In the past two decades, the amount of time that people spend on social media has soared, and societal behavior has undergone a remarkable change during that same period. Many of the things which people used to do off-line are now being done online, and a great many more enticements have been developed which tend to keep you online once you’re there. This being the case, it behooves any business person to develop a strategy that takes advantage of all this social media usage and converts it into a business possibility.
How Much Time Does the Average Person Spend on Social Media?
In a surprisingly short period of time, social media has become a huge part of most people’s lives, and if anything, it appears to be occupying a greater portion of people’s attention as time goes by. With each passing day, more social media users come online, and all these users spend a little more time there each day.
Statistically, it is known that new people make use of social media at the rate of 11 users every second of the day, and that amounts to more than 3.8 billion people around the globe. When you consider the fact that there are approximately eight billion people in the entire world, you can see that a hefty percentage of all those individuals is spending time online.
Most people spend an average of 144 minutes each day on social media, but it should be remembered that this is just an average, so many people will be spending far less time than that, although it’s also true that some people will spend far more than that. By geographic location, people who live in South America tend to spend the most time online, at a hefty three hours and 24 minutes, followed closely by African users at three hours and 10 minutes.
European users trail most other social media users since they typically only consume one hour and 15 minutes a day on social media. Every year since 2012, the amount of time spent by people on social media has increased, so there’s every reason to think that in the future, people will spend even more time on social media.
Is the Bulk of This on Computers or Cell-Phones?
A year ago, some of the biggest tech companies, including Google and Apple, trumpeted new features on their devices which were intended to help you monitor and limit the time you spend on your cell phone. Instagram and Facebook also got in on the act by rolling out time spent notifications to their users, which were intended to promote more mindful use of the platforms.
However, in the year since these well-intentioned features were rolled out, it doesn’t appear that they’re having the desired impact on any of the user base. The truth is, that people’s time spent on their devices continues to increase at the same rate or at an even greater rate than it has in the past. The usage of mobile devices has grown exponentially in terms of connecting users to the Internet, with American adults committing three hours and 30 minutes every day to using the mobile Internet last year.
By 2021, that figure is expected to surpass four hours, and there is no doubt that prolific mobile device users have already significantly exceeded the four-hour threshold. One of the reasons that users are spending more time online is that socializing which used to happen face-to-face, is now occurring online, and a whole slew of digital activities has sprung up to keep us entertained while we’re there.
It’s also true that people’s usage of other media such as newspapers, magazines, and television are declining rapidly in accordance with their increased usage of the mobile Internet. Virtually all of the growth figures attributed to time spent online is attributable to mobile devices, with people making far greater use of their cellphones than any other electronic device.
How Do I Make Social Media Work for My Business?
Social media advertising includes several different types of online advertising which primarily focus on social networking services. One of the reasons this is so effective is that advertisers have the capability of using demographic information about users, so they can customize their ads specifically for them. Social media targeting allows companies to prepare detailed target group profiles which can be used to customize ads based on information provided by those profiles.
This is one extremely effective and powerful way of making social media work for your business because it can focus your message to the appropriate group of people, giving you a much better chance of achieving a higher conversion rate. Most of the major social media platforms make it easy and convenient for businesses to advertise, so choosing any one of these platforms will depend on where your target audience spends its time.
If you have a younger target audience, you may want to make greater use of Snapchat, Twitter, or Instagram. An older audience would tend to hang out on Facebook, and a more professional audience would be likely to frequent LinkedIn. Pinterest is a social platform that is ideal for commerce, and it has the capability to reach people of all ages.
You can make any of these platforms work for your business by doing certain activities that will provide you with more information about your target group so that you can craft more effective ad campaigns. For instance, you could conduct A/B testing and use platform analytics to find out which scenario was more appealing to your user base.
You could make your targeting more precise so you waste less money trying to acquire new customers and to maintain your existing customer base. You can also make use of customer-generated content in your advertising, especially since these frequently out-perform your company-generated content. Without a doubt, you can grow your sales and your customer base by having a strong presence on social media.
Effectively Use Social Media to Get Your Message Out
Given the fact that social media usage has been increasing all around the globe, and that so many users are spending so much time on these platforms, it’s essential that your business incorporates social media marketing in its overall strategy. If you’re not quite sure how to go about that, we can definitely help you prepare a marketing strategy that features social media marketing. Contact us today at BizIQ, and we’ll help you to formulate an effective strategy by discussing our various social media marketing packages for businesses of all sizes.
