Social Demographics: Who’s Using Today’s Biggest Networks [INFOGRAPHIC]
![Social Demographics: Who’s Using Today’s Biggest Networks [INFOGRAPHIC]](http://blog.residentplaces.com/wp-content/uploads/et_temp/social-media-advertising-101714_164x164.png "Social Demographics: Who’s Using Today’s Biggest Networks [INFOGRAPHIC]")
More than 66% of adults are connected to one or more social media platforms, but who exactly are these people?
The infographic below, created by Online MBA, breaks down the demographics, including education level, income, age and gender of social media users, along with other miscellaneous facts.
Some sites’ users are more demographically alike than others. One thing is the same for most social sites — college students, or those who have completed some college, represent the majority on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Digg and Reddit. Among Facebook users, 57% have completed some college, and 24% have earned a bachelor’s or master’s degree. Although, people 45 and older make up 46% of Facebook users.
Social media sites are also seeing a gender split — women use social media more than men. More women are on Facebook and Twitter. About 57% of Facebook and 59% of Twitter users are women.
Women gravitate toward Pinterest and young, techie men hang out on Google+. Pinterest has the heaviest gender imbalance — 82% of users are women, who pin crafts, gift ideas, hobbies, interior design and fashion. On the other spectrum, Google+ is dominated by men (71%) and early adopters, engineers and developers. About 50% of Google+ users are 24 or younger.
LinkedIn reports an even ratio of men and women — 49% over age 45 — who use the site to connect with other business professionals.
Most people use social media to stay in touch with friends and family, and more are doing so while on the go. About 200 million Facebook users check their Timelines from their mobile devices every day.
Check out the infographic below to see all the statistics.
Infographic courtesy of Online MBA.
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, RapidEye.
Social Demographics: Who’s Using Today’s Biggest Networks [INFOGRAPHIC].
Facebook Brand Timelines: 6 Big Changes Every Marketer Needs to Understand
Facebook Brand Timelines: 6 Big Changes Every Marketer Needs to Understand.
Today Facebook announced to brand marketers the world over that, within the month, everything they knew about fan Pages on Facebook would be overturned. While you get your brand ready for the new Timeline format, here are six important changes to keep top-of-mind.
1. Updated Look and Feel
What’s new: The format of Timeline for brands is quite similar to Timeline for personal profiles. It employs a cover photo at the top of the Page, and the Page is separated into two main columns by a dividing line, which represents the passage of time. This format provides brands with new options for self-expression: They can outline their corporate history with milestones (such as product launches, store openings, etc.) to construct a narrative for their audience.
Recommendation: Milestones present an important and dramatic opportunity to educate the public, humanize the brand and remove a perception of corporate anonymity. Our analyses of Page engagement have continually shown that brands posting content that depicts behind-the-scenes activities, exclusive updates or promotions encourages user interactions and promotes higher engagement rates. Using interesting milestones to craft the story of the brand over time (and updating the Timeline with new milestones as they happen) can help to stimulate conversations around major achievements.
2. Reduced Tab Visibility
What’s new: The new Timeline format does not have the left-side panel of links, which could include hundreds of different tabs. While applications still exist, they’ll display differently, in rectangular panels underneath the cover photo. The width of the Timeline and the space allocated for native apps like Photos means that only three tab panels are viewable at any given time. To see more, users must expand the tab panel by clicking a drop-down box.
Recommendation: For marketers, this major change means that the three above-fold tab apps need to be considered carefully — this will be one of the first things users see when interacting with your brand on Facebook. Brands will want to switch up which tabs are visible “above the fold,” according to current company objectives or project popularity. A good Page analytics tool will be useful for determining which tab to promote on a day-to-day basis.
3. No Default Landing Page
What’s new: With the new Timeline Page format, you will no longer be able to set a default landing Page, a favored feature for many savvy brands. The option was one of the primary ways to control the first (branded) impression a user encountered. Since there are no more tab Pages, there is no way to set one as a default. This will drastically change user impressions when they first visit a brand’s Timeline Page.
Recommendation: You will need to apply new and careful attention to all the top messages in the Timeline, as they will be the first objects seen by visiting users. Likewise, Facebook ads for brands will become ever important, as ads will be one of the major ways brands on Facebook can control a user’s experience. Setting up an advertising campaign for a Facebook promotion or new application will be the only way to guide new and clicking users directly to that application (as landing on this Page cannot be achieved by default).
