The advent of social media and its subsequent integration into our lives has diversified our living, communication, and information sharing pattern. The use of social media has real-life implications in terms of its use, market dynamics, identity, and privacy.
Statistics reveal an evolving number of social media users and activity, i.e. six out of 10 users of Instagram login daily, while Tiktok has crossed one billion active users. Along with personal communication and information-sharing platform, the use of social media for marketing and branding has remained prevalent to reach out to the masses. It is used to communicate and interact with product users, and to expand business by pursuing brand awareness. The study of social media use in terms of trend and product alignment is important to prospect opportunities and challenges for business and branding.
The following article from Threecolts attempts to ideate important aspects and trends useful to craft a strong marketing and branding strategy and hold some substantial competitive advantage.
Understanding the Size of Social Media
Firstly the existing statistics reflect that 4.59 billion people on the planet use social media, which is approximately 57% of the global population. Interestingly, this ever-growing number, spend a substantial amount of their waking life, i.e. 15% on social media platforms. People spend an average of two hours and 27 minutes per day on social media. Facebook is used by 36.9% of the total world population every month. As social media becomes more ubiquitous, it presents opportunities for businesses to reach wider audiences through social media marketing at lower costs. This makes it an ideal platform for entrepreneurs, businesses, and online sellers to showcase their stories. This time is an opportunity for businesses for reaching out to new markets and ensure their visibility. This time can be termed as attention time that is on sale.
Given the massive size of potential customers, these viewers and users are clustered among various social media platforms, namely Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Tiktok among many others. However, the table is topped by Facebook in terms of most users since its launch in 2004. It has over 2.9 billion monthly users and generates 4 million likes and 35 million status updates every minute. Whereas, 80 percent of US adults claim to be active users on Facebook, which has more than three-quarters of the adult population of the US. Besides, India has the largest Facebook audience size, with almost 400 million users, followed by the US, Brazil, and Indonesia. Facebook video posts can increase interaction by 600 percent, and engagement on the platform increases by 18 percent on Thursdays and Fridays. Marketers should be aware of these statistics and how Facebook algorithms work to optimize their content for maximum reach.
Understanding Usage and User Dynamics
Secondly, understanding the user dynamics, such as consumer choice, age concentration on each platform, and time spent by them is vital. Although Facebook is the leading platform in terms of users, TikTok tops the charts as the favorite of the younger generation, i.e. 26% of users opted for TikTok as their favorite app, emerging as a major Facebook rival. The fact is essential to understand the future variation of consumer choices for brands targeting Generation Z to understand the platform, as 44% of users under 25 use it. By 2024, it is prospected to surpass YouTube in terms of revenue, while it has already proven to be an effective business with a 700% increase, 24% of marketers used it to reach their business and marketing goals. Amazingly, one-fifth of the total users on TikTok spend more than five hours daily on the platform which poses a great opportunity for brands to target a younger audience.
The Pew Research Centre study ideates an age-based social media usage dynamic in the US and concludes that 84% of adults aged 18-29 are active social media users, compared to 81% for those aged 30-49, and 73% for those aged 50-64, while significant baby boomers are also increasingly adepting. Brands have found success in promoting their products on Instagram stories. Understanding the different age groups’ social media usage can help with branding and marketing strategies.
Thirdly, knowing how customers use social media is important. The trend of impulsive trade has declined and now customers use social media to research products, i.e. descriptions, reviews, recommendations, photos, and videos. Thus, maintaining an online presence has evolved to be a necessity and existential trait for businesses. Furthermore, social media is evidently the most used social media for support, such as customer support, service options, complaints, help, and awareness, programs need to be abrupt, efficient, and retentive. The lack of efficient and timely customer support gives a 30% scale opportunity to the competitors with better customer support.
Understanding Efficient Tools
Fourthly, the recognition of the online presence and customer support must be followed by knowing what and how to use social media for maximum impact. Influencers are the driving factors of profits and building brand trust. Brand ambassadors of diverse levels, from celebrities to small influencers with some thousand’s followers are available as per the product and judgment conformity. The second essential tool is Instagram stories, which allow you to share glimpses from your daily life without having to save them to your profile. They are useful to increase the visibility that gets new followers, keeps customers in the loop, and can also be used to engage and interact with them via polls and views. Thirdly, Video is also the most impactful way to establish a digital presence in social media and advertising. Video traffic continues to grow and now accounts for 227.6 exabytes per month, which is a 400 percent increase since 2016.
Understanding Strategy Development
Lastly, social media strategy development is an important aspect of boosting revenues. Firstly, developing a proactive Social media crisis management plan is crucial. Social media is a dynamic place and the speed and direction of the narrative guide public opinion, thus constant monitoring of social media and subsequent honest and responsiveness plans must be practiced. Secondly, social media spending strategy is also important. More than 50% of marketers spend half of their marketing budget on social media ads, probably surpassing TV as spending. This shift reflects the efficacy of reaching the target audience and achieving the best returns on ad expenditure. Thirdly, targeting ads on mobile devices is also crucial to understand. The growth of social media usage is mobile-oriented and consequent content is also mobile-centric. Brands need to optimize their content for mobile interfaces to ensure that they can engage their audience and reach them effectively.
So now knowing the plan is getting the half work done, it’s time to customize these insights to have your very own plan that fits your product, brand, and audience. Because a strong social media presence essentially wins the game for your business.