It’s a new year and as usual many are focused on the scale. Which is why in this post I’d like to try and show the scale of what happened in the world of digital communication in the past year.
According to a report published by TechnoratiMedia more than 90% of brands in 2013 had a Facebook fanpage. 85% also had a presence on Twitter and 73% a YouTube channel. Google+ still remains the less popular social media option and hasn’t gained as much traction among businesses as only 26% of brands use it.
The American agency, Brandwatch, specializes in social media analysis and researched the question; how do brands use Twitter? 254 English and American businesses were researched according to their Twitter presence in a 12 month period. The result? 2013 was the boom year for brands using social media.
In 2013, 60% of businesses increased investment in their digital sector compared to the last year (40%), with the goal of growing and expanding in 2014. The largest portion of budget was invested towards advertising and focuses on bloggers as a means of outreach according to the report. More and more businesses reach out to influential bloggers to participate in their marketing strategies, get them involved and incentivize them to spread the word on various social media channels such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.
What is the main goal for businesses that have expanded into the online world of social media?
According to TechnoratiMedia:
- Optimize their means of communication
- Strengthen their brand
- Launch new products via web marketing
- Give social media addicts the chance to identify themselves with the brand
- Generate engagement
Bloggers now have the enormous power of influence and many use their various outlets to convince their audience to purchase certain products and/or services. This is in fact one of the main reasons brands are leaning towards bloggers or people very active on social media channels to become the brand’s brand ambassadors. The report mentioned above, confirms that more and more people turn to bloggers for reviews on products/services eve before using popular search engines when shopping online.
The above infographic shows that during the past year, bloggers made up about 30% of digital resources that influence people’s purchases.
The future forecast shows that Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn will continue to flourish in 2014 and are some of the top sites that businesses will invest in for marketing. The good news is that blogs will see the most growth in investment. In fact, according to the TechnoratiMedia report, brands will seek help from blogs/bloggers 28% more than they did in 2013. Looks like it will be a happy new year indeed for influencers everywhere!