Recently I came across some YouTube videos created by Erik Qualman, a best selling author. They are all called Social Media Revolution, but a new one with updated facts is released each year. After watching videos from the past few years, I couldn’t help but be fascinated by statistics proving that social media is continually changing the world. I know, I know, most of you already knew that – but it doesn’t make some of the stats in the videos any less interesting!
In the videos, Qualman’s states, “We don’t have a choice on whether we do social and mobile the choice is how well we do it.” All brands have to be aware of the fact that technology is making everything real time and therefore, real time marketing has to be considered. People no longer have to watch the news or search for the news in order for news to reach them. Nor do they have to search for a product or a service. News, products and services are being placed directly in front of us, and if they aren’t then they might just go unnoticed completely.
Here are some interesting facts from the 2015 video:
- In 2011 Facebook had the 3rd highest world population, but just 4 years later it now has the highest with LinkedIn coming in 7th – just above the United States
- More people own a mobile device than a toothbrush
- Grandparents are the fastest growing demographic on Twitter
- 90% of buyers trust peer recommendations (much higher than the percentage who trust advertisements)
- The average person has a :07 attention span…the average goldfish has :08
- By 2018 video will account for over two-thirds of mobile usage
Social media is quickly becoming the best, and quite possibly the only way to reach people. So, the question is do you like how people perceive your brand? Or, better yet – do they perceive you at all?