From the smallest startup to the largest International corporations, GlowHost is seeing an incredible amount of organizations looking to social media as an important tool for their business. More and more people are not only running campaigns across several social media outlets, but they are also searching for new and inventive ways to integrate social media into web hosting accounts.
With such popularity, it is strange to think that a little over ten years ago, social media wasn’t even conceptualized. The leading websites that make up 22% of the USA’s time spent online – Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter – are not even ten years old. This relative infancy means that social media should still be rigorously examined, user trends should be carefully monitored, and nobody should start promoting their business through social media without knowing all the facts.
GlowHost has collected some of the most fascinating facts surrounding social media, giving our shared web hosting, cloud virtual dedicated server hosting (VDS), and dedicated server hosting customers the head-start they need to see their social media presences flourish.
1. If Facebook were a country, it would be the world’s 3rd largest
No big surprise here, but something that’s always worth remembering – Facebook is not just popular, it’s a phenomenon. For sheer volume of users and the ability to connect with potentially more than 800 million people, having a Facebook page is no longer an option – it’s a fundamental element in building your online presence.
2. The average Facebook user creates 90 content items per month
The major concern with Facebook is that its large scale and enormous user base leaves the site flooded with content that vies for attention and those all-important ‘Likes.’ However, not all of this content is useful and not all of it is worthwhile. All the same, many customers find it difficult to find a way to cut through and gain visibility on this particularly busy platform.
3. YouTube is the world’s second largest search engine
For many of us trying to achieve better traffic, a focus on Google is only natural. However, partly through integration with Google, YouTube is an incredibly popular search engine and can be a fantastic way to reach out to new customers and start increasing your visibility.
4. More than 24 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube every minute
In real terms, the quantity of video that finds its way onto YouTube makes it difficult to capture attention without a large existing following or some inspired viral material. As with Facebook, over-saturation means that achieving your social media goals usually requires a great deal of time and effort.
5. Five new Twitter accounts are created every single second
Twitter is particularly refreshing since it is social media with a strong USP – everything is confined to short 140-character bursts of information. This individuality, alongside the celebrity adoption of Twitter, brings in new users by the bucketload, all of whom are potential customers for your business.
6. Almost a quarter of new Twitter accounts are never used
But despite its popularity, Twitter is an experience that some people love and some people do not fully embrace. Around 21% of all new signups to Twitter never post a message, never follow any other users, and never revisit the site. As a result, if you are looking to build your business by attracting new customers, Twitter may not be the golden opportunity that it seems.
What do GlowHost web hosting service users do with social media?
What these statistics reveal is that social media is rife with opportunity, but attracting new customers through social media is a time-consuming, potentially expensive process. High visitor numbers can be achieved through a little ingenuity and constant communication, but perhaps the biggest saving grace of social media is not in the new customers, but in the ones you already have.
At GlowHost, we use our Facebook and Twitter accounts to share information on our shared hosting, VDS hosting, dedicated server hosting, and cloud hosting plans with new customers, but we also relish the opportunity to communicate with our existing users. For help, information, or just a friendly conversation, social media puts GlowHost in direct contact with the people that are most important to the web hosting services we offer. If potential customers join the conversation too, that’s great!
What are you doing with social media to help your business be better? Is your focus on appealing to potential customers or talking to your existing ones? How have you managed to make social media an integral part of what you do with your GlowHost hosting service?
Join the conversation now at www.facebook.com/GlowHost or send us a Tweet at www.twitter.com/GlowHost.