Social media IS where it's at

Yesterday, I was honored to give a presentation to a group of about 50 professionals at the Hibbing Area Chamber of Commerce's 2nd Tuesday Noon Connection at Hibbing Community College (Hibbing, Minnesota).

The topic of my presentation, "What IS Social Media? and why you should care..."

Wikipedia defines social media as: "an 'umbrella term' that defines the various activities that integrate social interaction and the construction of words, pictures, audio and video."

I prefer to simplify it - the bazillions of conversations people are having online (via social networking sites like facebook, Twitter, flickr, YouTube, Wikipedia, etc.). (Just FYI - Wikipedia says that a "bazillion" is an indefinite and fictitious number.)

When it comes down to it, social media is literally changing the way our world communicates.

Today, we have unlimited, at-your-fingertips capability to both distribute and consume information. From the iPhone, to laptops, Blackberrys, etc., social media has taken our world by storm.

For example: Here's a snapshot of the Hibbing Area Chamber's facebook page which includes a photo of 'yours-truly' giving the social media presentation yesterday. The chamber staff took the photo and shared it on their facebook page right away after the presentation. Someone could have very well done the same thing from their iPhone or other mobile device. Yeah...pretty immediate stuff!

Once (upon a time) completely organized, controlled messages (monologues) were all the rage.

Now? Not so much.

In the old communication model, we pushed and shoved our message and marketing campaigns to people through media like TV, radio, newspaper, etc., with the HOPE that someone in our target audience would see it and become our customer.

To put this in perspective, only 18% of TV ads generate positive ROI (return on investment) and 90% of people who can skip TV ads do. (Nielsen, "Trust in Advertising Report.)

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that social media marketing should replace any and all forms of marketing, because it shouldn't. With the correct strategy, they all still have a place in your business' marketing and media plan.

Social media is not just another set of tools, it's about building relationships (with existing and potential customers).

It's not about spamming 1,000,000 people with the HOPE that 1,000 of them will convert.

It IS about reaching the right 10 people who reach 100 people who reach 1000 people. It's a new form of word-of-mouth marketing, only on steroids. (See image at left.)

Social media has given us the opportunity to not only connect with consumers, but also the ability to interact with them more immediately. It's transparent, inclusive, authentic and consumer-driven.

It is a two-way conversation (dialogue) with an audience who wants to hear what you're saying. And, from everything I've seen and experienced, social media IS where it's at:

* Three out of four Americans use social technology.
(Forrester, The Growth of Social Technology Adoption, 2008.)

* Two-thirds of the global internet population visit social networks.
(Nielsen, Global Faces & Networked Places, 2009.)

* Visiting social sites is now the 4th most popular online activity (ahead of personal email).
(Nielsen, Global Faces & Networked Places, 2009.)

* The time spent on social networks is 3x the overall internet usage rate, accounting for 10% of all internet time. (Nielsen, Global Faces & Networked Places, 2009.)

The statistics* for facebook alone are unreal.

* Five BILLION minutes are spent on facebook EVERY day.

* One BILLION pieces of content (web links, stories, news stories, blogs, notes, photos, etc., are shared on facebook each week.

* If facebook were a country, it'd be the 8th largest country in the world, just ahead of Japan.
*Mark Zuckerberg, January 2009.

In the last year, Twitter traffic has skyrocketed

* Twitter grew nearly 1400% (yes, 14 thousand percent) from January to February 2009.

* There are roughly 3,000,000 Tweets a day.

* 13 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute; 100 million of which are viewed every day (FYI - it'd take 412.3 years to view 'em all, in case you were wondering.)


Many existing clients have asked WHY they should jump on-board the social media train.

Plain and simple? If you're not there, you're missing the boat.

Be where your customers already are. Interact with them and build lasting relationships.

If you need help getting your business or organization on-board the social media bandwagon, I can help! (It's pretty sweet having a job that's this much fun!)