Most of us have experience with social media, whether it is sharing your latest selfie on Facebook or a #MondayMotivation quote on Twitter. There is no way around it – social media has changed the way we share and consume information, not merely on a social level amongst people that we know, but also amongst people we don’t know personally but have the power to influence.  “Influence” is the key word here – and businesses have taken note of the powerful influencing capacity of having a social media presence.

Here are some of the Social Media stats:

– Worldwide, over 1.86 billion people use Facebook on a monthly basis (with the largest proportion of users residing in India and the US), while Twitter boasts with nearly 320 million active users worldwide and is one of the top 10 websites in the United States. 79% of Twitter accounts are outside of the US, making it a relevant platform for international marketing.

– In December 2016, Facebook had nearly 1.15 billion mobile daily active users, with this figure steadily rising, while 82% of active Twitter users access it via their mobile devices.

– The most common age demographic for Facebook users is the 25-to-34 age group (at 29.7% of users) with nearly an equal number of male and female users. A similar demographic is evident for Twitter. Understanding your audience is one of the many keys to social media marketing success.

– On average, people spend almost 20 minutes on Facebook at a time.

– In May 2013, 16 million local business pages had been created on Facebook, thereby further changing the way business is conducted and aided in extending local businesses’ markets.

– Twitter ad engagements for 2016 increased by 151 percent since 2015, showcasing it as a viable means of advertising.

Social media marketing has been around for a while now, but it most certainly remains revolutionary. Many industry experts claim that, if you are not on social media, you don’t exist. This bold statement merely means that, since so many people use the internet as a means of sourcing and vetting the businesses they buy from if your business does not feature amongst all the other competitors out there, then you may as well be non-existent because your target consumers won’t know about you. The potential benefits of having a social media presence are just too great to not jump on the bandwagon and ensure that your business stands out from the crowd.

Social media marketing, as you will find, provides a relatively inexpensive method of marketing to a large captive audience when compared to traditional marketing endeavors; it also doubles as customer service platform, is easy to use, and proves most effective when taking the time to set up a social media marketing strategy that speaks to the needs and online habits of your target audience. Coming up with the right approach can be quite overwhelming, but that is where Coggno comes in: If you are looking to improve your business’ existing social media marketing campaign or to get one up and running, there’s no better place to start than with our online Twitter and Facebook Marketing for Small Businesses courses (only $12.95 apiece).

Social media marketing is only as good as the strategy you employ, and our courses will equip you with some of the essential tools and guidelines to stand out from the crowd!

(Source A; Source B; Source C; Source D)