Go ahead !!
Continue to ignore social
media
Richard Meyer
http://www.richsblog.com
Online Strategic Solutions

Internet growth is amazing
• Years to Reach 50 millions Users:
– Radio (38 Years), TV (13 Years),
– Internet (4 Years),
– iPod (3 Years)
– Facebook added 100 million users in less
than 9 months…iPhone applications hit 1
billion in 9 months.
– If Facebook were a country it would be
the world’s 4th largest between the
United States and Indonesia.
– The fastest growing segment on
Facebook is 55-65 year-old females

But marketers still struggle…

Even though
• Social Media has
overtaken porn as the
#1 activity on the Web

And 4 in 5 Online Adults are active in Social
Media

and BLOGs are an outlet for consumers voices
• There are over 200,000,000
Blogs
• 54% = Number of bloggers
who post content or tweet
daily.
• 25% of search results for
the World’s Top 20 largest
brands are links to user-
generated content.
• 34% of bloggers post
opinions about products &
brands
Because of the speed in which social media enables
communication, word of mouth now becomes world of
mouth

In fact word of mouth is trusted
• 76% of consumers rely on what others say, while 15% rely
on advertising*
*Socialnomics
Quealy,
Interview:
John
Gerzema

And TV advertising is dying
• Only 18% of traditional TV campaigns generate a positive
ROI

But social media networks continue to grow

And different demographics=different reasons
for accessing social media sites

Twitter growth is talked about but penetration
remains low among general online population

And let’s not forget that a wealth of information
is available online free of charge
• Wikipedia has over
13 million articles…
some studies show
it’s more accurate
than Encyclopedia
Britannica…78% of
these articles are
non-English

So then why aren’t marketers embracing social
media?????
They don’t know
enough about
social media and
even when they
implement a
program they don’t
how to measure
it’s effectiveness

Social Media is main stream and evolving
• More than 10,000 websites use Facebook
Connect, a service that lets Facebook
users log in to affiliated sites using their
Facebook account and share information
from those sites with their Facebook
friends.
– About 30 million Facebook members access it
through mobile devices.
• Twitter users spend 66% more dollars on
the Internet than non-Twitter users*.
• LinkedIn has more than 365,000 company
profiles. More than 12 million small-
business professionals are members of
LinkedIn.
*
Comscore

But who is using social media and why?

But be aware that Boomers are passing the torch
• By 2010 Gen Y will outnumber Baby Boomers….96% of
them have joined a social network.
• Generation Y and Z consider e-mail passé…In 2009
Boston College stopped distributing e-mail addresses to
incoming freshmen

Demographic segments are changing marketing

What to do ?
• Successful companies in social media act more like party
planners, aggregators, and content providers than
traditional advertisers

But all too often
• Marketers are stuck in traditional
marketing and advertising models.
• They prefer to interrupt us with
irrelevant information.

Stop thinking like marketers and start thinking
like customers
• It’s not about great
marketing anymore it’s
about a great brand
experience on ALL touch
points from HR, customer
service and products.
• If you really want
customers to listen don’t
talk and link people
together as people not as
segments..

Remember your website is not about you..it’s
about users
Business
&
Brand
Users
needs
and
Objec0ves
wants
Successful
companies
carefully
balance
business
and
brand
objec0ves
with
user
needs
as
website
visitors
will
spend
less
than
5
seconds
on
site
looking
for
informa0on
they
need.

Things you should be doing NOW
• Website Metrics-Your website metrics should tell a story
and identify opportunities for continuous improvement.
Forget numbers that don’t tell a story.
• eMarketing People-A balance of a marketing background
and understanding of how people use the Internet today. A
person who can bridge the gap between IT and marketing.
• Update and optimize-Ensure that your website is updated
and optimize it for your users based on what you learn.
• Identify social media threats-Consumers are talking about
you and not all of it is nice. If you ignore it it can damage
your brand.

Above all
• Realize that traditional marketing is dead.
• You don’t control your message, consumers do.
• One person with a BLOG can do a lot of damage to any
branding campaign you implement so identify key
influencers and engage them by listening.
• Hire people who are passionate about marketing and
understand the who, what, where and why of Internet
marketing.
• Become a catalyst for change in your company. Let
executives know what is happening but more importantly
why it’s happening.

Who are you?
• Rich Meyer
• 20 years of marketing experience and Internet consultant
who realizes that everything marketers do has to meet
business and brand objectives
• My Blog's
– http://www.richsblog marketing Blog
– http://www.onlinestrategicsolutions.com My Company
– http://www. Richardameyer.com Online CV
– Twitter: Rich Meyer
– Linked In: http://www.linkedin.com/in/richardameyer