one from scratch.

 

If you are creating an ad from scratch, you have 5 formats to choose from –

 

facebook advertising ad format

 

Note: Formats will vary based on the ad objective you have chosen.

 

And after that is done and your ad is running…

Step 6: Track your ad

 

How do you know if you Facebook advertising is working (or did work)?

 

facebook advertising campaign dashboard

 

You can view the results of your ads in the Campaign Dashboard and view each ad (as shown above). You can customize your reports through Columns and Breakdown.

 

It’s really an easy process and once you’ve created and successfully run your first ad, you can start over with your next promotion.

 

The content above was taken from my workshop guide I created, “Making Facebook Ads Work for Your Business.” If you’d like your own copy of the 23-page guide, please click here to download your FREE copy!

 

What has been your experience with Facebook ads? Share with us below!

 

 

in Advertising / Entrepreneurship / Social Media 3 comments
Using Your Millennial Target Audience as the Face for Your Company
 by Drennan Saunders

Using Your Millennial Target Audience as the Face for Your Company

Oh millennials. We hear about them all the time. We hear about their low work ethic, question their motives and laugh when we see them take 100 pictures of their “soy low-fat Carmel macchiato, please”. However, if that is the case, then why are so many of these businesses craving their approval through social media? As a millennial myself, part of my answer is because that macchiato is about to get 2,000+ likes on Instagram.

 

But what is the most effective way for your business to gain the likes, follows and shares that these young adults hold?

 

About 97% of online adults (age 16-64) have either visited or used a social media platform in the last month. Going even further, 8 out of 10 internet users use social media on their mobile devices. This is no surprise to most of us. However, it is important to understand that millennials see the most advertisements in a week simply because they are the generation using most screen time through a variety of devices. Because of this, it is easy for millennials to quickly sort this media into two categories:

  1. Business we trust
  2. Business we don’t trust

 

Knowing this should definitely put some sort of stress on the importance of the content you are putting out there. It needs to be relatable, available, tell your story as a business – but at the same time, brief enough that a viewer does not feel annoyed/overwhelmed. If that is the case, then why not simply look to your audience for the influence? You know… the audience getting the 2,000 likes on a picture of a three-dollar coffee.

 

Now more than ever, consumers are looking to read reviews rather than ignore them. They want reviews that they feel they can trust and are not paid for. Google recently published a study showing that social media is practically always the first channel consumers face before purchasing a product. Opening the door to the idea of brand ambassadors could seriously benefit your business in a big way. For example, millennials are spending about 11 hours of their week streaming video content. Of those users, 60% of 18-24 year olds trust popular YouTube endorsements. A lot of this is because this these popular accounts, whether it be on YouTube, Instagram or other social platforms, have successfully branded themselves into a figure that their followers trust.

 

This person does not necessarily need to be a major figure. Many times they are simply millennials themselves. Compensation can be something as transparent as a discount, resume builder, or simply a shout out displaying their blog or social media handles. This connection should be thought of as a relationship rather than a task. As a college student myself, I have had multiple opportunities to be a brand ambassador and gained some solid resume experience.

 

So what is the bottom line here?

 

If the audience is able to see a connection they have with the individual behind the scenes of a brand; whether that be a sense of humor, adventure or drive they are more likely to go through with a follow or purchase. And what is a better way of doing that then supporting those who have supported you from the beginning?

in Social Influence / Social Media 2 comments
8 Common Social Media Marketing Mistakes & What to Do About Them
 by Mandy Edwards

8 Common Social Media Marketing Mistakes & What to Do About Them

When being in business, mistakes will happen. When using social media to help market your business, there is a huge opportunity for mistakes to happen. Knowing how to avoid them is key.

 

The world of social media marketing is gigantic. With numerous platforms to choose from, conflicting advice and strategies floating around, it’s not surprising to see so many businesses floundering about not sure if they are doing their marketing right. That’s where the mistakes happen. Off-brand messages getting posted. Too many, or too few, posts getting published. No analytics being tracked.

 

If you see yourself there, or if you are trying to avoid being there, help is here. Here are 8 common social media marketing mistakes I see businesses making, and some suggestions to help:

 

Doing More Than You Should

 

Often when a business decides to use social media, they think they need to do every.single.platform. If a marketing professional tells you that – fire them. You need to find where your audience is and focus on that. If that turns out to be Facebook and Instagram, then focus on those two platforms only. If it’s just Instagram, do only that. There is no need spending time on a social media platform that you have no audience on.

 

According to the latest data from Pew Research Center in November 2016, here is the demographic breakdown of the major social media platforms:

 

 facebook

instagram

 

 twitter

 linkedin



 pinterest

 

 Not Tracking Your Results

 

If you are not looking at your analytics on a regular basis, you’ll have no way of knowing if you social media efforts are working. Every platform, save Snapchat, has their own analytics component. Most social media management programs have them as well. To know if you are being effective with your social media marketing, you need to be consistently measuring your social media marketing efforts – weekly, monthly, however frequently you deem necessary.

 

If you are unsure what key metrics to look for, Sprout Social has a fantastic guide here.

 

Inconsistent Posting

 

Not having a plan, or posting consistently, is a mistake. Posting too much will lead people to stop following you. Not posting enough will leave people out in the cold because they will not know what’s going on. So, how often should you post?  That’s up for you to decide for your own business, however, here is my general recommendation:

  • Facebook: 1-2 times/day
  • Twitter: 5-6 times/day
  • Pinterest: 5-6 pins/day
  • Instagram: 1-3 times/day (depending on your business)
  • LinkedIn Company Page: 3-5 times/week
  • Snapchat: TBD based on your business type

 

Having the Wrong Message

 

Your social media posts should not be all broadcasts or worse yet, off-brand. People do not want to see sales pitch after sales pitch. Build a relationship with your fans. You want to use social media to educate your fans, yet build that relationship to establish trust. That last thing you want to do is to go off-brand to the point you leave them scratching their heads wondering if a 10 year-old is running your social media.

 

No Call-to-Action

 

Even though you want to limit your sales-y pitch posts, you do not want to forget your calls to action. People need to be prompted to do something. The CTAs (call-to-actions) can be something as easy as asking fans to like, comment, retweet, or share. CTAs lead to more conversions, not to mention more awareness for your brand.

 

Your Followers are Fake

 

I’ve become more active on Instagram with my business account and one thing I’ve noticed is newer accounts with unusually high following totals. When I go and look at who is following them… it’s mostly spam accounts. Even a “competitor” of mine is doing this. First of all, this is a Terms of Service violation that runs you the risk of having your account deleted, and second of all, this is an ethically wrong business practice.

 

Not Staying Up with the Latest

 

Social media is ever-evolving. Platforms change. Rules change. You cannot rely on articles and advice from two years ago. What everyone was suggesting in 2015 honestly is not applicable in 2017. When you seek advice or look at articles on Google, make sure to check the date of the article or source.

 

To stay up with latest, subscribe to a few blogs. Here are a few recommendations:

 

Trying to Do it All Yourself

 

This is the biggest mistake business owners make. Social media for your business can take all of your time, if you do social media right. As a business owner, you can outsource this to a social media strategist, or have someone in-house handle your social media.

 

Mistakes will happen. We’ve made them before – no business is perfect. The key is to learn from them and grow.

 

What other mistakes do you see businesses make on social media? Did we leave anything out? If you have any suggestions you’d like to add, please share them below in the comments!

 

If you see yourself or your business struggling with any of these, drop us a line and let us know – we’d love to help you get on track!

 

in Entrepreneurship / Social Media 1 comments

Send this to a friend