Social Media Keeps Movin’ On Up

Social Media today is about as common as chapped lips in the winter. Just about everywhere you turn, you can Like something (Facebook), Tweet it (Twitter), +1 it (Google), etc. Of course, there’s also Tumblr, Flickr, FourSquare, Digg, and the list goes on and on… I came across the latest Nielsen Social Media Report, and it read like one of those bathroom books full of fun facts. According to Nielsen, Social Media’s popularity continues to grown, connecting people with just about everything they watch and buy. Whether it’s a brand icon inviting consumers to connect with a company on LinkedIn, a news ticker promoting an anchor’s Twitter handle or an advertisement asking a consumer to “Like” a product on Facebook, people are constantly being driven to social media. The latest Nielsen insights provide some answers on exactly how powerful this influence is on consumer behavior, both online and off. In the U.S., social networks and blogs reach nearly 80 percent of active U.S. internet users and represent the majority of American’s time online. The value of the time consumers spend online and on social networks and blogs continues to grow, most visible through the influence on purchase decisions. For instance, 60 percent of people who use three of more digital means of research for product purchases learned about a specific brand of retailer from a social networking site. Forty-eight percent of these consumers responded to a retailer’s offer posted on Facebook or Twitter. Feel free to read the entire report here if you like, but there’s some pretty cool gems in this report: • Americans spend more time on Facebook than they do on any other website. • Close to 40 percent of social media users access social media content from their mobile phonern• Internet users over the age of 55 are driving the growth of social networking through the mobile internetrn• Across a snapshot of 10 major global markets, social networks and blogs reach over three-quarters of active internet users Pretty cool stuff huh? It’s so neat to see, especially in my lifetime, how advertising has gone from billboards and radio spots to little banners on Pandora and “Like Bodybuilding?” links on my Facebook. And looking ahead, what does this mean for online advertising? Well for one, the trend is more and more folks are using mobile devices for their social networking needs. Also, more and more folks are watching video on their phones. See Nielsen chart here. It doesn’t take Stephen Hawking to figure out that online advertising will continue to grow and more than likely find an increased presence on mobile devices. Especially with 70 percent of adult online social networkers shopping online, and an increase in product research and coupons via mobile devices, its time to start hammering out that ad layouts for Droid devices. Social networking apps are the third-most used amongst U.S. smartphone owners. Power to the people.rnAbout SeedCornPPC: Seed Corn Advertising is an online Advertising Network based in Los Angeles, California committed to establishing new business development partnerships and to grow your search network and ours.Learn more about SeedCornPPC by visiting us at http://www.seedcornppc.com/