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Category: Social Media
Many people think advertising and marketing are the same thing, while marketing can generate sales it is not “advertising.” Branding is marketing, but a strategic part of marketing.
It can get confusing.
Here is how it breaks down, what marketing, advertising and branding mean, as well as why they are all important to your business and its success.
Marketing Grabs Attention
Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings (products/services) that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large. (American Marketing Association) read more
- Do you have a Yelp profile?
- Do you have Yelp reviews?
- Do you get constant calls and emails from Yelp Sales Reps offering help to “boost your visibility” on Yelp?
If you have wondered if it’s worth it or not, you need to judge for yourself.
What is Yelp
Yelp is a business directory service and crowd-sourced review form designed to help local businesses by publishing crowd-sourced reviews about businesses. (Wikipedia)
Allowing consumers to view reviews and make purchasing decisions based on these reviews.
Yelp by the Numbers
- 35 million unique visitors, on average, visit the site monthly.
- Over 184 million reviews were written on yelp (by the end of Q1 2019.)
- 45% of consumers say they are likely to check reviews on Yelp before visiting a business.
The five most reviewed business categories on the site are:
- Restaurants
- Home and Local Services
- Beauty and Fitness
- Arts and Entertainment
- Events
How consumers find reviews on Yelp:
- 75% use the Search feature.
- 21% look up the business directly.
- 1% link to reviews through email.
- 94% find reviews via Social Media (46% of these people find the links on Facebook.)
- 03% find business reviews via display advertising.
Pros
Claiming your business profile is free. Once claimed you can upload photos, menus, services, address, phone number, etc. You can also add links to your website and Social Media profiles. read more
There’s been a lot of news about the mining of our personal data by companies (and countries) to use for advertising purposes or other nefarious reasons.
Most Social Media users are shocked to see ads for items they were viewing on the Internet or ads for things they were searching for on Google, even pleas from companies where carts were abandoned to complete the purchase.
While some of these ads can be attributed to a tracking code that websites have to find their visitors on Facebook, etc. there are other ways companies (and governments) get our personal data. There are also some serious tricks hackers use to obtain more personal information to generate our passwords or even more personal information. There are also things Social Media users do that put their home and family in danger. read more
Social Selling: Using Social Media to interact directly with sales prospects by providing value through thoughtful content and question answering, until the prospect is ready to buy. (Hubspot)
Social Selling removes intrusive direct sales from the equation, no more cold calls or sales pressure, especially when the prospect doesn’t want to be sold to or interrupted. It uses Social Media to interact and engage with prospects on their terms.
Social Media is often misunderstood by business owners and sales people, thinking the hard sell is what will convert people fast. Using Facebook or Pinterest to push your products or services with only sales updates is a surefire way to turn people off your accounts and stop following, ensuring no one will receive your message, sales announcement or not. read more
- 83% of Facebook users are female.1
- 75% of Facebook users are male.1
- 91% of Social Media users access Social accounts via mobile devices.2
- 79% of American internet users are using Facebook, making it the most widely used Social Media platform.3
- Pinterest drives 25% of all retail website referral traffic.4
- 93% of Pinterest users use the platform to plan or make purchases.5
- Snapchat reaches 41% of 18 to 34-year-olds in the US each day.6
- 71% of consumers who have a good experience with a business on Social Media are more likely to recommend that business to others.7
- Visual content is more than 40 times more likely to be shared on Social Media than any other content.8
- In 2015, Facebook influenced 52% of online AND offline purchases.9
- 94% of consumers do research online before visiting a store10
Sources:
http://www.pewinternet.org/2016/11/11/social-media-update-2016-methodology/ https://coschedule.com/blog/social-media-statistics/ http://www.pewinternet.org/2016/11/11/social-media-update-2016/ https://www.meltwater.com/sg/blog/35-stupendous-social-networking-facts-and-stats/ https://business.pinterest.com/en/blog/how-pinterest-drives-purchases-online-and https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2017/01/05/social-media-marketing-statisticshttps://www.dreamgrow.com/21-social-media-marketing-statistics/ read more
Around 7 out of 10 Americans use Social Media. They use the Social platforms to get their news, share information, connect with friends and family, and for entertainment.
Pew Research Center began tracking Social Media usage in 2005. At that time, 13 years ago, only 5% of American adults used Social Media.
Social Media usage by American adults is now at 69%. This is a marketing and advertising medium businesses can no longer ignore.
Social Media usage by adults in the USA:
- 73% use YouTube.
- 68% use Facebook.
- 35% use Instagram.
- 29% use Pinterest.
- 25% use LinkedIn.
- 24% use Twitter.
Break down of the top three platforms and usage as follows. read more
Hopefully your taxes are done (or will be off your “to-do” list very soon,) the weather is warming up, days are getting longer, and Spring has sprung. It’s time to do a bit of Spring cleaning, but while you are cleaning out closets and vacuuming under the sofa, stop and take a moment to give your Social Media business accounts a good cleaning too.
It’s a new season, a new quarter and it’s time to assess your business specials, any changes in services, etc.
Update Cover Photo – The cover photo is the first thing visitors to your Page see, it’s time to give it a refresh. Update the photo or add a video, business Pages have the ability to post a Facebook Cover video. This will really give your Page a new look. read more
YouTube!
Pew Research Center conducted a study of 2,000 U.S. adults in early 2018. The study found that YouTube dominates Social Media use, with 73% of all U.S. adults using the platform. Facebook garnered second place with 68% of Americans using their platform.
Social Site use by U.S. adults ranks as follows:
- 73% use YouTube.
- 68% use Facebook.
- 35% use Instagram.
- 29% use Pinterest.
- 27% use Snapchat.
- 25% use LinkedIn.
- 24% use Twitter.
Among all U.S. adults, Facebook remains the most widely “used” platform. Nearly three-quarters of the 68% users are using site daily.
Younger U.S. adults, age 18 to 24, tend to embrace a variety of Social platforms. Of the 18 to 24-year-old group: read more
Most businesses understand the importance of customer service, a necessary component of a successful company. Good customer service is typically shared with friends and family, but word about bad customer service spreads like fire and it can harm your business efforts.
These days, consumers are looking to Social Media to get assistance, in fact 42% of consumers are now using Social Media to express complaints and seek resolutions to their issues.
Additionally, people requesting assistance or sharing a complaint on Social Media expect a response from the business within 60 minutes and 32% will not wait longer than 30 minutes for a response. It gets even more critical during the night, over weekends, or outside business hours with 52% of consumers expecting a response. (Convince and Convert) read more
