Social Media Impacts on Small Business [infographic]

Strategy Plan One

August 4, 2012

Social Media and Small Business

Small businesses face a significant uphill battle in these economic times to engage and communicate with consumers.  Marketing and communications have vastly changed over the past few years, and with the add-on of social media as a tool, measurable benefits and trends are occurring with the small business sector.

This informative graphic from Bolt Insurance highlights the following small business and social media statistics and trends:

• 81% of small business use social media to get their message out and engage with customers
• 95% use email marketing
• 98% of small business engage in website marketing
• 62% of businesses not using social media will plan to in the next year
• 81% that currently use social media will step up efforts in the next year

Top challenges small businesses face according to this survey:

• 80% claim attracting new customers are the biggest challenge
• 52% state obtaining referrals as the greatest issue
• 41% of small business would like to squeeze and maximize results with marketing dollars 

Social media effectiveness:

• 82% state Facebook as the most effective social media platform
• 73% of respondents say YouTube most effective
• 47%  LinkedIn 
• 47% claim Twitter is the most effective social media site

View some more interesting statistics in the infographic below.

 

Courtesy: Bolt Insurance

As an entrepreneur / small business, it is advantageous to stay on track with developing trends and to design products and services that not only meets current customer demand, but also future consumer needs.  Review and analyze marketing conditions and trends, and plan accordingly.

Here are some additional Social Media articles, blogs and infographics:

• Social Media – What Employers are Looking For
• Social Media, Mobile and Internet Data by the Minute [infographic]
• Social Media Use, From the Employer Perspective [infographic]
• Twitter Statistics Showing Exponential Growth [infographic]
• Social Media Buttons for Targeting Your Business Audience [infographic]
• Social Media Statistics on the Fortune 500 Companies [infographic]
• Social Media Statistics on Pinterest – Traffic and Online Sales Impacts
• Social Media for Small Business
• Social Media – On a small business budget

More business blogs of interest:

• Marketing Tips for Better Customer Engagement and Results [infographic]
• Digital Marketing – Conversion Opportunities for Business
• Business Plan – The Next Steps
• Business Intelligence – Keeping you Wired In

• Business Issues Faced in the Summer Months

• Online Retail – Strategies That Lead to Better Sales

• Franchise Opportunities – Industry Outlook 2012 and Beyond [infographic]

• SEO Guide to Higher Conversions with a Few Steps [infographic]

• EService, Social Media and Customer Service Trends [infographic]

 

Strategy Plan One

http://strategyplanone.com

Business information, resources and tips for the entrepreneur

© 2012 Strategy Plan One

Pay Per Click – Advertising Statistics and Trends [infographic]

Strategy Plan One

July 20, 2012

Pay Per Click

Businesses and marketers are always keen to observe the trends with pay per click advertising, as pay per click advertising may be proving to be more beneficial than just aligning efforts to rank sites through organic searches.

Pay per click advertising, essentially paying for advertising to rank at the top of search engines, is an effective method to generate more traffic to websites.  In a world of overwhelming information available over the web, it is advantageous for businesses and marketers to have links and information readily available at consumer’s fingertips and in plain sight.  Hence the reasons, search engine sites have sponsored ads lining the top part of the pages and right columns.  These areas of web pages result in the greatest number of user clicks.

Some interesting pay per click (PPC) advertising statistics and trends are highlighted in this infographic from WordStream:

• Pay per click ad results outweigh organic search results by nearly 2:1 (commercial content)
• PPC accounts for 64.5% of clicks (high commercial intent)
• Top 3 Sponsored links at the top of the Google search page account for 41.1% of the clicks
• Sponsored ads on Google account for over 85% of the page above the fold
• If companies already rank organically, adding pay per click ads results in 89% new visitor traffic
• Click through rates for Google ads are 600 times higher than paid ads on Facebook pages

Check out some more information and trends on pay per click advertising, comparison of SEO and pay per click, and options in paid advertising.

Source:  WordStream

Businesses and marketing specialists should carefully weigh the options of marketing and advertising activities.  As in all business activities, marketing plans should be developed, identifying marketing activities and budgets.  Pay per click advertising may form part of the advertising campaign, and with all activities, the results of efforts should be tracked, measured and analyzed.  You may want to compare the return on investment in pay per click advertising to other forms of marketing and advertising activities in your business.

