Social Media Advisors

I am constantly traveling around the country as a social media speaker, I get asked over and over if social media is just a fad that will die any moment. Personally, I don’t see this happening at any time soon, but while at a recent event in Las Vegas, I had the opportunity to sit in on a presentation by Sam Sebastian of Google. This presentation was probably one of the most informative presentations I’ve heard in a long time and I will definitely be sharing more information from it over the next few months.

During his presentation, Sam shared statistics on the engagement of consumers in social media. In 2008 41.6% of Americans were using social media. In 2011, this rose to 61.2%. Also, from their predictions, they see this number to continue to rise over the next few years. Their predictions indicate that by 2014 the percentage will rise to 65.8%

Consumers show no signs of giving up on using social media any time soon, and therefore you need to have some sort of social media strategy in place for your business. Here are a few reasons I believe this trend will continue and that Google is right:

1. Smart phone usage continues to increase- During Sam’s presentation, he shared that by the end of 2011, half of all Americans will have a smart phone. This means that mobile usage on social platforms will continue to rise. Since all major social networks have made mobile applications that make using their platforms so easy to use, more and more will start using the platforms through their phone.

2. Ease of video creation & number of views increase exponentially- I wrote before about each day over 2 billion videos are viewed on YouTube daily. Sam also shared that popularity on YouTube has increased 2,000% over the past few years. With devices like the Kodak Playtouch that create great videos and smartphones now shooting HD quality video that can be instantly uploaded, I don’t see the number of videos created and being watched slowing down any time soon.

So, I ask you, do you think social media is dying? I personally agree with Google when they say no!

I was in Charlotte this past week for another social media speaker engagement. While there, I stayed at The Westin in downtown Charlotte. After checking into the hotel, I took my vehicle to park in the lower deck of the garage. As I clicked the button to go up in the elevator, I noticed this very nice sign above:

Personally I think this is one of the better uses of Social Media Marketing yet. You are standing there with nothing else to do, so why not share a sign there. Also, I really like the fact that had nice large logos to capture your attention, but they also gave you the specific URLs to connect with them. Too many times I see social media marketing done by corporations that do not include that. Take the guessing out of your social media marketing & include that.

Overall, job well done by The Westin Charlotte!