Blog 3 – Social Network Comparison

With the Internet being integrated into nearly every aspect of everyday business and personal use, many business owners are recognising the important role of social networking in the business world.

Social networking is hugely important for a business because it allows them to increase public awareness of their brand and gain loyal customers with extreme ease. However, for a business to make the most of social networking, it’s important to fully understand the concept of social networking and how it can be applied in ways that will help a business grow.

Some of the most popular social networking websites are Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat, and whilst they are all uniquely different, they also share many similarities.

Facebook

•Founded by Mark Zuckerburg in 2004

•968 Million daily active users on average for June 2015.

•10,955 employees as of June 2015.

•76% of female and 66% of male internet users are on Facebook.

•87% of people aged between 18-29 use Facebook.

Instagram

•Founded by Kevin Systrom in 2010

•300+ million members who share more than 75 million photos daily

•Instagram was recently bought out by Facebook for $1billion

•13 employees before takeover

•68% of users are female

•37% of users aged between 18-29

Snapchat

•Founded by Evan Spiegel in 2011

•100 million daily users sending over 400 million snaps per day

•200 employees

•70% of users are female

•50% of users aged between 13-17

How they can be used as part of an integrated marketing communication strategy

As each of these social media websites has such large number of users, the potential for a business to spread their product/ brand and gain loyal customers, via social networking, is virtually limitless. Furthermore, the costs involved in marketing on social media are minuscule compared to that of traditional media.

For a business to be successful on social media, it is important that they do research to discover who their target market is and advertise to them accordingly. For example if a businesses predominant users of their product/ service are the older population, there is not much point using snapchat to promote their brand as their main demographics is much younger. As such, it is hugely important that a business knows their customers.

Ensuring that a businesses advertising stays relevant is also fundamental to successful social media marketing. Trends on social media are constantly changing, and keeping up to date and staying relevant online is hugely important for a business. This may require a business to do additional research to see what type of advertising or marketing campaigns are historically successful, and market accordingly.

If such marketing communication strategies are implemented well, social media may prove to be a huge factor in the success of a business.

References

Digital Marketing Stats, ‘By the numbers: 150 Instagram statistics ‘, viewed 13th September 2015, http://expandedramblings.com/index.php/important-instagram-stats/

Digital Marketing Stats, ‘By the numbers: 60 Amazing snapchat statistics’, viewed 13th September 2015, http://expandedramblings.com/index.php/snapchat-statistics/

Facebook Newsroom, ‘Stats and Our History’, Our Mission, Word Press, Viewed online 13th September 2015, http://newsroom.fb.com/company-info/

Forbes, ‘Three elements of an effective social media strategy‘, viewed 13th September 2015, http://www.forbes.com/sites/williamarruda/2013/08/27/three-elements-of-an-effective-social-media-strategy/