The Pervasive Power of Today’s Social Media

Earlier I have written about how the desire for social connection helped launch the Internet and world wide web. Today Social Media like Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin are pervasive, powerful and respected. More importantly they are very wildly, ubiquitously used. They are the channel that will reach many of your prospective clients quickly, affordably and with a very high return on investment.

Here are some important bullet points and a video prepared by Erik Qualman, VP of Global Vice President of Online Marketing for EF Education, the worlds largest private educator covering the present reality and importance of Social Media.

• By 2010, Gen Y will outnumber Baby Boomers — 96 percent of them have joined a social network.
• One out of eight couples married in the U.S. last year met via social media.
• Years to reach 50 millions users: Radio, 38 years; TV, 13 years; Internet, 4 years; iPod, 3 years. Facebook added 100 million users in less than nine months; iPhone applications hit 1 billion in nine months.
• Eighty percent of companies use LinkedIn as their primary tool to find employees.
• The fastest growing segment on Facebook is 55- to 65-year-old females.
• Generation Y and Z consider e-mail passé. Boston College stopped distributing e-mail addresses to incoming freshmen in 2009.
• YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world.
• Twenty-five percent of search results for the world’s top 20 largest brands are links to user-generated content.
• Seventy-eight percent of consumers trust peer recommendations.
• Only 14 percent trust advertisements.
• Only 18 percent of traditional TV campaigns generate a positive ROI.
• More than 1.5 million pieces of content (Web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photos, etc.) are shared on Facebook daily.
• Successful companies in social media act more like Dale Carnegie and less like David Ogilvy — listening first, selling second.

Erik Qualman is also an important contributor to Search Engine Watch, here are two of his recent articles which provide much more information on the impact and importance of Social Media:  Social Media: Fad or Revolution? and 15 Social Media Maxims for Marketers. Check out both of them.  And keep on blogging and tweeting and networking!

Related posts:

1. “Socializing” with your website visitors works! A Bottom Line Income Increase from using Social Media
2. Measuring and Improving your Social Media Impact
3. Americans double their time spent on social networks
4. The Power of Organic Search Ranking Compared to Adwords – a 9 to 1 Favorite!
5. Don’t let SEO become expensive “life support” for a poor website