B-to-B Marketers: Why You Should Embrace Social Media
Everyone’s putting out stats on how one element or another of the social media landscape is doing, i.e. 175 million Facebook users spend an average of 3 billion minutes a day on Facebook, according to Conde Nast Portfolio; Twitter is growing at a 1,382% annual growth rate; Facebook has grown from 100 million to 200 million users in less than 8 months.
What does all this mean to the B-to-B marketer? It means that the world is embracing social media in one form or another. It means that Americans have not only found it, but are using it. Media post reports 49% of us are using some combination of social media in their life. Here’s a breakdown of social usage by age, gender and education that I think you’ll find interesting from a poll by Harris Interactive:
Online Social Network Usage – By Age & Gender (All Online Adults; % of Age Group) | |||||||
Age Group | Gender | ||||||
Network Usage | Total | 18-34 | 35-44 | 45-54 | 55+ | Male | Female |
Have a Facebook or MySpace account |
48% |
74 |
47 |
41 |
24 |
45 |
52 |
Update Facebook or MySpace account at least once a day |
16 |
29 |
17 |
10 |
3 |
14 |
18 |
Use Twitter (Net) |
5 |
8 |
7 |
4 |
1 |
5 |
5 |
Follow people on Twitter |
5 |
8 |
6 |
4 |
1 |
5 |
5 |
Use Twitter to send messages |
3 |
4 |
5 |
1 |
* |
3 |
2 |
None of these |
51 |
25 |
50 |
59 |
76 |
54 |
47′ |
Source: Harris Interactive, April 2009 Multiple responses allowed; * indicates less than 0.5% |
Online Social Network Usage – By Education (All Online Adults; % of Group) | ||||
Education | ||||
Network Usage | Total | HS or less | Some College | College Grad+ |
Have a Facebook or MySpace account |
48% |
40 |
55 |
52 |
Update Facebook or MySpace account at least once a day |
16 |
14 |
18 |
16 |
Use Twitter (Net) |
5 |
3 |
7 |
6 |
Follow people on Twitter |
5 |
3 |
6 |
6 |
Use Twitter to send messages |
3 |
1 |
4 |
4 |
None of these |
51 |
59 |
43 |
47 |
Source: Harris Interactive, April 2009 Multiple responses allowed; * indicates less than 0.5% |