Social Media Marketing 2014: Where Your Audience Is

5 Actionable Social Media Marketing Tips For 2014 [Research]

Social media is growing up.
It’s no longer kid stuff!

Since most US adults use some form of social media, it’s mass media. Therefore marketers must understand where and how the public interacts on these platforms to integrate the implications of these behaviors into their 2014 marketing plans.

 

US social media goes mainstream

Over 70% of US online adults use some form of social media networking according to December 2013 Pew Internet Research. (Here’s how these findings compare to global social media trends.)

Further, Facebook usage far outnumbers other social media platforms with 71% of online adults using Facebook in 2013, up slightly from 2012.

Social media usage

While the number of social media sites used varies, most Americans use 1 or 2 sites. 

Slightly more than 20% or one out of five adults doesn’t use social media. 

36% of online adults use only a single social media site. Of these:

• 83% use Facebook.
• 8% use LinkedIn
• 4% use Pinterest
• 2% use Twitter
• 2% use Instagram

Over 40% of online adults use 2 or more social media platforms. Here’s how they use these 5 social media sites.

Social media usage frequency

Social media has become a part of our lives. For many, social media is where we turn to find out about our family, our friends and our world. With our mobile devices, it’s easy to check up one or more times per day quickly.

• 63% of Facebook users visit daily and 40% visit multiple times per day
• 57% of Instagram users visit daily and 35% visit multiple times per day
• 46% of Twitter users visit daily and 29% visit multiple times per day.

 

5 Actionable social media marketing 2014 tips

Here are 5 actionable social media marketing 2014 tips based on this Pew Internet research.

1. Know that your audience is social media savvy. This matters whether your business is B2C, B2B, Not-For-Profit or solopreneur. Regardless of where your business and executives are on the social media experience continuum, your target market knows how to navigate and engage on various social media platforms. Therefore they’ll apply their social media skills to consume your interactions on these sites they way they want to.
2. Include Facebook as a core element of your social media mix. As the 800 pound gorilla of social media, you can’t overlook Facebook. To this end, tailor your content for Facebook distribution and mix it up. At a minimum, add relevant, easy-to-consume content on a daily basis.
3. Get visual with your social media content. The appearance of Instagram on this short list of social media entities highlights the power of photographs to tell a story. As humans, we’re programmed to look at other people. Take advantage of this natural instinct by including images in your social media. Research shows that this increases engagement across different platforms.
4. Use a strong headline or hook. Use interesting titles to grab your prospects, customers and/or the public’s attention right away and get them to click-through your shared content to read more on your site as well as to entice them to share.
5. Leverage other key social media platforms. Don’t limit your organization’s social media use to these 5 entities, especially if you’re seeking the ever elusive teen and twenty-something demographic. At a top level, include Google+ and YouTube. As Google continues to evolve its search algorithms, these two sites will continue to increase in importance. Remember YouTube is the second largest search site after Google. To reach the under 25 set, get onto Tumblr and start testing Snapchat.

Social media is a part of people’s lives. To reach your audience, you must be present and participate regularly, just like they do, without being promotional or overbearing. Just as teens don’t want their parents snooping on their social media interactions, your customers don’t want you interrupting their personal communications.

What do you see as the key social media marketing trends for 2014 and why?

Happy Marketing,
Heidi Cohen

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Photo Credit: .http://www.flickr.com/photos/batmoo/3734837951/