Getting Ready for a Social Media Event

Brushing up on statistics about social media while getting reading for a presentation. This video summarizes everything so well. Thanks Erik Qualman for making it.@Equalman



Here are the statistics from the video:

1. Over 50% of the world’s population is under 30-years-old
2. In 10 years over 40% of the Fortune 500 will no longer be here
3. Social Media has overtaken porn as the #1 activity on the Web
4. Facebook tops Google for weekly traffic in the U.S.
5. 1 in 5 couples meet online; 3 in 5 gay couples meet online
6. 1 in 5 divorces are blamed on Facebook
7. What happens in Vegas stays on YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, Facebook…
8. 2009 US Department of Education study revealed that on average, online students out performed those receiving face-to-face instruction
9. If Facebook were a country it would be the world’s 3rd largest and 2x the size of the U.S. population
10. 80% of companies use social media for recruitment; % of these using LinkedIn 95%
11. A new member joins LinkedIn every second
12. We don’t have a choice on whether we DO social media, the question is how well we DO it.”
13. Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber and Britney Spears have more Twitter followers than the entire populations of North Korea, Australia, Chile…Israel, Sweden, Greece,
14. Over 32 million have watched the Volkswagen Darth Vader Kid advertisement on YouTube
15. Child actor has never seen Star Wars
16. Ford Explorer launch on Facebook more effective than a Super Bowl Ad
17. 50% of the mobile Internet traffic in the UK is for Facebook…people update anywhere, anytime…imagine what that means for bad customer experiences?
18. Generation Y and Z consider e-mail passé – some universities have stopped distributing e-mail accounts
19. 69% of parents are “friends” with their children on social media
20. eReaders have surpassed traditional book sales
21. Groupon will reach $1 billion in sales faster than any company in history
22. There were over 75 million more people playing Farmville than there were real Farmers
23. Social Gamers to buy 6 billion in virtual goods by 2013; movie goers only buy 2.5 million in concessions
24. The #2 largest search engine in the world is YouTube
25. While you watch this 100+ hours of video will be uploaded to YouTube
26. If Wikipedia were made into a book it would be 2.25 million pages long
27. Because of the speed in which social media enables communication, word of mouth now becomes world of mouth
28. 25% of search results for the World’s Top 20 largest brands are links to user-generated content
29. 34% of bloggers post opinions about products & brands
30. Do you like what they are saying about your brand? You better.
31. 90% of consumers trust peer recommendations
32. Only 14% trust advertisements
33. Only 18% of traditional TV campaigns generate a positive ROI
34. 90% of people that can TiVo ads do
35. 93% of marketers use social media for business
36. We will non longer search for products and services, they will find us via social media
37. Social Media isn’t a fad, it’s a fundamental shift in the way we communicate
38. The ROI of social media is that your business will still exist in 5 years
39. Babies have been named Facebook in Egypt

How do we interact in 2011?

To reach consumers it is necessary to understand how people interact today. More than likely, people meet online with 1 in 5 marriages originating from an online introduction. With the likelihood of personal interaction initiating online, a strong, widespread, dynamic, and planned online presence is a must for a real estate professional to grow a successful and productive business.
An online prospecting campaign must include a substantial amount of Facebook. Successful campaigns that create a measureable return on time and dollar investment usually include use of both the personal profile and a business page along with facebook ads.

Recently Facebook incorporated Facebook generated lists to help organize friends into manageable groups. Lists allow individuals to post status updates to specific groups of people allowing a great opportunity to target market. It would be beneficial to post an open house for friends in a specific geographic area. But it may be considered spam to others who live far away from the open house. Lists also allow facebookers to review or watch posts from specific groups of people. Many people today have more Facebook friends than they can interact with. Lists allow people to streamline friends into smaller lists. The smaller groups let posts move slower down the wall so it is easier to pay attention and interact with friends.

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Social Media giants dominate the internet

Many agents believe a website will suffice in capturing online consumers. This is far from the truth. In a Comscore Report dated Tuesday, December 21, 2011, consumers spent 35% more time on social media sites than that of a year ago. Websites are too static for today’s online consumer who searches sometimes daily for updated information. Websites should change as the market changes and should provide current
detailed information customized for a targeted group of consumers. In many instances, blogs have taken the place of websites. Agent blogs have the ability to be changed easily, are usually controlled by the agent, and are preferred by search engines like Google.

An agent’s blog can be the hub for consumers to be drawn towards with other even more dynamic sites used as outposts to guide the consumer in. Social Media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube are constantly changing and highly trafficked. Youtube, for example, is the second most searched site
behind Google. Facebook has enough members to make it the third most populated country in the world. These, and other social sites, are excellent areas to find consumers who are searching for information about real estate. These sites are needed to help draw buyers and sellers to the agent’s blog. Social sites also allow the agent to create an online personality necessary to creating a personal brand.

