Tag Archive for Twitter

13 Mind-Bending Social Media Marketing Statistics

September 1, 2011 Molly White No comments

13 Mind-Bending Social Media Marketing Statistics

reprinted from Hubspot

1. 20 percent of searches on Google each day have NEVER been searched for before. (Source)

2. There are more than 3.5 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, etc.) shared each week on Facebook. (Source)

3. 43 percent of all online consumers are social media fans or followers (Source)

4. 53 percent of people on Twitter recommend companies or their products in their tweets. (Source)

5. The average American internet user watches 30 minutes of video online per day. (Source)

6. 35 hours of video footage is uploaded to YouTube every minute. (Source)

7. 56 percent of LinkedIn’s 100 million users are outside of the United States. (Source)

8. Every day, 2,300 new Wikipedia articles are created, adding to its 17 million articles, with contributions from 91,000 active contributors. (Source)

9. 1.4 million new blog posts are created every day. (Source)

10. 200 million Facebook users access the service from a mobile device. (Source)

11. There are more than 5 billion photos on Flickr. (Source)

12. 45 million people view SlideShare presentations each month. (Source)

13. $3.08 billion will be spent to advertise on social networking sites in 2011, a 55 percent increase over 2010. (Source)

Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, mobile, social location, social media, Twitter, YouTube , , , , , , , , , , , ,

What To Do When an Earthquake Strikes

August 23, 2011 Molly White No comments
Baltimore DC Earthquake Damage

Don’t bother making or receiving calls on a land line of a cell phone. Instead check Facebook or Twitter immediately. And communicate via Messenger, Chat, texts, and email.

Seriously.

Today, I was at the Maryland Zoo, sitting on a short wall, waiting for a tram, when I felt the wall shake. I thought it was a big truck or something, looked around, saw nothing that could be the cause of the shaking, and by the time I could process that there was nothing I could see that would cause the shaking, the shaking had stopped.

My phone rang, I couldn’t answer it. I couldn’t call out either. But I could receive and send emails and texts and I could check Twitter and Facebook. Thanks to technology and the interwebs, I connected with my husband and mother, who informed me that Baltimore had been struck by a 5.9 magnitude earthquake. I was then able to reach out on Facebook and Twitter to find out how all of my other friends and family faired.

I also managed to scoop up several AWESOME Foursquare badges!

 

Twitter and Facebook, kept me in the loop and up to date with everyone.  And Foursquare sucked me back in with these badges.

Everyone’s fine, us East Coasters are being heavily mocked by those on the West Coast and this photo is making the rounds on the internet, depicting the damage from the quake.

Baltimore DC Earthquake Damage

Baltimore DC Earthquake Damage

 

The takeaway from this is if you don’t have a smart phone, good luck contacting your friends and loved ones in the case of a large scale emergency situation.  And ALL HAIL SOCIAL MEDIA!!!

 

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Social Media Statistics in Video Format

June 29, 2011 Molly White No comments

This video was produced by Socialnomics, author, Eric Qualman using June 2011 information.

There are some powerful takeaways from this video including the information listed below.

  • If Facebook were a country it would be the world’s third largest, yet Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Google, aren’t welcome in China
  • 95% of companies using social media for recruitment, use LinkedIn.
  • Lady Gaga, Justin Beiber, and Britney Spears have more twitter followers than the entire populations of Sweden, Israel, Greece, Chile, North Korea, and Australia.
  • The Ford Explorer launch on Facebook generated more traffic than a Superbowl ad
  • 69% of parents are friends with their children on social media
  • 34% of bloggers post opinions about brands and products
  • 90% of consumers trust peer recommendations, 14% trust advertisements

 

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30 Social Media Statistics

June 28, 2011 Molly White No comments

Here is a list of 30 Social Media Statistics from the last several months. These were orginally posted by Jeff Esposito, and then reposted to All Facebook.