4. New Way to Feature Content
What’s new: One major new feature that marketers will love is the ability to “pin” certain posts to the top of the Timeline. Similar to marking a blog post “sticky,” so that it remains at the top of a blog for a specified period of time, pinning a post to the top of Timeline allows it to precede any other content. A pinned post is distinguished by a small, orange flag. Brands can pin only one item at a time, and the pinned item then exists in two locations — as the top item on the Timeline itself, as well as within its chronological place. Once unpinned (which happens automatically when a new item gets pinned, or the item has been pinned for more than seven days), the post remains in the chronology of Timeline posts, but there is no visual history that it was pinned in the past.
Recommendation: Since you can no longer create a default landing Page, pinning items to the top of the Timeline will become every marketer’s go-to strategy for highlighting new and interesting content. We will begin to see savvy brands design posts specifically to be pinned, whether images, a well-designed call-to-action, a statement about brand value, or a message calling for the user to click one of the tab panels under the cover photo.
5. Current Tab Content and Applications Become Outdated
What’s new: The new Timeline layout displaces Facebook’s existing Page tab configuration (including a tab’s 520-pixel width), and replaces it with a new 810-pixel layout. As a result, existing Page tab content will look centered in the middle of the 810-pixel layout without any adjustments. All applications that remain on a brand’s Page will need new application icons (the new dimensions are 111×74).
Recommendation: The most pressing updates for brands will be to update the images and tab functionality of the above-fold two apps. As these are the first tabs users will see, they will likely be the first to be interacted with, or entirely ignored if not optimized for the new experience.
6. Private Messages Between Brands and Users
What’s new: Finally, brands will be able to send and receive private messages with users. This allows for much deeper consumer interaction, and will also enable Page managers to take extended customer inquiries off the Timeline and into a private message.
Recommendation: Be mindful of noise in the Timeline. Since the real estate allocated to each post depends on how engaging it is or how much interaction it has received, it can be easy to clutter your Timeline with customer inquiries. When these inquiries can be better serviced in a more one-on-one manner, reach out to the consumer with a private message and resolve her question. It’s a good opportunity to yield both a happy user and a clean Timeline.
Timeline for brands will certainly shake things up for social media marketers who seek to make an impact on Facebook. One thing is for sure though: The way content is shared and viewed within a Timeline Page is incredibly important. Brands that constantly create engaging updates and share important milestones will stay at the forefront of users’ attention. Create and rotate new apps for engagement, pin relevant and timely content, and update the feed with user-friendly dialogues to stay relevant in this new space.
Will you or your company do anything differently, right off the bat? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
Here, Coca Cola uses snazzy design to make a strong visual impression on visitors.
Manchester United uses its cover photo to reflect the inherent passion, camaraderie and joy of sports.
Dating back to 1878, Manchester United can use Timeline to honor its rich history. This photo shows the club’s league championship from 1908.
Here, Manchester United leverages Timeline’s strong visual elements by starring a specific current post, making it appear twice as wide.
Coldplay’s Timeline cover photo hints at the wealth of potential the new format holds for bands and other performers.
Ben & Jerry’s cover photo further illustrates Timeline’s potential to make a strong first impression on Page visitors.
Ben & Jerry’s timeline itself showcases the new brand platform’s strong visual elements.
Here, Ben & Jerry’s uses the new format to call out an important company milestone — its introduction of several new flavors in 1999.
When you visit a Page, you see how many of your friends have liked the company, as well as friends’ relevant public posts. Here, Ben & Jerry’s serves as an example.
Restaurants can leverage the new design by showing off what they serve. Here, Starbucks flaunts its coffee beans.
Further evidence of how Pages are more social with Timeline.
Here, the Page of Manhattan’s Magnolia Bakery shows how, for local businesses only, a map appears in the row of apps below the cover photo.
ESPN’s cover photo is an intriguing shot from the set of its iconic Sportscenter show.
Here, ESPN highlights its first Sportscenter broadcast with a doublewide photo in its timeline.
Livestrong chooses to make its logo the central theme of its Page cover photo.
Livestrong starred this post that provides resources for people under emotional duress as a result of cancer. Starring it calls extra attention to the post by making it twice as wide as others.
