The short answer is social media is user generated content.
It is comprised of:
- blogs
- microblogs (e.g. Twitter)
- wikis
- social networking (Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn)
- video sharing sites (e.g. YouTube)
- photo sharing sites (e.g. Flickr)
- social bookmarking (Digg, StumbleUpon, Del.icio.us)
- message boards
- forums
- user reviews (e.g. Amazon)
- content aggregators (e.g. FriendFeed)
Is social media right for my company?
Instead ask yourself this: “Should my business be sharing who we are and what we do with the world?”. The answer of course is “Yes”. That’s why you are in business: so more and more customers can find you, buy from you and tell everyone they know how great you are.
Some statistics on social media
McKinsey & Co estimate that 2/3 of the economy is influenced by personal recommendation.
86% of Australians said a referral from a “friend” in social media would positively influence their purchase decision.
Products and services now find customers in social media.
67% of mobile internet traffic is for Facebook. Imagine what that means for bad customer experiences!
There are 200,000,000 blogs and 34% of them talk about products and services.
Just 14% of people trust advertising and 78% of people trust consumer recommendations.
Social media friends are now estimated to be worth as much as $3.60 each before they purchase!
Facebook alone with 800+ million users generates more traffic and influence than Google.
