Business Online

Social Media Statistics

Mon, 30 May 2011 05:04:00 GMT

Social media isn’t a fad...... It’s a revolution!

Social Media tools including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Blogs and YouTube are taking the world by storm. Information is truly at our fingertips and can be spread faster than ever before.

Here are some statistics and information showing the extent to which Social Media has grown.

80% of the Australian population use the Internet (17 million people).
74% of the world Internet population have now visited a social networking/blogging site.
Internet users are spending an average of almost 6 hours per month on social media sites. Australia has the highest global average with 7 hours per month.
Facebook has more than 600 million users.
If Facebook were a country it would be 3^rd largest in the world behind: China and India.
Facebook has more than 9 million users in Australia, which means a penetration rate of 45%.
Facebook gained 80 million new accounts in the first quarter of 2011.
The fastest growing segment on Facebook is 55-65 year old females
475 million Facebook users are between 18 and 44 years old.
Roughly 1 billion pieces of content are shared on Facebook – DAILY
Twitter has 175 million members.
Twitter’s unique visitors increasing from under 200 000 in May 2009 to 10 million in May 2010.
LinkedIn has seen one of the fastest growth trends amongst social media sites in Australia, with unique audience numbers increasing by 99% from July 2009 to May 2010.
80% of companies are using LinkedIn as their primary tool to find employees
There are 161 million blogs on internet.
1 out of 8 couples who married last year in the US met via social media
78% of consumers trust peer recommendations, only 14% trust advertisements

The most phenomenal part is the speed at which Social Media is taking hold. Below are some further figures regarding adoption of various technologies over the years.

Years to reach 59 million users:

Radio – 38 years
TV – 13 years
Internet – 4 years
iPod – 3 years
Facebook had 100 million users in less than 9 months
iPod application downloads hit 1 billion in 9 months

‘Social media is not a fad, it is a fundamental shift in the way that we communicate’ - YouTube

We hope you found this information interesting and that it motivates you to investigate Social Media opportunities for your business.

Be prepared for the Christmas rush

Thu, 04 Nov 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Christmas is rapidly approaching. The number of people shopping online increases every year and Christmas is no exception. To take advantage of this retail opportunity you need to start planning early.

It is important to plan early for the festive season. Some forecasting can help with this planning by identifying trends from earlier years.

This is a great time for special promotions, email campaigns or even a special christmas theme for your website. There are also various, more fundamental issues you need to address in planning for a productive and merry christmas.

Extra traffic and load

Extra traffic during the festive season puts extra load on your servers. The last think you want during the busiest time of the year is for your servers to go down.

Talk to your internet provider to ensure that the hosting being provided for your site can handle the anticipated load and that you have the bandwidth available to meet the demand.

Customer service

Christmas can be a stressful time of year for customers, especially when we're talking about shopping. This is a great opportunity to improve your customer service.

Customers want shopping to be as easy as possible. Make sure your checkout process is as stream lined as you can make it, and that you have plenty of support staff on hand to look after any customer enquires. During the festive season personalised cards and a gift wrapping service can be the difference between a customer buying from you or a competitor.

Delivery

Don't forget about delivery during your planning. Talk to your courier service to ensure that they can cope with the anticipated load over the christmas period. A great way to get your customers off side during the Christmas season is delays or problems with delivery.

Get expected delivery times from your courier and clearly show them on your website. The last date for delivery before the 25th is another important piece of information you need to communicate to your customers.

Stock levels

It is essential you ensure you have enough stock during this time. Check your stock and ensure you have sufficient levels to meet the anticipated needs. Talk to your suppliers about delivery times for restocking if need be.

Social Media Growth

Mon, 01 Nov 2010 08:11:00 GMT

A survey conducted in March 2010 found that Australian SMEs are not embracing the full power of todays web.

The survey was conducted by Acxiom Australia and Professional Public Relations to gauge the level of social media implementation in Australian small-to-medium enterprises (SME). There were a few findings that particularly interested me.

75% of Australian SMEs are yet to optimise social networking marketing strategies. This included things like reading/writing blogs and participating in social media networking.

86% of SMEs do not do email marketing. Done correctly, email marketing is a great tool for driving new business to your website, and bringing back existing customers.

30% don't regularily update their company website. Users are more likely to return to a website that is constantly adding new content.

"These survey results show that Australia's SMEs are yet to fully embrace the power of the web in driving sales and growth of their business," said Paul Turner, Chief Executive Officer, Acxiom Australia and New Zealand. "With most SMEs strongly relying on word of mouth for customer acquisition, it's a natural progression for SMEs to adopt social media to engage with current and potential customers."

These survey results show that Australia's SMEs are yet to fully embrace the power of the web in driving sales and growth of their business

"We believe there is strong interest in the ability of the web to boost your sales, but the reality is that most small-to-medium sized businesses are busy trying to keep their operations running smoothly," said Turner. "However the social networking space is booming and companies need to optimise their web presence and interactive offerings in order to connect more immediately with their customers. The good news is that there is significant growth ahead in the digital marketing world for SMEs as new web software and social tools make it easier to engage with their customers online."

Today's technology provides us with a rich environment to interact with our customers. Could your business be doing a better job of using web technologies to communicate with customers? We're passionate about this and will use our blog to share some ideas on the subject. I hope you find the information useful and feel free to leave a comment.