Some Surprising Social Media Stats
Recent studies (IPSOS) show that most adult, non-senior Americans spend more than 3 hours per day on Social Networking activities. (self-reported) However, just a year ago Nielson ratings showed that the average American spent 5 hours a day watching Television. Since the number of hours a day is a zero sum game, it is obvious that Americans are either losing sleep time, work time or Television time to stay active in the Social Networks. In general, IPSOS showed that lower income, lower education individuals spent more time on Social Networking, while business owners and business decisions makers also spent more than the average time networking on Social Platforms. In comparisons between countries, emerging market countries averaged higher usage, with Indonesians peaking at an average of 6 hours per day, and at the other end, French and Spanish at an average of 2.3 hours.
Less Time For TV
This certainly has implications for both Search Engine Marketing and TV Ad spend and programming. We are seeing a shift from centralized information and entertainment to a distributed model. This de-centralized model has less “Big Stars”, and more ”Long Tail” choices. Chris Anderson’s book., “The Long Tail” pointed out that the old studio/record store model for music distribution didn’t keep many tracks alive due to a lack of profitable replication and distribution. Then Amazon, Rhapsody and iTunes came on the block and we realize that people have a much wider taste in music than the industry imagined.
Where Have All The Viewers Gone?
In regard to search engine use, people who used to spend time each day surfing Google results pages, are now turning more and more to stories, links and bookmarks shared by friends and even strangers in their Social reach. The same is likely to happen to online entertainment in comparison to broadcast entertainment. People in Social Media aren’t just having endless conversations; they are sharing entertainment in the form of video and music as well. The summary from this line of reasoning can only mean that the people we used to reach with broadcast media and search engine marketing are spending more and more time out of reach from those two signals. In order to reach these people we have to get our message out in that forum.
Social Media Stats From Marketing Charts
Your Own Super Bowl Ads
Since people are not watching TV in the same numbers, the millions spent by advertisers for the coveted spots during events like the Super Bowl will have less and less ROI. By the same token, your little viral video might win the jackpot and get the same number of views on youtube as a muti-million dollar ad during the Super Bowl.
The overall basic advice on making Viral Videos for posting online is to almost completely dump the concept of advertising your product in the video. You might ask how this will promote your product then. GOOD QUESTION. it just might only serve to bring traffic to your site for them to watch the video. Or maybe you will only mention your product in the last 2 seconds of the video. Either way, nobody is going to virally spread a product or sales video. That is a fact. If viewers can identify your product in the video then they will not send the link to anybody. Imagine how ridiculous a person would feel if they shared a link to a commercial for your product.
Categories For Viral Videos (taken from Entrepreneur)
- Funny
- Weird/quirky
- Cute
- Outrageous
- Poignant/insightful
- Inspirational