Facebook (love it or hate it) is where people are.
Facebook continues to be a vital part in (most of) our daily lives.
The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project found that 92% of people using social networking sites maintain a profile on Facebook.
92%!
If you are developing a social media marketing strategy, you can’t ignore that number.
However, just because Facebook is such a behemoth doesn’t mean you get to ignore the rest of the Social Media Court.
The Social Media Court includes Twitter as the Queen, LinkedIn as the Prince and Pinterest as the Princess. (Instagram and Tumblr can be dukes.)
Social networking sites remain vital to people’s online life and behavior. And this behavior is only growing.
In September 2009, a Pew Internet survey found that just 47% of online adults used social networking sites.
Compare that to today, with 69% of online adults — representing more than half of the entire adult population in the United States — actively using an online social network of some kind.
On a typical day nearly half of all adult internet users access a social networking site.
In terms of Facebook, most current users plan on using it the same amount in 2013 that they did in 2012.
However, one in four did say that they plan to cut back on their Facebook usage this year. Most of those respondents were young adults ages 18-29 (38% of Facebook users).
So where are they going to spend their time?
Most likely with the rest of the Court – Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, Tumblr, and more.
This is not to say you immediately need to chase after every shiny new object, or that you must dilute your time and your message while spreading yourself too thin on many different sites.
I am saying that you need to pay attention to your target audience and your online community.
They may be happy to stay on Facebook. Or they may be migrating.
The important thing is to pay attention and to follow them where they go.
Don’t ever assume you can get your audience to stay where you think they should be.
Where do you spend most of your social networking time? Which site is your favorite? Please leave your thoughts in the Comments section. Thanks for reading!
photo credit: Durotriges via photopin cc
Comments 2
Thanks, Julia.
Interestingly, fewer than half of all businesses on FB can reliably report that they are generating business via FB. That may be partly due to “attribution” i.e. it’s hard to know what source(s) deserve credit for bringing you customers, or what mix of online outposts weighs most heavily in each purchase decision. In other words, you could be getting customers via FB, but even they may not remember if FB played a part in generating awareness or motivating them to purchase.
I suggest that any business considering a foray in to social media first find out which social “channels” their potential customers already use and prefer to use to conduct business. Many of us prefer to keep business and personal life separate, and mirror that preference in our online habits. Some FB account owners view FB as a place to connect with family and friends and post / view cute kittehs, but would rather visit your blog or website to do business.
Having a FB presence for your business is another way to drive traffic to your business site, but you might find that LinkedIn (especially for B2B) or a blog format is more conducive to customer conversations and guiding purchase decisions.
Moral: fish where the fish are – with mood food.
That >90% Facebook membership number seems quite compelling, though!
Cheers,
Ed
@fanfoundry
Author
Hi Ed, Great points. As with all marketing, you can never know what is really driving people to your business – a great sale, friendly customer service, word of mouth/referrals, etc. You need to try to estimate where you are getting the most bang for your buck and your time, and invest more resources there. But it is certainly not a perfect science. However, those that are generating business and leads on Facebook are doing a great job of it – we need to learn more from them! I think the disappointing results businesses get stem from inflated expectations – they think they can push their services and their products with no interaction, no feedback, no acknowledgement, etc. I find that all the time, and it’s disheartening. But the businesses and nonprofits that create vibrant online communities are usually the ones that see an increase in awareness and brand affinity, which can then lead to sales, donations and increased business overall. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. And you absolutely need to be where the fish are, wherever and whomever your particular fish may be!