Australians’ online activities now consume nearly an entire day each week, according to Nielson’s Connected Consumers Report. Here are some surprising Australian social media stats, current as of the 30 April 2014*:
- Twitter: 2,500,000 users
- LinkedIn: 3,500,000 users
- Google+: 65,000 users
- Pinterest: 400,000 users
- Tumblr: 4,800,000 users
- Stumble Upon: 56,000 users
- Myspace: 180,000 users
- Instagram: 1,600,000 users
With so many touch points out there, the opportunities to connect and engage with your customers are growing. What’s more, increasing mobility enables brands to engage at the right time, in the right place.
Here are five trends to jump on today:
TREND 1: Social Listening Becoming Important
Social media is a powerful tool to listen and learn directly (and quickly!) from your community. Tools like Addictomatic and Google Alerts are two free web tools you can use to see what people are saying about your business. The real-time nature of social media is challenging, but there’s nothing more exciting than a tweet getting ReTweeted, an Facebook photo getting hundreds of Likes, or an experimental Tumblr post receiving an unusually high number of +1s. Stay vigilant about measuring the results of every campaign and adjust your strategies to beat your best results.
TREND 2: 57% of Marketers Use Social Advertising
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and others are daily destinations for millions of Australians who spend an average of 37 minutes per day on those channels. Here’s a simple plan to get started with social ads:
- Establish measurable marketing goals.
- Set your budget (start small).
- Know your audience’s needs.
- Pick the channel.
- Research different ad types (how they work, how to leverage them and how your audience will perceive them).
- Check out the competition.
- Optimize your landing pages.
- Experiment and create ad copy (two or three versions).
- Test and measure.
TREND 3: Email and Social Integrate
You would think the widespread use of social media has made email obsolete. But email is alive and well, according to 68% of marketers who say email is core to their business. In fact, social media has made email even more powerful than ever.
If you really want to see results, you need to listen and respond strategically:
- Understand the full picture before you respond. Don’t just listen; understand first—are you hearing one loud voice or a growing trend? Is positive sentiment due to great advertising or an awesome product?
- Consider the context of online updates and conversations—are customers reaching out to you directly or venting to their friends? It’s their context (not yours) that matters. Your response should fulfill their expectations.
- Engage with the intention of delivering value—customers have shown they’re willing to give up some level of privacy in exchange for better service and incredible value.
TREND 4: Social Media ROI Remains Elusive
Most marketers are dedicating more time and resources to social, but they’re still not 100% sure how effective it is in terms of ROI. Many business owners make the mistake of not measuring social media ROI. Know this—As long as you’re not measuring, you will never understand how social media marketing can benefit your business.
Measuring helps you to be intentional about your marketing activities instead of spending time and resources on useless tactics that don’t work.
Start by defining clear, measurable social media goals such as brand awareness (eg, Facebook likes) or lead generation (eg, email opt-ins or content downloads). Then develop a content strategy to achieve those goals. Focus on one or two social channels where your target audience hangs out and gradually scale as your audience and your resources grow.
TREND 5: Implementation – Content is King
It’s time to turn insight into actions—preferably on an editorial calendar. Weave social media into the DNA of your business, but start with the people who are enthusiastic advocates. Empower your staff to tell a great story. There should be a combination of original content from your team and content you can curate and share from your community of followers.
This is a time of digital Darwinism, where technology and society are evolving faster than the ability to adapt. With every new trend, with every new device, businesses are presented with new opportunities and challenges to compete. But it is how businesses change (and how they don’t) that is creating a Darwinian ecosystem where leaders must think beyond survival today.
How are you changing the way in which your business uses social media? Are you actively listening to what people are saying about your brand across every communication channel, every day?
Need some help? Contact us and we would be delighted to help you or answer any questions that you may have.