4 Reasons Social Media is Here to Stay

You’ll hear it from time to time: “Social media is a passing fad.” While it sounds like a hip and cool judgment, it’s actually a pretty ignorant comment offered by individuals who probably haven’t studied the subject very closely.

You only need to spend a few moments researching the value of social media marketing and its service to businesses of all types and sizes, and you’ll quickly recognize that social media is destined for additional growth — not decline.

The Proof is in The Numbers

As a business-minded individual, you likely appreciate hard facts and numbers, so let’s take a look at some of the statistical evidence that social media is thriving:

According to SocialTimes, social media marketing budgets are set to double within the next five years.

An incredible 83% of B2B marketers are investing in social media as a way to increase their brand exposure, 69% to get more clicks, and 65% to gain additional market insights.

Google+ and Facebook receive an incredible 2 billion combined visits every month.

Nearly two-thirds of global Internet users research products online prior to purchase, and much of that traffic moves through social media channels.

Approximately 83% of marketers believe their social media profiles are important to their business, and 42% assert that Facebook is critical to their success.

Reasons Social Media is Here to Stay

While the numbers firmly indicate that social media marketing is alive and well, numbers don’t tell the whole story. To get the clearest picture of the value, it’s necessary to uncover the bigger ideas.

Here are a few specific reasons that social media — and therefore, social media marketing — is in it for the long haul.

The mobile movement. It’s unbelievable to take a step back and study the growth of the mobile movement over the past five, ten, and fifteen years. What started with huge phones and clunky PDAs has turned into sleek, smart, sophisticated devices that are capable of doing anything a computer can do and more.

As a result, an increasing number of people are transitioning from wired desktop technology to mobile devices. Along with this shift comes an increase in social media activity and on-the-go connectivity. Unless you assume mobile devices are a fad, it’s difficult to believe social media is apt to disappear any time soon.

Social media’s reach: If social media were only popular in certain geographical regions, or among people of a particular ideology, it would be more reasonable to assert its value would fade over time. However, it’s statistically established that social networking engagement transcends regional, political, and religious beliefs. In fact, it accounts for 19 percent of all online activity, which makes it the most popular online activity in the world.

Ability to target: One of the reasons social media marketing will not likely go away is its unique ability to target particular customers through sophisticated segmentation capabilities … which is the goal of any marketing efforts.
According to Magicdust, a full-service web design and marketing agency, “In today’s ever-evolving world, where we’re more connected to our devices than ever before, it’s never been more important for businesses to devise smart marketing strategies that are able to cut through to a targeted audience.” The folks at Magicdust, like so many others, believe social media offers the best chance to do that.

Word-of-mouth: People love and trust other people; it’s that simple. While the Internet is useful for researching information, reading news stories, and learning new trades, it’s best at bringing people together. That’s especially what social media does. When it comes to purchasing goods and services, social media empowers brands to spread positive word of mouth.

So let the uninformed claim that social media will soon be a thing of the past. You can smile, knowing your business understands the incredible value social media brings to the table.

You might also be interested in a Motivational Speaker Video on the social media revolution!