  • 5 percent of online shoppers note that social media influenced them to visit a retailer’s website (Foresee)
  • 82 percent of 18-29 year olds utilize a form of social networking (Pew)
  • 42 percent of American internet users over 18 actively use Wikipedia (Pew)
  • 40% of corporate Twitter accounts engage in some kind of customer service (Burson-Marsteller)
  • In 2011 marketers will increase their social media usage by 75 percent (Brian Solis)
  • 48 percent of consumers combine social media and search engines in their buying process (GroupM)Staff Members Dedicated to Social Media
  • 10.5 percent of CMOs say social marketing efforts are effectively integrated into their overall marketing strategy (MarketingProfs)
  • 97 percent of the top US charities utilize Facebook in their marketing efforts (UMass Dartmouth)
  • Of all social networks, YouTube has the highest Net Promoter Score with 50 percent of users saying they would recommend it to a friend (MarketingProfs)
  • ~140 Million Tweets are sent each day (Twitter)
  • 24 percent of adults have posted a review of a product they have purchased (HubSpot)
  • 41 percent of the companies report that there is no staff dedicated to social media (Useful Social Media)
  • 89 percent of companies note that social media will become a useful cog in their marketing mix moving forward (Useful Social Media)
  • 35 percent of small businesses utilize social media in their marketing mix (eMarketer)
  • Facebook expects to bring n $4.05 billion in ad revenues this year (eMarketer)
  • Facebook is the leading social network for nine out of 13 Asia-Pacific countries (Edelman)
  • One out of every six minutes spent online is on a social network (comScore)
  • 73 percent of the US internet population visits Facebook each month (comScore)
  • 62 percent of Facebook users between 35-54 years of age have liked a brand (eMarketer)
  • 64 percent of Twitter users are female (Pew)
  • 85 percent of LinkedIn users are Caucasian (Pew)
  • 47 percent of journalists will use Twitter as a source for a story (Digital Journalism Study)
  • Less than 3 percent of micro businesses utilize Twitter (Vistaprint)
  • 61.2 percent of Facebooking females list themselves as married less than a year, compared to 44.3 percent of males (AdAge)
  • The average media site integrated with Facebook has seen a 300 percent increase in referral traffic (Search Engine Land)
  • 61 percent of Facebook users who have liked a brand note that they are more likely to purchase from that brand (AllFacebook)
  • 96 percent of Americans use Facebook (Business Insider)
  • 80 percent of social media marketers are using the platforms to increase brand awareness (eMarketer)
  • Only 8 percent of US internet users utilize Twitter despit despite having a 92 percent awareness level (Edison Research)
  • 46 million Americans check their social media profiles daily (Edison Research)
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Behind the Curtains of Facebook Business Pages

June 20, 2011 Molly White No comments

The thing about social media sites is that they are all about showing the “Great and Powerful Oz”, in other words, they show the person behind the curtain.  Who is it that is running or working for businesses that you like on Facebook or follow on Twitter, or whose blog you read?

Is it the business owner herself? Is it a random employee? A person in the marketing department or someone like me, a person outside of the organization who is hired to run the social media?  And what’s the real difference?

If the person is doing his or her job correctly, the difference is nill.  The voice of the business on social media sites should convey the same tone that has been delivered via their additional marketing efforts.

In the case of small businesses, many times, an owner simply doesn’t have the time to dedicate to the maintenance and development of social media outlets.  I on the other hand, am on Facebook ALL day long.  I read it from my phone when I’m not in front of my computer and I have the tab on my computer pinned in my Chrome browser.

To run a Facebook page effectively, one must not only update and communicate with their fans, but must also stay up to date an in tune with their vendors, competitors and community and what they are doing on Facebook.  It’s good business sense to also go ahead and like those pages personally, as well as on behalf of the business.

For example I work for several businesses in the events and wedding industry. I am happy to say that I have been happily married for more than 7 years. I do however, follow a wide variety of wedding and event blogs, wedding vendors, bridal retailers and brands, and a handful of caterers, photographers, florists and other businesses associated with event planning as well as wedding sites and magazines.  They are not only a source of information, but also of inspiration.

I also meet, email and speak with my clients regularly and have acquired a solid feel for the way they conduct themselves in their businesses.  Because it is my job to act on their behalf when on Facebook, Twitter or blogging.  While I may not be a traditional employee, I am in fact, part of the staff, for my clients. I even had the privilege of attending a client’s wedding this past Spring and was included in the company baseball outing just last week.  Just a day’s work for this Social Media Manager :)

I run my own business, but I feel like I am part of each of my clients businesses as well.  It’s the best of all worlds and I absolutely love what I do.

 

Courtesy of Business Insider

 

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Ode to my iPhone

May 24, 2011 Molly White No comments

I’m more than in love with my iPhone, I’m fully addicted to it and couldn’t live without it. Why am I writing about it here? Because without it, I couldn’t do what I do, how I do it!

Here are my top 10 apps:

Facebook – Facebook, Inc.

Email

Calendar

Twitter – Twitter, Inc.

foursquare – foursquare

Springpad – Spring Partners

Camera+​ – tap tap tap

Instagram – Burbn, Inc.

Dropbox – Dropbox

Google Search – Google (docs)


The Facebook app lets me act as all of the pages that I admin, and not only post updates, but also post photos as those pages.  This is huge for me!

Email is pretty self explanatory, I use it more than I use the phone, and have to remind myself that checking and responding to email while driving is not safe!!

Lucky for me, I’ve got lots of appointments these days, plus the schedules of my 2 girls to juggle, not to mention my social calendar (insert sarcasm here).  Hence, the usefulness of the calendar app.

