Social Media - dead or alive?
Should companies continue using social media (SoMed) or not? Is social media dead or alive?
My conclusion is, to use its full potential, but… To start with, we look at some general research and studies. Then I evaluate the risks and chances to get a realistic picture. And finally, we have a small glimpse into a possible future of SoMed.
Let’s start with a short introduction and look at the beginnings of SoMed. Facebook was born as a digital tool to interact with family and friends. In a certain sense, this was personal brand management. Brands jumped on the new technology and kind of hijacked this private space. First, the posts were one-way mass product advertisements. With the development of Facebook target groups a paid service they became more personalized. Today 70% of all Swiss companies have a specific SoMed budget, whereas in 2013 it was only 30% (University of Applied Science (ZHAW) study). Social networks have 2.7 billion users worldwide (1 of 3 people) and that is more than two-thirds of all internet users. These numbers are big and still rising.
According to rescutime.com, the 11’000 registered users spend daily on average 3 hours and 15 minutes on the mobile, 20% of them even 4.5 hours. This is just one of the sources I found. Emarketer states, that in the US daily 1 hour and 22 minutes are spent on SoMed. Now, what happens with the rest of this time? It must be spent watching cute cat videos. 😉
Opinium’s COVID social media research from April 2020 shows, that consumers wanted to hear more from certain industries such as Grocery Stores, Healthcare/Pharma, Household Goods Food. Fashion & Beauty, Automotive, Gym & Fitness topics were less interesting. So it is fair to say, that the usage of social media depends on the industry and the content posted.