More on Marketing:

• Marketing Tips for Better Customer Engagement and Results [infographic]
• Online Retail – Strategies That Lead to Better Sales [infographic]
• Digital Marketing – Conversion Opportunities for Business
• Product Mix – Designing Products and Services for the Consumer
• Content Marketing – Targeting Local Markets [infographic]
• Color and Design – Factors Influencing Commerce [infographic]

More business blogs of interest:

• Business Plan – The Next Steps

• Business Intelligence – Keeping you Wired In
• SEO Guide to Higher Conversions with a Few Steps [infographic]
• EService, Social Media and Customer Service Trends [infographic]

Strategy Plan One

http://strategyplanone.com

Business information, resources and tips for the entrepreneur

© 2012 Strategy Plan One

Social Media and Online Customer Trends [Infographic]

Strategy Plan One

June 19, 2012 

Social Media and E-commerce

Social media use and e-commerce have strong business connections.  Where are the trends heading?  Are online sales trends through social media on an exponential growth track or on a realistic, small growth trend similar to non social media linked sales?

Here is an interesting infographic from Gloople, and the highlights:

• Only 9% of commerce currently generated online
• 60% of consumers shop online quarterly
• By 2015, 50% of companies will generate online sales through social media or mobile apps
• Estimated: 192 Million consumers will shop online by 2016
• Big Jump: Ave. annual online spending by consumers in 2016 over $2,000
• Big Online Sales globally – estimated to exceed $400 Billion annually by 2016

Social Media Consumer Trends:

• 20% online purchases within a social media site
• 40% of Twitter Users search for products & services via Twitter
• 12% of consumers made purchases due to info found on Twitter
• 75% more likely to purchase if a friend endorses through social media
• 34% more likely to share purchase info on social media site than on an           e-commerce site
• 77% of online shoppers use reviews
• 81% receive online advice on products & services

Social Media Commerce Facts and Statistics

• 700 Billion minutes / month spent on Facebook
• 6.5% click through rate on Facebook walls
• Don’t forget Google+ …now at 170 M users
• Pinterest now accounting for 3.6% of referral traffic
• Pinterest click through rate 3 times more than Google+
• 65% of global top 100 companies have a Twitter account

Here are some additional Social Media articles, blogs and infographics:

• Social Media Use, From the Employer Perspective [infographic]
• Twitter Statistics Showing Exponential Growth [infographic]
• Digital Marketing – Conversion Opportunities for Business
• Social Media Buttons for Targeting Your Business Audience [infographic]
• Social Media Statistics on the Fortune 500 Companies [infographic]
• Social Media Statistics on Pinterest – Traffic and Online Sales Impacts

 

Strategy Plan One

http://strategyplanone.com

Business information, resources and tips for the entrepreneur

© 2012 Strategy Plan One

Social Media Buttons for Targeting Your Business Audience [infographic]

Strategy Plan One

May 25, 2012 

Social Media Buttons

Many businesses need to consider what social media platform to use when messaging and targeting audiences, as each represents slightly differing markets. Some provide great referral traffic and significant volumes of traffic to your business.  Some social media platforms are dominated by male users, while others have a majority of female users.

Whether you are focused on Business to Business (B2B) or Business to Consumer (B2C), here are some of the highlights of the business perspectives from this infographic:

• Largest volumes of uses:  Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn
• Female audience majority: LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter
• Male audience majority: Google+, Facebook
• B2B: LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook
• B2C: Stumbleupon, Digg
• Referral Traffic:  Facebook, Stumbleupon, Twitter, Pinterest

Here is another infographic on social media buttons for business from TheSearchAgents.

Other Social Media blogs and infographics:

• Social Media Statistics on the Fortune 500
• Social Media Statistics on Pinterest
• Social Media Statistics and Impacts on Business

 

Strategy Plan One

http://strategyplanone.com

Business information, resources and tips for the entrepreneur

© 2012 Strategy Plan One

Social Media Statistics on the Fortune 500 Companies [infographic]

Strategy Plan One

May 22, 2012 

Social Media Statistics

How well are Fortune 500 companies doing in the social media world?  Here’s some more social media statistics on Fortune 500 companies through this Infographic by Go-Gulf web technologies.

