Statistics that are Disrupting the Growth of Your Company
I recently created a presentation for a client that outlined the transformational shift that Social Media is having on brands. The client was having the same issues I see with many challenger brands. They want to disrupt the status quo, but are still operating from a marketing playbook that is 10 years old. Their marketing/communication is becoming less and less efficient every year. Here are some statistics that I found that really distills the commotion that is happening in the marketplace (let me know if you think I’m missing any good ones).
- 54% of respondents say they trust radio advertisements, while 78% say they trust the recommendation of other consumers (Nielsen Trust in Advertising Report 10/2007)
- 60% of Americans regularly use social media; of those, 59% interact with companies on social media (Cone: Business in Social Media 9/2008).
- 70% of ad campaigns are now driven by their online component (AAAA Media Conference, Ignition Consulting 3/2009).
- 93% of social media users expect companies to have a social media presence in some form, and 85% expect the company to interact with them (Cone: Business in Social Media 9/2008).
- 77% of active Internet users read blogs (Universal Mccann Comparative Study On Social Media Trends April 2008)
- Facebook is growing in every age/gender demographic. Fastest growing segment: Women over 55, up 175.3% in the last 120 days (Inside Facebook 2/2009).
- 45% of Facebook’s US audience is now 26 years old or older (Inside Facebook 2/2009).
- Twitter grew 750% in 2008 (compete.com)
What should you do about it? You’ve got to stop thinking about creating mass awareness, and start thinking about having conversations. Focus your creative resources into creating more engagement. Engagement requires being more bold and daring. Engagement requires a reaction from your audience. In order to incite a reaction you need to do something truly remarkable. Give your audience(s) more reason to participate and most importantly be transparent. These marketplace disruptions can be leveraged for growth or can inhibit your growth.
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Great statistics. I totally agree with your idea, I think the only problem is that most of the clients are actually scared to use it because they think that they will give up their control over what is said about their brand. But social media is here to stay and we have to lear how to interact anf engage with it.
So, let´s do more presentations like that and change the marketing world to the better.
VIVA LA REVOLUTION!
The funny thing is that they have already lost control…many don’t realize it yet.