Linkedin is a business related social networking site. Somewhat like an online rolodex, Linkedin allows members to connect to each other. Members can post their profile and job history along with updates. Linkedin, according to Wikipedia, has 21.4 million monthly visitors just in the United States and is growing at 2 members per second. Linkedin has over 135 million members worldwide.

Twitter is another fast growing social media site with more than 300 million posts called tweets and 1.6 billion searches a day. Limited to only 140 character posts, Twitter delivers short text like messages and links to its members. Twitter is great for posting links to blog articles and for public conversations within groups.

Youtube is a social media giant with postings of not just short videos but full length movies and music. Youtube, started in 2005, is now a subsidiary of Google. According to Wikipedia, Google reported in May 2010 that it served nearly 2 billion videos a day and nearly double the primetime audience of the three major television stations combined. Registered Youtube users can post videos and video blogs that are viewable by the public or to a specific audience.

Flickr, like Youtube, hosts videos but is mostly used to host photos for use by bloggers. Owned by Yahoo, in June 2011 Flickr had more than 51 million registered users and more than 80 million unique visitiors. This is a perfect place for real estate agents to posts house photos. It also is a great place to post photo libraries of communities.
Though not even scratching the surface of the social media sites, the final outpost of the online marketing hub is the social media giant Facebook.

Facebook Continually updating, Facebook allows users to create both a personal and business persona, posting information about the user’s life and business. Due to its popularity and strength, Facebook dominates the social media scene with over 800 million users. According to Wikipedia, by April 2010 nearly 42% of the United States’ population had a facebook account. In May 2011 Facebook announced it served nearly 140 million monthly users. Comscore's December 20th 2011 report stated that one in every seven online minutes is spent on Facebook while three out of every four minutes spent on social sites are spent on Facebook.

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Want to gain followers for your blog or facebook?

Some people come up with the greatest ideas. They're great not necessarily because they're unique but because they're simple and they work.

I ran across a tweet about a blog called My Life, Such as it is.... In a specific blogpost the author, Elizabeth, is running a contest to give away a Thomas the Tank Engine. In order to enter the contest Elizabeth gives several options:

1 Post a comment on her blog
2 Tweet a link to her blog
3 Blog about her contest
4 Follow her blog

For those of us trying not only to post great content but to gain followers, Elizabeth has a remarkably simple idea. I hope she is successful in gaining readers this way. Think about the opportunities available to us to gain authentic followers within our community. Great job, Elizabeth!

Does Twitter Really Work in a Social Media Marketing Plan?

I hear a lot of skepticism about the return on investment in using social media sites to prospect for new customers and market real estate for sale. Let's face it, unless you see actual dollars coming from the use of any marketing tool then it's useless, right?

Well, what if you used Twitter as a messaging device? I mean, use it to tell and show people what you are really doing so they could see what your likes are. Maybe they could begin to get to know you and even like you by following you on Twitter. Couldn't this happen on Facebook too?

Interestingly enough, my son and I were out this morning putting flags out for his boy scout troop. The troop raises money by charging people to put an American flag in their yard on national holidays. Unfortunately, this morning one of the flags was missed. Thankfully, it wasn't me and my son although it completely sounds like something I could very possibly do. I know the flag was missed because the woman whose flag was not placed in her yard called me. After a pleasant conversation I asked how she came across my name associated with the flags. She replied that she hadn't, but couldn't remember the name and contact information for the person in charge of the event so she googled searched the troop number. A twitter post I made about a recent campout showed up which is why she called me.

I love Twitter.

True Social Media Network part 2

Blogging is different. It's somewhat of a neighborhood farm but it's online. It has to be worked and cultivated. Careful planning and continual upkeep will insure long-term results. Like a neighborhood farm, it will take some time to grow.

Amy Chorew writes that the blog should be the hub of online marketing. Daren Rouse says the same thing. He uses Chris Brogans model showing the blog at the center and other social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Flick’r, etc. as sites to send people to your blog for information.

Dan Iampieri is a great youtuber. Take a look at his series, "Andrew buys a House from Dan" He uses youtube to direct customers back to his blog which gives them more information about buying and selling real estate. Dan gives away a lot of information. He's building a base of people who know and trust him.

All these exmples point towards the creation of a social media network with a blog in the middle.

Putting Social Media All Together

Scott Stratten @unmarketing absolutely gets social media marketing; create an online relationship that leads to meeting a person irl (in real life). He uses authentic topics to reach out and engage his audience. He's real, not airing a personality or persona of fictitious matter. Scott is showing who he is and what he has to offer. Watch this video of Scott explaining his #followfive on his blog. In Scott's words, "Stop Martketing and start engaging." Click on the title to watch Scott's video.

Why Teens Don't Tweet

Geoff Cook, cofounder and CEO of social networking site myYearbook, wrote this enlightening article regarding Teen activity on several social media sites. Worth the read. Follow the link to his article in TechCrunch.

5 Easy Steps to Prospect with Twitter

Now that your new Twitter account is up and ready to be used, I am sure your are wondering what to post. This important video gives you five quick and easy ways to ensure Twitter will create business for you. Success starts with Activity!