Originally posted on the EQuerry Consulting Blog
Social media allows brands and businesses to connect with audiences in a more meaningful way than ever before. Despite this, few of them know how to leverage the popular platforms to truly benefit their business! Customers have come to expect a seamless experience throughout all brand communications, and with your social platform(s) now not only creating the first impression for many potential customers but is also a direct shop window for sale of your products, managing your social accounts can be more like an obstacle course than a walk in the park.
We have put together a comprehensive worksheet for you to develop a firm understanding of how you can use social media in your business. For us, social media is about building long standing relationships and turning customers into individuals who can wholeheartedly recommend you (and does so on their own accord at every chance given!). The worksheet will allow you to take a look at the platforms that are best suited your business and how you can play to your personal strengths when managing your social platforms and establishing a social media strategy.
To keep the ‘marketing jargon’ to a minimum, we have refrained from including plenty of statistics in the worksheet. That said, we do however believe that the numbers speaks for themselves, which is why we have summarised some for you here:
Social Media Stats
- Globally, over 3.6 billion people use social media. The number is projected to increase to 4.41 billion by 2025.
- Instagram has 1 billion monthly active users, and the largest demographic of users on the network is women aged 18-24 years old. The all-industry benchmark for Instagram engagement rate per post is 1.22%, which has decreased from 1.60% in 2019. This decrease highlights the importance of creating engaging content.
- The top two most effective content types for influencer marketing are posts (78%) and Stories (73%).
- Facebook is considered the oldest social media network, but it still reigns as the most used platform: In Q3 of 2020, the network reported over 7.7 billion monthly active users.
- The all-industry benchmark for Twitter engagement rate per Tweet has been consistent for 3 years now, and comes in at 0.045%.
- Pinterest has witnessed substantial demographic growth: As a search engine (just like Google or YouTube), this gives great scope for targeting demographics you are interested in. Women make up more than 60% of the global Pinterest community, with the number of male users being up almost 50% year over year. Gen-Z’ers are up upver 50% year over year, followed by Millenials (35%0.
- LinkedIn is the most-used platform for B2B marketing, with 96% of marketers using it for organic content distribution and 83% for paid social. Long-form posts perform well on the network, and posts with 1,900–2,000 words performed best in terms of views and engagement.
- Social media advertising was used by 83% of marketers in 2020 and ranked second in success (29%) behind search engine marketing (33%).
Consumer Behaviour Stats
Consumer behaviour changed significantly in 2020 following the pandemic. This means that businesses have had to change their expectations in response to the new trends.
- The Sprout Social Index reported that 50% of consumers increased their social media usage over the last six months (Q3 and Q4 2020).
- 57% of consumers will follow a brand to learn about new products or services while 47% will follow brands to stay up to date on company news.
- According to GlobalWebIndex, 54% of social media users use SM to research products. The index also shows that 71% are more likely to purchase products and services based on social media referrals. Learn more about how you can provide social proof to up your sales here.
- After following a brand on social media, consumers continue to engage in various ways: 91% visit the brand’s website, 89% will buy from the brand, and 85% will recommend the brand to a family or friend.
- The top four reasons consumers will unfollow a brand on social media are that they’re no longer interested (79%), the brand posts irrelevant content (66%), too many posts are published too often (41%) and lack of engagement (37%). You can read more on this topic in our previous blog here.
- Images are still the preferred content consumers like to engage with (68%), with 50% preferring videos and 30% enjoying text-based posts.
- Consumers who are influenced by social media are four times more likely to spend more on purchases - There are four ways in which social media has a direct influence on purchase decisions!
- Social media influencer marketing is one of the most effective ways to reach your audience. ___
Every social media platform is different and can be useful for the different goals you might have within your business; there’s no one-size fits all when it comes to social media! Being familiar with the most current social media marketing statistics is useful when you are establishing and/or reviewing your existing marketing strategy.
Planning and strategising aside, your strategies will only be as good as the content you create. Content creation is time consuming and outsourcing is a good solution for businesses who require a lot of content and who wish to grow substantially online. So much so that 86% of B2B organisations outsourced content creation in 2020! Would you like to know more about our content creation and social media management packages? Contact Christine here.
Equine Business Social Media Strategy Worksheet
Head over to our Resources page for your free download of our Social Media Strategy Worksheet!
EQuerry Consulting is a specialist equestrian marketing and website design agency. Working closely with their clients, they pride ourselves on their ability to really understand your brand, allowing them to find new, innovative ways for you to connect with (and keep) your audience, inspire brand loyalty and maximize your sales opportunities. Providing unrivaled design, communication and brand development services to help equestrian businesses create unique digital presences that truly stand out from the crowd.
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