Organizations similar to Livestrong can highlight specific milestones, such as the opening of new services. This post celebrates the debut of Livestrong’s Cancer Navigation Center.
Timeline introduces a new format for administrators of brand Pages, and one that should be simpler to use.
The admin panel features notifications, analytics, messages and, yes, a help menu to ease your transition to the new set-up.
Dogbnb: DogVacay Wants To Help You Find A Boarding Alternative For Your Four-Legged Friends | TechCrunch
As a former dog owner, I know how challenging it can be to find the best care for your four-legged-friend when going on vacation or taking a trip. While boarding dogs at kennels is an option, I always prefer to have a dog sitter at an actual home (or at my own home) take care of my pet to ensure one-on-one care. The difficulty is actually finding dog lovers who want to babysit for dogs in their spare time. Enter DogVacay, a new marketplace out of Los Angeles incubator Science, that matches dog owners in need of pet-care services with qualified animal caregivers. The service is launching today in Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Founded by a husband and wife team, Aaron Hirschhorn and Karine Nissim Hirschhorn, DogVacay was inspired by the couple’s desire to find a real, loving home for their own dogs, so that their boarding experience is as much a vacation as their owner’s.
As Hirschhorn tells me, there are many caregivers who love pets and use this as a way to make supplemental income. While these people have generally been found via word of mouth or sites like Craigslist, DogVacay allows these pet care providers to sign up for a free listing for dog owners who are looking for boarding and dog-sitting options.
The platform gives hosts complete control, from setting their own rates, deciding what size and type of dogs to host, and more. Each host is vetted via interviews and background checks with DogVacay staff before posting on the site, where the startup evaluates potential caregivers based on the amount of room in their homes, past experience and more. And DogVacay also includes user reviews for each host, social network connections, and will even train hosts in basic dog care.
Dog owners can sign up on the site and book services similar to the way you would book an apartment on Airbnb. In addition to boarding services, users can also find dog walkers, trainers, day-care, pet-sitting (in their own home), and other unique services like pet massage. DogVacay takes a 5 to 10 percent service fee from the host.
DogVacay offers full insurance covering the dog (up to $25,000) for a variety of emergencies. The startup has also partnered with a number emergency pet care hospitals in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Additionally, DogVacay encourages pet-sitters to send regular photo and video updates via email or MMS to the clients, so that they have reassurance that their pet is in safe hands and enjoying its ‘DogVacay.’
This is actually a huge potential market, as Science CEO Mike Jones explains that Americans spend nearly $10 billion per year on pet boarding and other services. DogVacay faces competition fromRover.com. And who knows; maybe Airbnb will launch Dogbnb.
Building a Content Marketing Strategy
As mentioned in my previous article about the movement towards content marketing, traditional marketing is being over-taken by content driven strategies that focus on distribution through social media. Advertising is not dead! On the contrary, advertising is stronger than ever, if you merge the old with the new. By combining traditional marketing, branding and advertising with content driven social programs, you are going to have exponential success through the combined efforts of you and your target audience.
Your content marketing strategy should be designed to expand on your traditional programs and develop relationships that will bring long term residual returns for all your advertising expenditures.
Here are some key steps to take when implementing your content marketing strategy.
Start with a set of goals – I always find the best way to implement any sales or marketing strategy is to first outline specific and measurable goals. Don’t just say, “Increase sales.” Your goals have to be well defined and measurable. An example of a productive goal is, “Increase sales by 15% within 6 months.” This goal is measurable and allows you to create accountability and benchmarks. Other goals to consider are increase mentions on twitter by 50% or secure 10,000 Facebook fans or add 5,000 subscribers to our monthly newsletter.
Who is your target? – Once you have a goal, you must identify who your target audience is and how best to speak to them. You aren’t going to grow your newsletter subscription rate if your target audience is 35-55 year old women by posting content about advances in fuel injection systems. You have to know who you are speaking too and what interests them. I try to place myself in the shoes of my customers or prospects and ask myself, what would interest me and keep my attention.
What are you trying to say? – Content marketing is no different than traditional marketing in that you have to have a message to deliver. What is it that you want to convey to your audience, what differentiates your brand or product, how are you better than your competition and how do you translate these attributes to a language that will be received by your target audience?
