So the epiphany I had was how this may change as the economic crisis deepens.
Lara´s last blog ..TwoKad’s Take on Branding

I’d challenge those that say marketing is getting turned on its head by social media to spend 5-20 years in mainstream marketing before they challenge decades of research, statistics, case studies on mass human behaviour.

When Forrester released its research, “The Broad Reach of Social Media” that stated 80% of Americans use social media, you have to go on and really read the Executive Summary to get the context of that 80%, “Now more than four in five US online adults use social media at least once a month, and half participate in social networks like Facebook.”

So with the other 50% that is online once a month not using Facebook (plus 45 age group prefers to make quick check-ins and visit news social media based groups) when does the remaining percent have time to turn branding and marketing on its head? In addition Forrester shows that large groups are not participating in brand related activities, they are social networking – hanging out with friends.

It is clear social media is not a fad and year on year the usership across all ages and demographics is climbing with an average visits of 1 to 5 times per month per person for a matter of minutes per session (split between searches, video usage, browsing and social network visiting). So, who and when are people taking time to redefine branding for the hundreds of millions not engaged in business related social media?

Also consider GFK Retail and Technology released a study in August stating, “87 Percent of Consumers Prefer Face-To-Face Interaction Over Social Network use; 65 Percent State They Do Not See Friends Enough”.

So… before we throw decades of what all the elements of branding are on its head lets keep perspective that SM is definitely a change in how businesses and their consumers interact but as a percentage of the total population participating in discussion the reality is the percentage is fairly small. Don’t worry, one day there will be a report that does an overlay and takes the guess work out of these statistics and suppositions.

Last point Beth… I’m presently writing a book on social media monetization from a marketing perspective. Let me know if you somehow would like to be involved as a quoted resource. I’m writing the book for Pearson, an international publishing group and would like to find a way to quote some of your perspectives. Please contact me by email.
Andrew Ballenthin´s last blog ..Depression of Marketing & Advertising Coming To End?