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Tim Lorang Blog

Social Media Users and your Social Media Marketing Plan

Posted by Timothy Lorang on Mon, Sep 26, 2011 @ 10:00 AM

Social Media UsersI have often written about why businesses should be using social media as part of their marketing strategy. This is even more important in light of recent research reported in The Social Media Report, Q3 2011 by Nielsen. According to Nielsen visiting social networks and reading blogs is by far the top online activity at 22.5%. This far outstrips gaming, the second most popular online activity at 9.8% or reading e-mails at 7.6%. What I found more impressive is the how influential active social media users are on the internet.

In my blog on The Social Media Habit I cited the Edison Research/Arbitron Internet and Multimedia Study 2011: The Social Habit II and their analysis of Frequent Social Networkers. These are the people who use their social networks several times a day and make up about 33% of all Social Networkers. Some people have told me that this is too small of a group to bother with but it turns out that this group exhibits most of the characteristics of Connectors, Mavens and Salesmen that Malcolm Gladwell describes in his book The Tipping Point. For more on this see my blog: Do You Make It Easy for the Social Media Mavens? The point is that Frequent Social Networkers, active social media users as Nielsen calls them, are very active and, according to Nielsen, more active and more influential than your average adult internet user.

Active Social Media Users Are:

  • 19% more likely to attend a professional sporting event
  • 45% more likely to go on a date
  • 18% more likely to work out at a gym or health club
  • 75% more likely to be heavy spenders on music
  • 47% more likely to be heavy spenders on clothing, shoes and accessories
  • 26% more likely to give their opinion on politics and current events
  • 33% more likely to give their opinion on TV programs
  • 53% follow a brand
  • 32% follow a celebrity.

Active Social Media Users Are Influential Offline

While 73% of social media users are spectators they read the reviews, recommendations and posts made by the active social media users. In fact consumer based reviews and posts are the preferred source of information for people researching products, services and businesses online. Contrary to the popular myth those active social media users are sequestered in their parent’s basement glued to the computer screen they are in fact very active in the real world. These are the people you are most likely to see at a sporting event, working out in the gym or trying out a new restaurant or shop. They not only tell their online community they also influence their offline community. When your business connects with an Active Social Media User you amplify and increase your reach. How are you using social media in your marketing plan? Give us your thoughts below.

Photo Credit: Corbis

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Topics: Social Media, Online Marketing, Local Marketing, Business