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Is social media a targeted or mass tactic?

Posted by Sheera Eby on January 20, 2015

Social media is the No.1 activity on the Internet, according to Fast Company.1 Social media is constantly evolving, with new social media outlets popping up and marketers in a constant intellectual arms race to keep up with the change.

 



Social media has historically been considered a broad-based digital marketing technique. Marketers have thought of social media as a form of digital marketing best practice for delivering mass messages. Social media marketing, however, is becoming a more fragmented digital marketing technique, and is actually starting to resemble more targeted marketing tactics.

 

 

Can social media be segmented?
In the world of marketing, knowing your audience is half the battle. It is a proven fact that digital marketing campaigns are more effective when tailored around a segment, such as a behavioral group or particular demographic group. It could be argued that social media is quickly transforming into a more targeted medium. The emergence of different social media outlets aligning to different segments is becoming a reality that marketers are forced to consider.

 

The following social media stats demonstrate social media platforms that have different audiences:2

  • While Instagram is used less than Facebook and Twitter, higher income users are on Instagram
  • Instagram also has “prestige” among younger users; Instagram is the second “youngest” social network, with 28% of Instagram users in the 18-to-24 age group
  • Snapchat is the youngest social network, with 60% of users being in the 18-to-24 age group
  • LinkedIn has surpassed Twitter in popularity, with the highest concentration of users in the 30-to-49 demographic, which is likely mirroring those in the prime of their career
  • YouTube reaches more U.S. adults aged 18-to-34 than any cable network, reaching more than half of males in this age group
  • According to Fast Company, the fastest growing demographic on Twitter is 55-to-64 age bracket
  • Vine remains very popular with teenagers and young adults, allowing users to post brief gifs that will play with or without audio

 

 

Future generations will be impacted by social media

Social media is likely to continue to evolve as digital marketing techniques grow and evolve. Younger generations are now growing up with the ability to instantly communicate and share information. It is important to recognize that social media outlets such as Snapchat have become incredibly popular, but they don’t facilitate marketing in a traditional way. Instagram is currently a major social network for tweens because it is so easy to use; pictures can be sent quickly and easily with a phrase or small statements. The question is whether these social media outlets will be as popular with these groups in the future, or whether the audiences will graduate to other social media outlets. It’ll be interesting to see what remains static: the audience or the social media channel.

 

 

Platform usage, conversion and engagement trends
Sheer audience volume is not enough to create a successful content marketing program; engagement and conversion are often considered the most important digital marketing metrics. Shareaholic’s engagement statistics show that, of all platforms, YouTube has the highest engagement levels and lowest bounce rates.3 Although Facebook still remains the largest social media platform, it does not facilitate engagement as well as Google+, LinkedIn or Twitter.

Whether your current digital marketing and social media marketing efforts are actively using YouTube or not, it is undeniably one of the most effective social media platforms, both because of its high volume of traffic and high volume of engagement. The popularity of the photo, image and video-based social media platforms demonstrates that users are interested in video, images and other ways of consuming content over traditional words. It’s essential to consider how to integrate these trends into your digital marketing and social marketing media plan, and to leverage visual media.

 

 

It’s also important to realize that the audiences of different social media platforms are constantly evolving. Marketers should go through a deliberate planning effort before selecting social media channels. The above list is just a starting point of marketing stats and facts. A marketing communications plan should also consider the purpose of social media, the outlets, the role of each digital marketing technique and what type of content marketing is going to be promoted. To ensure your company is leveraging best practices for an effective content marketing campaign, sign up for our personalized webinar. Your company will learn digital marketing techniques that will create cohesive integration to increase response rates and drive action across all communication channels.

 

Sources:

Topics: Digital Marketing

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