Today, at the end of most of the TV commercials, company websites, commercial ads and banners on the street and even the politicians’ campaigns are having the sign of Twitter, Facebook, Google+ or LinkedIn by asking you to “Connect with us on ..." . For any company to grow, it needs to boost its social media visibility and interactions, they need more tweets  and more likes .

"It is not just about creating long lists of followers but rather having a sincere desire to grow and nourish genuine relationships and doing whatever it takes to ensure they happen." [1]

“If we want people to use our products, to use our website, it is important that we design in features that support our friends making decisions for us.”*[1]

Jalapeno BBQ Burger Idea

There are many reason to focus on social media, social media marketing helps the company to listen to their customers voice, it gives the company a chance to build their new product to meet their customer expectation, similar to what happen with Jack In The Box.  Because of the social media and their customer feedback, they were able to create Jalapeno BBQ Burger. This idea came from people interactions on social media.  Watch the following video on this topic. 

“Marketing in a social media world means you are trying to have your message spread while competing with a billion other channels for attention.  At any given time, you don’t know where your potential customers are or what they might see.” (Jeremy Epstein)

Social Media Video 2013

Consider that social media is rebellious.  This video highlights that ...

• More than 1 billion users on Facebook, making it the 3rd largest country in the world after China and India.
• Over 50% of the world’s population is under 30 years old. 
• More than half of the human race is under the age of 30. They’ve never known life without the internet.”*[1]
• Social media has become # 1 activity on the web
• Do you know that Twitter, Facebook, and Youtube are not welcome in China?
• Statistics: Because of Social Media, 1 in 5 couples meet online, 1 in 5 divorces are blamed on Facebook
• Do you know: Ford Explorer launch on Facebook generated more traffic than a Super Bowl Ad
• Do you know: Kindergartens are learning on an iPAD not chalkboards
• 69% of parents are “friends” with their children on social media
• Every second 2 new members join LinkedIn
• Social gamer will buy $6 billion in virtual goods by 2013 vs. moviegoers will buy only $2.5 billion in real goods like popcorns, frozen, soda and etc.
• Do you know: Youtube is the 2nd largest search engine in the world
• If Wikipedia were made in to a book it would be 2.25 Million pages long
• “53% of people on Twitter recommend products in their tweets” (Erik Qualman)
• 90% of consumers trust peer recommendations vs. only 14% trust advertisements
• “The ROI of Social Media is Your Business Will Still Exist in 5 years" (Erik Qualman)
• “Social Media is it not Word of Mouth, It is World of Mouth”
• Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber and Katy Perry have more twitter followers the entire populations of Germany, Turkey, South Africa, Canada, Argentina, and Egypt
• Babies in Egypt have been named Facebook & Twitter.*[2]

“Kids are leading the world’s transition to digital media. This is in part because kids aren’t afraid of technology and in part because kids haven’t spent years getting used to anything else."

References

1. Lim, Jeen-Su; Heinrichs, John Handbook of Social Media Marketing: Five Principles of Online and Social Network Interactivity
2. http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/meast/02/21/egypt.child.facebook/

(All credit and accolades for this outstanding blog post are for Ibrahim Fares who is the author and content creator.)