In case you needed any more research to show the impact that social media has had on consumer media consumption patterns, here’s an article highlighting the point that four out of five Americans now belong to a social network.
Now, I know there are still a ton of skeptics in our industry about the topic of social media and at what point is the investment worth it and at what size should that investment be. This is a good thing!
Winning in the social media space is not easy. There is a ton of hype and often little talk about the leg work and the extensive creative thinking that is needed to make a social media presence an impactful part of your overall marketing plan.
I think these are the right kind of discussions that we all should be having and I can tell you our agency is doing extensive research trying to develop some basic benchmarks for the industry. In the meantime, take a look at the following research report – these numbers really do highlight how the rate of growth in social media usage is absolutely staggering.
According to the article…
“We’d like to officially welcome you to The Facebook Age. Now, according to a new report from Forrester Research, more than four in five U.S. online adults report using social media at least once a month, while half report participating in social networks like Facebook. And while young people continue to march toward almost universal adoption of social applications, the most rapid growth occurred among consumers 35 and older.
‘This means the time to build social marketing applications is now,’ said Forrester analyst and report author Sean Corcoran. ‘Interactive marketers should influence social network chatter, master social communication, and develop social assets — even if their customers are older.’”