By: Christine Sheppard

How Big is Google +?

359 million active users
Number of users up by 33% since June 2012
25 million users in the first month

Demographics

Harken back with me and remember your life in September of 2011. You are waiting patiently for your official invite to start using Google +. If you weren’t ‘on the list’, you were desperately trying to get an invite from someone in your networks. The launch certainly created quite a frenzy – Google has a very clever (maybe even genius) marketing department. By the time the site became “public”, the early adopters had already become heavy-users and social media buzz turned the mystery into a ‘must have’. 

63% are male vs. 37% female, and the majority of users are between the ages of 25-35. However, the most jarring statistic might be the number of ‘inactive’ users. Yes, there are over 300 million people with a Google + account, but research shows that about 70% are ‘inactive’ users. Only about 17% are considered frequent or active users.

Google + has some serious SEO klout, but it has not been the Facebook killer it was advertised to be.

Video and Google+

The recent Google + boom and longevity is tied to Google’s effort to build a connecting layer across all its services, including search, YouTube, maps and its other products. Log into one, and you’ve logged into the entire ‘family’ of your accounts and services. This makes it very easy to share content across many channels; from Youtube to Google + for example.  For a marketer, it is very appealing to know that activity on social media can also boost your overall search ranking. It is a fact that an authoritative Google + account is one of the factors that will help you rank high on Google search results. A popular or active Google Plus account is an important criterion in the search algorithm that ranks pages. 

Google favours video, but it favours video sharing and video popularity even more! Google makes it very easy to share media content from anywhere you are logged in, and the circle segmenting feature makes it very attractive for brands to ‘target’ their audience and track results. Is your video content intended to be B2B or B2C? Choose your audience and share your videos directly with your market. 

A whopping 61% of the top 100 brands are represented on Google +. The ‘buy-in’ means that Google has done a great job convincing brands that Google + is a marketing tool, not just another social media site. 

*Next in our Series’ The Social Saga’: Howdy! Welcome to the world of Wordpress

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Written by: Christine Sheppard

How Big?

Approx. 50 million visits per month

Purchased (as Blogspot) by Google in 2003 – not a small merger.

Demographics: The blogging community ranges in age from 15-100 (your grandmother has a blog, so does your little sister, right?), but the largest and most active demographic is the 18-35 year olds. These are the people who have grown up during the blogging “revolution”, which started roughly ten years ago. In fact, 21-35 year olds account for almost half of the entire blogging community.

Blogger and Video

The Blogger (Blogspot) platform is making it VERY easy to include videos into your posts. You can add a video directly from your computer files, or share it from Youtube. The entire Google line of products is interconnected, so with a Blogger and a Youtube account – you can share content between the two platforms very simply. Once you are signed in, when you click ‘share’ on a Youtube video, the content will be automatically fed and published on your blog. It’s a social media sharing loop that starts with uploading great content via video. 

Blogging is a key element in boosting your Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Frequently updated and unique content is favoured by Google and adds ‘value’ to your site ranking. Your blog should churn out regular, keyword optimized content (with low bounce rates and high on-page/site time) to compete for Google’s love. That means, your content needs to keep people on your site for longer, encourage social conversation (sharing) and be relevant to your keyword strategy. Video is interactive, it is easily ‘sharable’, you can tag it with all of your keywords and it engages an online audience. 

Make your own social media loop by uploading optimized video content, putting it on Youtube, sharing on your blog, posting on Facebook, and tweeting the link on Twitter. The blogging community is BIG on sharing – that’s what kick-started the ‘blogging revolution’. Video is easily the most sharable content for Bloggers, and once the community gets a hold of it… watch out for the next viral sensation!

Social conversation starts with fresh, sharable content. Google loves that.

*Next in our Series’ The Social Saga’: Google’s attempt to kill Facebook – Google+

 

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By: Christine Sheppard

How Big?

Over 200 Million users/members
Growing at approx. 2 new members per second
2.6 million company pages

Demographics

The PEW Internet research survey shows that Linkedin members’ age of majority is 35-44 (26%) followed by 45-54 year olds (22%). An older demographic, but that’s exactly how Linkedin likes it. Their site connects educated, working, experienced professionals with information, brands, thought leadership and professional networking opportunities. The industries that are represented the most on Linkedin are IT, Financial services, Higher Education and Computer Software. 

