Do you hate Twitter and refuse to use it because “who cares what I had for lunch?”
Do you abhor Facebook and predict it will be passe by next year, so why go through all the trouble of creating a profile?
Does your boss prohibit people from using Facebook at work? And nix your budget requests for social media?
If so, read this quick explanation by Brian Clark of Copyblogger about why not participating in social media is a huge mistake and could be costing you dearly:
“Smart marketers participate in social media
because that’s where the people are.“
How many people?
Here are some stats that should convince you and your boss, courtesy of Adam Singer’s Social Media, Web 2.0 and Internet Stats:
- 346 million — The number of people globally who read blogs
- 77% — The percentage of active Internet users who read blogs.
- 200 million — The number of active Facebook users.
- 100 million — The number of users who log on to Facebook at least once each day
- 100 million — The number of YouTube videos viewed per day. (This stat is from 2006!).
- 77% — The percentage of active Internet users who read blogs.
- 1,111,991,000 — The number of tweets to date (see Twitter’s up-to-the-minute count)
Many of those people have problems, ailments and dilemmas—and are looking for free advice. Others are willing to pay somebody to make things better.
I like Brian Clark’s solution for the boss: Stop debating the premise that social networking does or doesn’t work “and start fixing the problem.”
Those stats are staggering! And, I completely agree with you. I think a lot of folks are just simply overwhelmed with the sheer volume of networks and bookmarking sites out there and don’t know how to harness the power of what these sites can do for you. To the newbie out there… start with just a couple of your favorites… favorites sites (Facebook, Twitter, etc), favorite bookmarking sites (Delicious) and Blogs (Publicity Hound, Scottfox, etc) and start learning and getting involved. Learn by doing and making an honest effort to offer valuable information. Don’t try to sell stuff, that will come only after you’ve built trust with the members of your growing tribe. Give your time, your expertise and help us fix our problems and you will eventually get all the benefits that social media marketing has to offer. Thanks Joan for the excellent post. Best, David
Joan Stewart,
It’s fascinating how you always hit a home run. I find it exhausting to try and tell a non-believer (boss or otherwise) the benefits of social networking. As soon as I see “that face” (and we all know “that face”) I imitate my oldest granddaughter and say, “whatever.” Yes, I become six.
MJ