What You Need to Know About Social Media


April 3, 2009

social-media-1010011Due to advances in technology and perhaps accelerated by the economic downturn, online/social media is quickly overtaking other traditional forms of staying in touch with those who want to hear from you — namely your customers.

One can’t simply have a website and respond to email any longer and call that good enough for online communications. You need to harness all high-traffic online social outposts such as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter and feed them relevant updates about your business. Not only will your audience listen more but they will also share your messaging more with others.

But wait? Isn’t “The Spacebook Tube” known as social media just for techies and teens? Consider just a few of the numbers …

  • Facebook — Over 175 million users and the fastest growing segment is the 30+ set
  • MySpace — There are 300,000 new users per day and more than half are 35+
  • Twitter — Already the third largest social network, over 50% of self-identified users are between the ages of 30 and 49
  • LinkedIn — Over 35 million business spanning 170 industries
  • Blogging — 74% of US web-user read blogs; 25% write blogs
  • YouTube — 13 hours of video are uploaded every minute

According to the Pew Research Center, the share of adult internet users who have a profile on a social networking site has more than quadrupled in the past four years — from 8% in 2005 to 35% now.

And all of this is just a glimpse of the numbers. I say glimpse because that’s the beauty of most online media — it’s infinitely measurable.

Whether you are a small business, politician, church, or community organization, this is where the conversation is moving. A majority of your audience is probably there and is already listening. How are you staying in touch?

To learn more, I invite you to attend my workshop “Growing Your Business with Social Media” at noon on Friday, April 17 at the Holiday Inn and Conference Center, part of the Iowa City Area Chamber of Commerce’s SEED series. Register now >


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is a strategist, speaker, educator, and author of Brand Now: How to Stand Out in a Crowded, Distracted World and Get Scrappy: Smarter Digital Marketing for Businesses Big and Small. He is the Chief Brand Strategist at Brand Driven Digital, an educator at the University of Iowa, and host of the On Brand podcast. More about Nick.