Is social media a trend that's too big for your business to ignore?
By Adam
January 26, 2010
Small Business & Entrepreneurship
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If it felt like everyone was talking about Twitter last year, it wasn’t your imagination. According to the Global Language Monitor, which documents, analyzes and tracks trends in language, Twitter was the top word of 2009, beating out other trendy words like H1N1, 2.0, Deficit and, of course, Obama.
That’s not all. According to Nielsen Online, Twitter grew 1,382% – and that was just from February 2008 to 2009! Other social media sites like Facebook and LinkedIn also saw impressive growth.
Forrester’s Nate Elliott says the social craze is here to stay and Canadians are the world leaders in embracing it. In fact, he says 57% of us use social networks like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn at least once a month. (Americans are second, trailing at 51%.)
Okay. So how does all this twittering, facebooking and linking in impact your business?
It turns out some Canadian marketers like Vancity and Molson have been using social media for 3 or 4 years. For the rest of us—social networking newbie’s—we have some catching up to do.
Forrester developed a cool tool your business can use to better understand your customers who use social media. Check it out here.
And the Harvard Business Blog’s David Armano, offers some additional insight with his six social media trends for 2010:
1. As networks continue to fill with noise, more will allow users to select the chatter they most want to hear.
2. Most companies will use social technology to find effective ways to serve customers more economically.
3. Businesses will become more savvy at providing incentives to increase activity within their networks.
4. Companies will formalize how their employees can—and should—use social media network to interact directly with customers.
5. As many organizations ban social networks on work PCs, smartphones will become the social media vehicle of choice.
6. Email sharing will become so ‘Year 2000’ as more websites allow users to share information directly through networks—why email when you can tweet?
What’s your experience with social media been like? How do you plan on taking advantage of the power of social networks in 2010?
That’s not all. According to Nielsen Online, Twitter grew 1,382% – and that was just from February 2008 to 2009! Other social media sites like Facebook and LinkedIn also saw impressive growth.
Forrester’s Nate Elliott says the social craze is here to stay and Canadians are the world leaders in embracing it. In fact, he says 57% of us use social networks like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn at least once a month. (Americans are second, trailing at 51%.)
Okay. So how does all this twittering, facebooking and linking in impact your business?
It turns out some Canadian marketers like Vancity and Molson have been using social media for 3 or 4 years. For the rest of us—social networking newbie’s—we have some catching up to do.
Forrester developed a cool tool your business can use to better understand your customers who use social media. Check it out here.
And the Harvard Business Blog’s David Armano, offers some additional insight with his six social media trends for 2010:
1. As networks continue to fill with noise, more will allow users to select the chatter they most want to hear.
2. Most companies will use social technology to find effective ways to serve customers more economically.
3. Businesses will become more savvy at providing incentives to increase activity within their networks.
4. Companies will formalize how their employees can—and should—use social media network to interact directly with customers.
5. As many organizations ban social networks on work PCs, smartphones will become the social media vehicle of choice.
6. Email sharing will become so ‘Year 2000’ as more websites allow users to share information directly through networks—why email when you can tweet?
What’s your experience with social media been like? How do you plan on taking advantage of the power of social networks in 2010?