Decide on a strategy – Content marketing typically is broken into three strategies: long-form, short-form and social conversations. Long-form includes blog posts, articles and press releases. Short-form is typically Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn updates and graphics. Social conversations might include participating in and driving conversations by link sharing, video and blog commenting and forum discussions. You may decide to only use one or all three. All can be effective on their own and when used together.
Gotta have a plan – First you plan the work, then you work the plan. Your plan should include a calendar that works backwards from your goal date, include benchmarks along the way and include specific strategies, tactics, calls to action and responsibilities. This process can be a major project, but you will be glad you invested the time at the beginning, as it makes execution so much easier.
Build your content – You will be building content throughout the entirety of your project, but by creating about 20% of your content pre-launch, it allows you to both refine your message before it is seen and give you a cushion if you should fall behind during your campaign. Your content should be unique and different and speak to your audience incorporating your key message.
Grow a relationship – Remember you are not selling or closing, you are building the awareness of your company and product or service through engagement with your prospects and customers on terms that they prefer and desire. If you do this right, they will buy from you because they trust you and know you.
Remember, content marketing isn’t only about what you have to say. At least 70% of what you share should be curated (not your own) and specific to the needs and wants of your target audience. Remember you are building a relationship…it is all about them!
Share your message – It is time to get your words out there. Build a machine that includes relevant key words to your product or service and attach them to your message. Make sure you are using these key words in your tags and imbedding them into your blogs posts. SEO can play a huge part in getting your message found and increasing subscribers and followers. Don’t forget about Twitter, Facebook and social bookmarking sites like Digg and StumbleUpon. Don’t wait for your customers to spread the word, everyone on your marketing team needs to like, plus, retweet and repost your content.
Review and refine – Don’t wait until the end of your campaign to see if it worked. You need to measure everything and watch the benchmarks you have established. You should also be able to see what is working the best and what didn’t. Do more of what works and refine what didn’t. If you can’t get it to work, try something else. I have been shocked more than once at what blew up and went viral and what was completely ignored. Learn from your successes and failures along the way and refine your campaign to ensure you hit your goals and exceed them.
Just remember, Rome wasn’t built in a day, you can’t go from 1 to 1 million followers with getting to 2 and every success is preceded by a thousand failures.
About Resident Places
Resident Places is a zero cost amenity to residential and mixed use properties where residents receive valuable money saving offers from local businesses through a co-branded coupon portal. These neighborhood deals are made available without any sales activity by leasing staffs or IT teams. Every deal printed through the co-branded portal will include the name of the property and is shareable via social media networks like Facebook, Google Plus and Twitter, which expands the reach and audience of the community’s brand to their residents, prospects and area businesses. For business owners, our unique offering gives access into a typically difficult advertising market – multifamily communities, with a low cost, high tech solution.
TJ Goulet has been a leader in sales and marketing for almost 20 years. His background includes both entrepreneurial endeavors and nationally recognized achievement with a Fortune 500 Company. He entered the local search and coupon industry in 2005, when he launched his first directory and coupon portal. TJ's expertise is in utilizing current technologies and marketing platforms to increase sales productivity across a broad range of products and services.
Twitter begins self-serve advertising for small businesses | Reuters
Twitter begins self-serve advertising for small businesses
(Reuters) – Twitter Inc. on Thursday formally launched a service to allow small businesses to buy and place ads on the online messaging platform.
Twitter, which for years has sought ways to expand its advertising revenue, hopes the new ad service will at least partially answer looming questions about its long-term business strategy.
Since 2010, Twitter’s in-house sales staff has sold “promoted tweets” to large businesses on a case-by-case basis. The company spent last year developing a self-serve system that could handle a far greater volume of ad transactions and, in November, opened the system to a small number of clients for testing.
Officially launched on Twitter’s website on Thursday, the new service is limited to merchants and advertisers who use American Express cards. Twitter will open the service to other cardholders in the coming months.
The rollout comes at a critical phase in the company’s development and will be closely observed by investors and analysts curious to see if the company will go public anytime soon.
Founded in 2007, the San Francisco-based company lets people send 140-character messages, or tweets, to groups of followers. The company has more than 100 million active users and a valuation topping $8 billion, even though it has not yet established a money-making model.
Co-founder Jack Dorsey said in January that Twitter’s “business model has been in development for some time and it works.
Twitter begins self-serve advertising for small businesses | Reuters.
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