Video and Linkedin

• Create a Brand Personality – People find your business using Linkedin – Google favours it when you search for a company by name. Traffic will be sent to your brand page (if you’ve got one!)… So, what does your page SAY about your company? If you are only using the brief summary section with a link to your website… you are missing the point. This is a page that sells your brand personality and identity! Use your video to tell the story of your company, and get people excited to work with you!
• Products/Services Promotion – Linkedin introduced a Products/Services section for company pages that gives you a chance to list/index your products and services on your page. It also gives you the opportunity to post promotions, like mini-ads on the right side of the page. You now also have the option to include a video! Linkedin is giving you free ad space… use your video to engage with potential customers who are already perusing your products/services!
• Video Ads  - a recent survey revealed that 60% of Linkedin members have clicked on an ad while using the site. That’s impressive… pick your jaw up off the floor now. Linkedin was also one of the first social networking sites to introduce the option of video ads for advertisers. If you weren’t already advertising on Linkedin, now might be a good time to jump on board and use your video to attract new leads. Set a budget, zero in on your target market, and let your video do the talking. 

Linkedin is the “Network for Professionals” – the place where you build your personal brand for the world to see (you’ll be hard pressed to find an incriminating picture of weekend activities anywhere on the site). Linkedin has undergone quite a few changes since it’s launch 10 years ago, and it seems that with every new version the people at Linkedin introduce new opportunities to strategically integrate video. Linkedin has recognized that people and brands want to use video for promotion and marketing, for identity, for engagement, to exchange information, and for measurable conversion results. It’s not about sharing the latest “cat chases dog into a tree’ Youtube video clip. Linkedin encourages you to use video to boost your online “brand personality”. How will your business stand out from the 2.6 million OTHER brands on Linkedin? A custom video allows you to show off your unique brand personality… that’s exactly what Linkedin is for.

 

*Next in our series ‘The Social Saga’: Pinterest… the online vision board.

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Why is Everyone a-Twitter about Twitter?

Written by Christine Sheppard

Rank: 2

 

How BIG is Twitter

 

• 250,000,000 unique monthly users 
• 140 million active users 
• An average of 400 tweets sent per day
• Average Time Per Month Spent by Users on Twitter: 170 minutes

 

It is the world’s most popular micro-blog, but “Twitter” rolls easier off the tongue.  It may have a cute, catchy name but don’t fall into the trap of underestimating or discounting the power of Twitter as part of an effective marketing strategy. 

 

Demographics:

 

The PEW Internet research survey revealed that Twitter has more than doubled since 2009 and users are split fairly evenly down the middle, 55% of users are Female and 45% are male. Surprising? Perhaps less surprising is that the dominant demographic group is described as “18-29 year old urbanites” - 30% of all Twitter users fit that description.

 

Twitter will always be fueled by engagement. Engagement statistics are the only ones marketers care about. So let’s talk about those…

How are the most successful brands engaging with their market using Twitter? The simple answer is with conversation and content. 92% of engagement with a Brand’s tweets are link clicks, and tweets that contain links receive 86% higher Retweet rates than those without.

 

Video and Facebook:

 

• Tweet it – If you have video content… tweet it! You just read that 92% of brand engagement are link clicks, so put video links in your tweets to increase engagement with your followers and drive traffic to your site or social media networks. Twitter is a fast, easy and effective way to generate video views and social interaction with your content. Videos spread fast, Twitter is a viral engine! Twitter users love sharing Youtube videos, at the rate of over 700 video tweets per minute!
• Hashtag it- Twitter can take credit for making ‘Hashtag’ part of our social dialogue and quickly a staple in our general lexicon. The Hashtag (#) is used to index information on Twitter using keyword and conversation topics. Your videos can be indexed and found based on associated keywords that you control. Search #video or #marketing and you’ll find all of the tweets that mention those keywords. To boost your buzz factor, use popular keywords and hashtag-phrases that are trending on Twitter, or start your own! #trendsetter
• Share it – People LOVE to share video on Twitter, so make it easy for them to take it viral! Place Twitter ‘share’ or ‘Tweet’ icons clearly beside (over or under) your video on your website, Youtube channels and other social sites. Once people watch your video, you give them something to Tweet about. Encourage them to interact by tweeting about it, or Retweeting your links.

 

You get the feeling that Twitter’s new kid on the block status is behind them - they are no longer the cooler, younger cousin to Facebook. Twitter will move into their next phase by continuing to be innovative, serving the younger demographic and offering greater conversation or brand engagement metrics than their competitors. 

 

Number 2 ain’t bad, but a little bird told me that it ain’t satisfied with status quo. You’ll see big things from Twitter as their user base grows along with demand for change. Twitter isn’t the fly by night concept (that most of us thought it would be!) - it has been a juggernaut in 140 characters for over 7 years, in large part due to the unique direct (and direct) conversation and sharing benefits it offers to brands. 

 

Get your video content on Twitter and watch it soar. #marketersdream

 

*Next in our series ‘The Social Saga’: Linkedin… Facebook in a suit and tie.

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