The Twitter app is my favorite of all the Twitter apps, I like it better than Hootsuite or Tweetdeck or any other Twitter app.  And the bonus is that it it’s free.  I can manage my own Twitter account, plus all of my clients accounts too, and get notified whenever someone mentions me or a client on Twitter.  It’s great!

Foursquare, oh how I love to alert the general public to my whereabouts and exciting life (again with the sarcasm) But honestly, I lurve me some foursquare!  I yearn to steal mayorships from my neighborhood foursquare nemesis (this is the first she’s hearing about this). I’m talking about you @RealtorMarney! Marney’s a real estate agent extraordinaire (she runs all her own social media and rocks at it BTW) and that woman is the mayor of my life here in Lutherville! And thanks to Foursquare, I’ve gotten free loot at Aveda, discounts at H&M, and discovered a delicious little lunch spot in a Towson Office building, Crush Cafe.  It really is a nifty tool that can be used to discover new places and save money while doing it.

Springpad is my note taking, moleskine replacement, task master, recipe storer, go to for anything not handled by Google (docs) and dropbox.  I can take meeting notes here, clip links, store recipes, wine labels, photos of articles, you name it, springpad can do it.  And then I can tweet them, share them on facebook, and access them offline if need be.  Springpad is magical.

And then there’s camera+, an app that makes the built in camera app look super lame.  It takes awesome photos and let’s me edit them, in app, all before storing them to my photo album. I can also share photos to my personal facebook and twitter account right from the app.  Thanks to this app, I no longer own a point and shoot camera.  This and my DSLR are all I need for vacation, special events, and the day to day photos I like to take.

Combine Camera+ and Instagram and my love for sharing photos is taken to a whole other level! Not to mention that as much as I enjoy sharing photos, I enjoying view other people’s photos even more.  Instagram is the perfect app to consume photo content on the go!

Dropbox and Google (docs) let’s me view and edit almost all of my files on the fly.  I store everything between these two sites/apps and can set up shop on anyone’s computer for the most part.  But used on the iphone, I can access anything, anytime.  No computer, no problem!

BONUS 11th app: Google Voice – Google
Were it not for Google Voice, I’d have a much higher phone bill and no way to discern personal from professional incoming phone calls. I can call people from my computer, home phone or cell phone and it always appears to be coming from my business number, 410-775-6187. I have visual voicemail, at no extra charge. And can send texts from my phone or computer, for free. It’s easy to use and indispensable.

So at the end of the day, each of these apps impacts how I work on a daily basis. I don’t know how I did what I do before that glorious day in February when I chased down my UPS driver to retrieve my iphone.  The phone I woke up at 3 in the morning to order and tracked it’s progress as it traveled from China.  All of my anticipation and excitement have proved more than warranted.  This phone let’s me do the best job I can for my clients.

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Social Media + Smartphone = Lifesaver

March 29, 2010 Molly White No comments

On Thursday, March 25th, my 3yo daughter, Isabelle took a ride on the outside of the escalator and my friend, along with a custodian at the mall, yanked her to safety near the top of the escalator (the height of the escalator was about 15 feet). In the process, Isabelle hurt her mouth and jaw.

I took one look at her and knew we had to go to get X-rays because I was pretty sure her jaw was broken. At the time, I was unaware of the implications of a broken jaw. Our first stop was Patient First, where an X-ray was administered.  While it wasn’t clear that a break had occurred it was enough to prompt a call for an ambulance. We rode, back and neck immobilization braces and all, to Johns Hopkins Hospital’s pediatric ER.

Once at the ER, Isabelle was given a CAT scan, which revealed not only a broken lower right jaw, but also a dislocation. We were admitted and told that the surgeon would visit us in the morning. While we awaited the go-ahead for admission and the hour of midnight approached, I hooked up my computer, juiced my phone and used social media to alert my friends to Isabelle’s perils and situation.  I’d also sent out some texts and made phone calls earlier in the night.  While Isabelle FINALLY slept, I found comfort in the comments and conversations of my friends on Facebook and Twitter in the post midnight hours.

And from there, almost without thinking, I chose to use Facebook as my means to communicate the goings on of our brief hospital stay.  I used my status updates to fill in friends and family about when her surgery would take place and when the Doctor, appeared, just one hour after we left Isabelle’s side in the OR , to proclaim that he was able to set her jaw and fix the dislocation without making the expected incision and without having to wire her jaw shut,  I rejoiced, and shouted it out to all my Facebook and Twitter friends.

In return, I found an outpouring of support, and received numerous offers of help.  Upon our return home with strict instructions from the Doctor to keep her on a liquid diet and restrict her movement, I have found Twitter and Facebook to be a great outlet for my stress, and again, a great resource for comfort and support.

