By tapping into the strategically important phenomena of online social networking, your company obtains numerous business advantages. The expansion of the Internet has provided many new, exciting venues for cultivating more effective business relationships.
One website in particular deserves mention. Facebook began as a college-student run enterprise. The mastermind of Mark Zuckerberg, Dustin Markovitz, Chris Hughes and Eduardo Saverin, it launched on March 1, 2004 and by December 1st had acquired an impressive one million participants. Within the span of less than a decade, Facebook acquired more than one billion active users. During March 2015, 1.44 billion people visited Facebook as active monthly users and 1.25 billion were mobile active monthly users.
The site became a significant Internet platform. An astonishing 82.8% of daily active patrons reside outside the U. S. and Canada, making Facebook a genuinely global phenomenon.
Social Media Campaigns
An Important New Social Media Report
Accenture Interactive's Acquity Group recently completed a survey of 2,000 consumers living in the United States. The questions focused on the use of digital media by American households.
Although this survey found that television and print media retained a commanding presence in the news marketplace, it revealed that social media has also become a highly trusted source of information. Email, direct mail, YouTube and private news websites remain less valued sources of consumer knowledge. The survey demonstrates the immense significance of Facebook and social media platforms in impacting public opinion.
Facebook dominated as the single most trusted social media site. Consumers placed lesser degrees of trust in some other social platforms, such as Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter and Snapchat. (In fact, YouTube and some private blogs possessed the same level of rankings as Snapchat.) Additionally, the results reflected sharp differences in opinion based on age, with younger consumers expressing considerably more faith in Facebook's trustworthiness than their parents. Only 16% of Baby Boomers aged 52-68 trusted social media sources most for information.
Underlying These Statistics
Why does Facebook rank so highly in the estimation of large numbers of young people? In responding to the survey, for instance, among respondents with a college education, some 29% of consumers aged 18 to 22, and a startling 32% of consumers between the ages of 23 and 30, rated Facebook as the most trustworthy. They expressed considerably more faith in the reliability of information obtained through Facebook than from postings found at other, competing, social media websites.
Although the the causes underlying these statistics remain in dispute, some possible reasons for the results include:
- Declining television news broadcast demographics in the United States;
- The popularity of Facebook as a social networking site for Millennials and younger generations;
- Demographic differences in computer skills;
- A different weight placed upon peer opinions among different demographic age groups;
- The greater importance of digital media among younger age groups;
- Facebook's corporate culture may appeal most strongly to younger demographic groups;
- Efforts by companies to market to younger demographic groups using social media platforms;
- Declines in newspaper and other printed media circulation levels in the United States.
Sociologists and demographers will likely find extensive material for future projects as they evaluate the results of the Acquity Group report. One fact remains clear cut, however: companies hoping to promote brands to younger consumers should consider the importance of Facebook as a popular social media platform.
Future Implications
The recent Acquity Group survey holds value for anyone interested in developing on line advertising campaigns. Assuming that the surveyors collected data accurately and did not obtain results impacted by biased question wording or other technical polling issues, the responses certainly suggest that large numbers of Millennials and younger people in North America place considerable weight on peer opinions.
Both international corporations and small businesses could benefit from incorporating these insights into marketing campaigns. Marketers who modify social media campaigns to take this trend into consideration, may choose to emphasize peer group activities and on line social media testimonials while promoting goods and services to prospective customers within these demographic groups, for instance.
Since people within younger demographic groups hold great value as consumers of numerous goods and services, businesses seeking to attract more customers within highly targeted younger demographic profile groups may seek to enhance their Facebook presence. Some firms will likely reallocate the percentages of advertising dollars in order to reflect the growing significance of Facebook as a trusted social media platform.
By modifying an advertising message to appeal more effectively to customers in this setting, businesses may develop rewarding long term company goodwill. Even Facebook users who do not make a purchase initially, at some point in the future may choose to patronise a trusted enterprise familiar to them through their favourite social media platform. In this sense, the Acquity Group survey may offer important clues for streamlining social media platform advertising campaigns.
Conclusion
Given the importance of Facebook as a social media platform today, small wonder then that data suggests fully 25% of page views on line pertain to social media type pages at social networking websites. Facebook and other social media companies continue to attract new visitors every day.
Why? Consumers in large numbers trust Facebook. Companies today simply cannot ignore the power of social media websites. Quantum endeavors to provide customers with useful information about digital marketing trends. One of the most helpful resources that companies employ in cultivating effective customer relationships today pertains to social media.
Quantum assists businesses in developing and deploying massively effective social media promotional campaigns. We'll help your business enterprise cultivate customer relations using Facebook and other social media networks. By assisting you in developing a social media presence, we'll magnify your marketing efforts and promote your business more extensively in the process. Call today on 1300 3888 11 to find out in detail how we can transform your next social media marketing campaign.
