Last Updated Sep 14, 2011 11:14 AM EDTIf you, or your company, still think of social media as option...

1. New Rules for Business in the Social Media Age
Last Updated Sep 14, 2011 11:14 AM EDT
If you, or your company, still think of social media as optional, or
just "not for our customers," you should read this new Nielsen survey. It found:
Nearly 80% of online Americans are now using social media (blogs, Twitter, and social networking
sites)
Over 140 million Americans visit Facebook every month
Boomers are driving the growth of social networking on mobile devices
Given this tremendously wide adoption, all organizations, large or small, need to make social media
an essential part of their marketing and communications plan. But the question is, how?
I delved into the Nielsen data on social media usage and found six imperatives for marketers seeking
to communicate in the social media era:
1. Go where the attention is. Social media now fills 23% of the time Americans spend online, more
than email, games, or any other activity. As the top social networking site, Facebook consumes more
user time than any other website, capturing 890 million hours of attention in May 2011 alone. In
Dentists a Find A dentist world of fragmented media channels--from television to print to online--if
you want to compete for the attention of your customers, social media has to be included as a part of
your marketing strategy.
1
2. There is no "typical" social media user. For years, analysts have attempted to describe the ever-
evolving social media user: female, college-age, educated, coastal, technology-savvy, etc. The
surprising finding of the newest data is that there truly no longer is a "typical" user of social media.
The differences in social media adoption rates between men and women, white and non-white, rich
and poor, have flattened out to a matter of just a few percentage points. Young adults 18-34 are only
marginally more active on social media than their bosses and parents. Even Americans 65+ years
old are only 9% less Find A Dentist Near Me likely to be on social media than the average. The
mythical "digital generation" of young tech adopters has given way to a digital society.
3. Know your audience. Just because Americans of all stripes have adopted social media into their
digital behaviors, does not mean they are all using the same Web services equally. The fast-growing

2. blogging site Tumblr skews towards female teens. African-Americans are more likely to be found on
Twitter than other races. Internet users with a graduate degree are three times more likely to visit
LinkedIn than those without. It is therefore imperative that marketers get to know their own
customers and find out which social media sites are best for reaching them.
4. If you're global, think local. Social media preferences vary widely between countries as well. In
Brazil, Google's old social network Orkut still takes first place ahead of either Facebook or Google+.
In the U.K., Tumblr has grown to be the number two social media site, whereas in France that spot
is held by local site Overblog. In Spain, Tuenti has fewer users than Facebook, but they spend more
time there (nearly 5 hours a month). If your organization has a global presence, it is important to
match your social media communications plan to the appropriate platforms within each local market.
5. Leverage social media for loyalty marketing. For years, companies wondered whether customers
really wanted to "friend" or "follow" them in social media. It is now clear that while users may not
confuse brands with their close friends, they do want to relate to brands via social media as well. In
fact, active adult social networkers are much more likely to follow a brand (53%) than a celebrity
(32%). Given that prior studies have shown discounts and product information as key motivators for
following brands, marketers would do well to see social media as a tool for loyalty marketing. Rather
than trying to acquire new customers via a platform like Facebook, most organizations should use
social media to build their relationship with existing customers. This can include efforts focused on
customer retention, upselling to premium services, and inducing product trials for new offerings.
6. Think of influence as online and offline. Social media has often been described as a place to reach
online "influencers" âEUR" those elusive bloggers and digerati who hold the ability to sway others
through their online comments and behavior. In fact, the difference between your influential
customers online and offline may not be much. Traditional mass media opinion leaders, from talk
show hosts to newscasters, have taken up residence in social media Emergency Dentists channels.
Among regular mortals, those who are most active in social media are also more likely to be socially
active offline, whether dating (45% more likely), going to professional sporting events (19% more),
or attending political rallies (26% more). They also spend more online on clothing and music, and
are 60% likely to post online product reviews.
Know Your Customer
The question for businesses is no longer, "should I be using social media to communicate?" but "how
should I?" While national data can point to broad demographic trends, and the rise of new social
media platforms, each business needs to become intimately acquainted with its own customers'
behavior, in order to continue to reach them in our increasingly networked world.
Related:
image courtesy of flickr user, Ed Yourdon
David Rogers presents over 100 business cases and a practical framework for planning and
implementing digital strategies in his new book, "The Network Is Your Customer: Five Strategies to
Thrive in a Digital Age." He teaches Digital Marketing Strategy at Columbia Business School, and
speaks at conferences worldwide. Rogers has advised and developed marketing and digital
strategies for numerous companies such as SAP, Eli Lilly, and Visa. Find him on Twitter at
http://twitter.com/david_rogers and on Google+ at http://bit.ly/DavidRogersGplus.
© 2011 CBS Interactive Inc.. All Rights Reserved.

3. http://www.cbsnews.com/news/new-rules-for-business-in-the-social-media-age/