Social Media Statistics that WILL affect your business or online strategy

From a business perspective, the recently released animated infographic video on social media statistics is vital. Now in its fourth edition, it is released by a widely acknowledged expert on “socialnomics”, Erik Qualman.  The video is available on YouTube here. The graphic, which essentially gives detailed statistics on all social media platforms, has been widely reported on in the “internet press” and can be viewed as an image here.

Of course, this assumes you have an online strategy or digital advertising strategy and in some way can utilize these detailed findings to your benefit.  Some of the statistics are mind-blowing. As I sit in South Africa, I will review these findings in a South African context.

Given Africa’s label as the “dark continent” prior to the explosion of mobile devices, it is not surprising that in South Africa particularly, social media is dominated by mobile internet access.  Unlike other parts of the world, Mxit, the SMS message platform, is South Africa’s most popular social network behind Facebook and Twitter. CNN has referred to Mxit as South Africa’s Facebook beater.

Online strategies should take account of this important, often over looked fact as most social media business models are built on the premise of a Facebook, Twitter, Google+ environment.  This may be appropriate to tap into overseas markets, and South Africa will probably catch up with the rest of the world when we have decent internet access, but one cannot ignore the fact that there are 60 million phones out of a population of 60 million people in Africa.

A locally researched infographic that pertains to South Africa can be viewed here. Strangely, it does not consider Mxit as a social media platform.  While one can expect this to be the case in foreign sectors, it is something that appears to require further African and South African research.

When one considers the statistics holistically, the following stand out for me:

1.      Africa is a far more mobile focused market:

a.      20% of South Africans now own a smart phone;

b.      According to forecasts by Informa Telecoms & Media, Africa will have 1 billion mobile subscriptions before the end of 2015;

c.       33% of mobile users in Africa access the internet.

2.      E-mail is being increasingly viewed as a passé form of communication in the American market with some Universities reportedly not even issuing e-mail accounts any longer;

3.      Increasingly, the social media audience is maturing (relative to its starting base) and is seeing large year on year growth in the over 55 category. 66% of all adults in the United States connected to one or more social media platforms;

4.      Facebook drives enormous sales:

a.      Users are more likely to buy a product or try a service if recommended it by a friend – 90% of users trust peer recommendations while only 14% trust advertisements;

b.      The Ford Explorer launch on Facebook was more effective than the much vaunted Superbowl ads.  An analysis of 60 Facebook marketing campaigns showed that 70% had a ROI greater than three times;

c.       Users are more likely to interact with brands that update their status and share images.

5.      Twitter is becoming a powerful force:

a.      There are over 465 million accounts and 1 million are added each day;

b.      Tweets with one or two hashtags receive 21% higher engagement than those with three or more hashtags.  Moral of the story: use hashtags economically.

6.      LinkedIn is fast becoming seen as THE professional, online tool:

a.      It has 2 new members join every second;

b.      In 2011 alone, there were 4.2 billion professionally orientated searches.

7.      Use Pinterest for your product or brand:

a.      Drives more referral traffic that Google+, LinkedIn and YouTube combined;

b.      Pinterest referrals are 10% more likely to result in a sale than any other website.

Statistics are often used by social media experts, internet marketers and in-house media advertising staff to make important business decisions. These stats are nearly always used to justify budget requirements, online marketing strategies and tactics to the person in charge.  A word of caution: these statistics are just data (or, as the new catch phrase goes “BIG data”) and regurgitating information is something anyone can do – analyzing the data with a specific knowledge of the context and requirements, and then dispensing useful analysis or advice, that is the trick.  As pointed out in an earlier piece, one must question the statistics and keep an open mind in the decision making process.

Of further interest on stats and decision making in the social media context, IBM conducted a 2012 global CEO study which, amongst other things, looked at the impact of social media.  Social media is now seen as a legitimate marketing strategy given the fundamental shift in methods of communication.  CEO’s taking part in the study (from 64 countries) see social media as pushing past websites, call centers and channel partners to become the number TWO (behind face-to-face) way of engaging customers.

The social media landscape changes rapidly and keeping your digital strategy up-to-date with the latest trends and methods is something that requires dynamism, a clear understanding of the platforms and quick decision making.  Gone are the days of meetings to discuss meetings. Hopefully.

8 thoughts on “Social Media Statistics that WILL affect your business or online strategy”

  2. I recently came across your blog and have been reading along.I'm impressed. You're truly well informed and very intelligent. You wrote something that people could understand and made the subject intriguing for everyone. I'm saving this for future use.

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  5. \”20% of South Africans now own a smart phone\”. This reminded me of the situation in India, where more people have more access to cellphones than toilets. Jason, emethod seo

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