Armed with only my Droid, for the most part, I was able to inform and update every single friend and family member about Isabelle’s predicaments.  They got photographs of her injury, cat scan, and recovery. They were able to communicate with me directly, and yet in a non-invasive way. Their emails, posts, tweets, and texts could be read and responded to at my convenience.

Only seldom did I pick up the phone and have a conversation and for the most part is was a challenge to do so.  The texts, posts, emails, tweets, and messages were far easier to manage and maintain.

My communication has changed significantly in the last 24 months and will continue to shift.  More and more, I rely on the apps on my phone as opposed to the phone itself.  The ease of disseminating information on social networks lends itself naturally to communicating with a broad group of people.

The same can be said for businesses. Using Facebook and Twitter to dispense information to your customers and clients is fast, easy and effective. If my personal page had been a fan page, the insights column would have been blowing up. The information I was posting was timely and of interest to my friends and they therefore responded to it. That same concept translates for businesses. Having a fan page and a twitter address is only half of the package. You must use it to converse with your fans and followers.

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I Don’t Read the Newspaper

March 22, 2010 Molly White No comments

A couple of years ago, I used a photo-sharing site to send out pictures of my kids to a list of friends and family. I used email to communicate with my co-workers and friends, a read a bizillion magazines every month including several local publications, watched the news in the morning on TV and googled restaurants and businesses in my area to gain information about them before going to them.

Now I use Facebook and Twitter.

I’m a fan of all the restaurants and businesses that I like, news outlets, special interest groups, and more on Facebook. I follow celebs, tech geeks, restaurants, businesses and news outlets on Twitter. Each time I check in on one of these services I have my very own personalized view of the world.

I only see what interests me because I have chosen to let these companies, businesses and people, share their news with me. I know that Monday is cross-town burger night at the Hamilton Tavern and that the elusive Droid update may or may not be happening tomorrow at 7am. I’ll be attending a private moving sale for Bosom Bufddy Bags on Thursday night, and before that I’m going to go stock up on some discounted wine at Cranbrook Liquors bright and early tomorrow morning. I also just found out that a Fells Point Landmark could be turning into a Hotel.  And I am able to show my friends and family this little incident that occurred while I was otherwise occupied.

Facebook and Twitter are my all in one news service completely customized to meet my needs and wants.  I love it when the places of which I am fan or a follower send out updates to let me know the latest goings on in their business because not only do I feel more “in the know” about the business, but it also helps me just to remember that they’re out there.  So the next time I’m craving a burger, I’ll think of the Hamilton Tavern and their Monday night burger specials.  Tomorrow I’ll be shopping at Cranbrook as opposed to my neighborhood store, and Thursday I’ve hired a babysitter, just to get to Bosom Buddy Bags incredible sale.

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Why is Everyone Checking In?

March 19, 2010 Molly White No comments

The SXSW event (an interactive media conference in Austin, TX) was this past weekend and many people in my twitter stream were in attendance.  I knew this not only because they tweeted about it, but also because they were checking in like crazy at all the events.

Checking in, huh? What? What’s that?

Checking in is the latest craze in social media.  It is mostly mobile, due to the fact that you should be physically present at a location when you check-in.  Depending on the location based service, you can win badges, claim titles, leave information about the location, and/or review the location.  You can also see the information that others have left behind.

Some of the location based services have made check-ins into a game, helping to generate buzz and encourage people to use their service, while others have made their mark by encouraging people to leave detailed reviews. Gowalla and Foursquare are the two most well known services and are as of the latest report, neck and neck with each other in terms of users.

So what’s all the fuss about? There are several aspects of location based social media that are important to businesses.

1) the review side; obviously good reviews are desirable and the more good reviews a business can accrue, the better.  When someone is using a social service to search for a specific type of business, i.e. a bar, restaurant, retail location, in a targeted area, they are more likely to frequent the business that is the most well reviewed.

2) the competition side; to gain points, badges, and titles in the location game, a person must visit a business with great frequency, thus encouraging people to come back the same business over and over.

3) On both the review and gaming side is customer data.  By utilizing social location services businesses can get a glimpse of their customers habits. Businesses can see when people are most likely to visit, what they like the most, or dislike the most, and so much more.

4)Many of the services auto-populate to a person’s twitter and Facebook news feeds.  For example, unless I tell Foursquare not to, it posts to my Twitter stream and to my Facebook account, informing all of my friends about my location.  This can encourage dialogue and further recommendations or not, about whatever business that I am visiting.

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Facebook is going to be getting into the game as well. Techcrunch is reporting that Facebook is going to use QR codes to allow people to check-in at businesses. What a great tie-in that would be to a businesses fan page!

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The benefits of being involved in social location are many. If you and your business haven’t yet gotten on board the social location train, you should consider it.  There are creative marketing campaigns that can be directed specifically towards the social location services and your customers can have a lot of fun with it in the process.  Even the BBJ is talking about it!

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