Social Media - What Does It Mean To Your Business, Your Career?

 

No matter what your career or business model, social media must be included in the marketing report, even if  to say "it is not important." Huh?

Eirk Qualman, author of Socialnomics says "we don't have a choice on whether we DO social media, the question is how well we DO it."

Yet, despite the data noted below, reports continue to roll across the stat pages showing that the typical ("typical") businessperson scoffs at social media. I'm afraid those I've asked the question to in the past 2 months prove that to be true. Which concerns me because my experience with the "five years from now I'll be, etc," you know what I mean if you've read much of this blog or known me for very long.

Those scoffing at social media need to take their head-out-of-the-sand and AT LEAST know what they are up against, no matter what their career, job, business, etc. Granted, some businesses could possibly not have a competitive advantage in using social media, but there are still plenty of reasons to not scoff at its reality and what it can do to or for you.

Consider the following data -

• 1 out of 8 couples married in US met via social media (I personally know 4 couples)
• If Facebook were a country it would be the 3rd largest
• A US Dept of Education study revealed that online students out perform classroom students
• Boston College and some other universities has stopped distributing e-mail accounts and depend upon social media
• The time it took to reach 
• 50 million users
• Radio - 38 years
• TV - 13 years
• Internet - 4 years
• iPod - 3 years
• 200 million users
• Facebook - 11 months
• 1 Billion downloads
• iPod - 9 months
• 80% of companies use social media for recruiting; 95% of these use LinkedIn
• The fastest growing segment on Facebook is 55-65 yr old females
• 34% of the 200,000,000 bloggers post opinions about products and brands
• 78% of consumers trust peer recommendations; only 14% trust advertisements
• Social Media isn't a fad, it's a fundamental shift in the way we communicate

Your career, or business, not benefit? Think what all this means for BAD customer experiences!

These facts and more are in the above video.

What are you doing to your career or business with or without social media. Again, even if you don't use Facebook, or LinkedIn, or Twitter, or a host other social media sites, at least know what is going on; ask questions, talk to your peers....pay attention. You career might depend upon it!

To that end....