Highlights of Fortune 500 companies and integration into social media:

• Only 23% have corporate blogs, compared to 37% of Inc 500 companies 
• Majority of blogs centered on consumer goods (clothing, retail, electronics, etc.)
• 62% have a Twitter account, with Google at the top with 4.8 Million followers
• 58% have a Facebook page, with Coca-Cola leading with ~ 42 Million likes

Other blogs on social media you may be interested in:

• Social Media Statistics on Pinterest
• Social Media Statistics and Impacts on Business
• Use of Social Media for Marketing
• Social Media Sites – Pushing Over Valuation

Strategy Plan One

http://strategyplanone.com

Business information, resources and tips for the entrepreneur

© 2012 Strategy Plan One

Social Media Statistics on Pinterest – Traffic and Online Sales Impacts [infographic]

Strategy Plan One

May 19, 2012 

Social Media Statistics – Pinterest

Here is some proof that Pinterest, the growing social media pinning site, is gaining massive e-commerce momentum.  Check out these statistics illustrated in this infographic from Shopify on Pinterest:

• 3rd most popular social media site
• 145% – daily growth in new users
• 16% gain (over 2011) stores citing revenue from Pinterest
• Over 400% increase in online orders from pins over the last 6 months
• $80 average order through Pinterest

Check out some more interesting social media blogs:

• Business and social media
• Social media marketing and other marketing activities
• Social media Over valuation [infographic]
• Social media valuation factors
• Social media facts, figures, stats

Strategy Plan One

http://strategyplanone.com

Business information, resources and tips for the entrepreneur

© 2012 Strategy Plan One

Social Media Statistics and Impacts on Business [Infographic]

Strategy Plan One

May 16, 2012

Social Media Statistics

An interesting infographic from Pagemodo has just been released, illustrating the statistics and impacts of social media on businesses.  Here are some highlights of their survey:

• 53% use Social Media for business / 47% do not
• 19% use Facebook, 15% use LinkedIn, 4% use Twitter
• 12% of respondents say social media is a must in business marketing
• 33% of businesses use metrics to measure Return on Investment from social media activities

What is the biggest benefits:

• 88% of Brands indicate exposure as one of the biggest benefits
• 72% claim increased traffic from social media marketing is the biggest 
• 62% of marketers state improved search rank is the best benefit 
• Dell claims a 300% traffic improvement with social media 

Strategy Plan One

http://strategyplanone.com

Business information, resources and tips for the entrepreneur

Social Media Sites – Pushing Over Valuation (Infographic)

Strategy Plan One

April 17, 2012 

Social Media Sites

We have all heard the hype and buzz around the valuations of social media sites.  These sites have gained massive users quickly and before you blink, now are worth billions.  With Facebook on the verge of an Initial Public Offering (IPO), the estimated value puts Facebook near $100 Billion, 50 times revenue value!

Here is an interesting look at timelines, revenues and valuations of social media sites, courtesy of gplus.com.  Statistics and valuation highlights of this infographic on social media site valuation:

• Facebook: $3.7 Billion in revenue (2011), 1 Billion users, $100 Billion valuation (50 times revenue)
• Twitter: $150M Revenue, 300 M users, $7.7B value (50 times revenue)
• Linkedin: $200M in revenue, $9B valuation (45 times revenue)
• Groupon:  $760M in revenue, $25B valuation (32 times revenue) 

Strategy Plan One

http://strategyplanone.com

Business information, resources and tips for the entrepreneur

© 2012 Strategy Plan One

Baseball and Social Media Facts and Stats [infographic]

Strategy Plan One

April 5, 2012 

Just like any other industry, social media is deeply integrated into professional sport marketing.  With billions of social media users, sport is frequently mentioned, liked and followed across Facebook and Twitter.  Social media is a marketing strategy must for messaging business product and services to a mass audience.

Produced by Banyan Branch, this infographic illustrates facts and statistics of Major League Baseball on social media sites.

Some interesting social media facts and stats (as of March 28, 2012) :

• Yankees are the most popular team on social media (5.3 Million Likes; 550,000 Follows)
• American League edges out National in Facebook discussions (53% and 47% respectively)
• Nick Swisher – Most Followers (1.48 Million Followers)
• C.J. Wilson – Individual Player All Star Tweeter (12,917 Tweets)
• Giants – Team All Star Tweeter (18,000 Tweets)

Source:  Banyan Branch

Strategy Plan One

http://strategyplanone.com

Business information, resources and tips for the entrepreneur

© 2012 Strategy Plan One