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Social Networks Mean New Revenue & Customers

Social networks proving their value as a marketing channel. Social media, social media, social media, social media, social media. It seems that’s all anyone is talking about these days. And for GOOD REASON, it appears. According to eMarketer, a survey by office services firm Regus shows that companies around the globe are already realizing returns [...]

Social networks proving their value as a marketing channel.

Social media, social media, social media, social media, social media. It seems that’s all anyone is talking about these days. And for GOOD REASON, it appears.

According to eMarketer, a survey by office services firm Regus shows that companies around the globe are already realizing returns on their increased social media investments from earlier this year.  In the US, 43% of businesses used social networks successfully for winning new customers in 2011. That represents an 8 percentage point increase over 2010.

• 50 percent of businesses in the U.S. use websites such as Twitter to engage, connect with and inform existing customers
• In the U.S., 55 percent of firms encourage their employees to join social networks such as Linkedin and Xing
• 38 percent of U.S. companies dedicate up to 20 percent of their marketing budget to business social networking activity

You’re Not Getting Older, You’re Getting Better (Networked)

If you don’t recognized the headline of this post then you’re likely not among those in the latest survey of Boomers about social networking (The slogan is from a 1970s ad for Loving Care hair color).  AARP just released the results of its national telephone survey: Social Media and Technology Use Among Adults 50+.  Among the [...]

If you don’t recognized the headline of this post then you’re likely not among those in the latest survey of Boomers about social networking (The slogan is from a 1970s ad for Loving Care hair color).  AARP just released the results of its national telephone survey: Social Media and Technology Use Among Adults 50+.  Among the results of adults age 50 and over 2/5 of them consider themselves extremely or very comfortable using the Internet. That number of comfortable Internet users rises to almost half if you look at adults ages 50 to 64.

The most popular networking site among the  over-50 crowd is Facebook followed by MySpace, LinkedIn and Twitter.  Kevin Donnellan, the chief communications officer at AARP says the latest data tells us that social networking is becoming a part of everyday life for Americans 50 plus, and boomers in particular.

In terms of news preferences:

• Most adults 50+ prefer to get their news from print newspapers and magazines  (40%) or through a combination of print and online news sources (26%)
• Among adults 50+ who use social media websites, three-quarters (73%) are connected to relatives other than children and grandchildren, three-fifths are connected to their children (62%), and one-third (36%) are connected to grandchildren.
• Among those introduced by a family member, three-fifths (63%) said it was their child.

See the survey: http://www.AARP.org/socialmediasurvey