Who Uses Social Media And How?

I’d like to start by saying, thank you – #SMChat has been named one of the 15 essential chats for social media marketers by Mashable and we wouldn’t have made the list without the participation of readers like you! Now on to this week’s topic…who uses social media and how?

Several years ago, I came across the Conversation Prism (above) by Brian Solis and Jess3 and it really opened my eyes to the number of social media sites where people could engage on so many different levels. I tried a few, no way could you truly participate in them all, and found that one of the places that I felt most comfortable to share, learn and sometimes just shoot the breeze, was Twitter, and specifically Twitter chats like #SMchat. I’ve “lurked” and actively participated in chats, and have been moderating for more than 3 years now. Not only have I been updated on breaking news, current events and best practices online and off, but I’ve met some amazing people on Twitter as well. One of those people, Dawn Westerberg, started out as a “Twitter friend” and over the years we’ve become “Facebook friends” and actually met in real life. On Friday, Dawn posted a Mashable link to an infographic of social media demographics (say THAT 3X fast!) and it made me think about my social media usage and the usage of social media by my company’s customers.

The Mashable article contained information within a new study from the Pew Research Center and Docstoc on just who uses social and on what platforms. Some of the findings made sense to me, but others were quite a bit different from I expected. According to the demographics presented in the infographic, I shouldn’t even be on Twitter…in fact, even though I’m in the age group with 77% social media usage (there’s a 20-year age range for you to guess how old I am), I’m substantially older than the demographics for Twitter, Facebook or Instagram according to the results showing which networking sites are most appealing to different age groups.

Here are my 5 questions on who uses social media and how:

1. Which social network(s) do you use most often, how do you use them and why?
2. Do you agree with the demographic breakdown of social media sites found in the infographic on Mashable?
3. Are you able to predict which social media networks will engage with your brand? How?
4. Usage by 18- to 29-year-olds dropped to the lowest levels in 2 years, is that age group “bored” with social media?
5. Is social media just shiny object syndrome for marketers, or is there real ROI gold to be found?

Do you think about your social media usage and those of your online visitors/customers? Please share your insights below and join us on April 17, 2013 at 1PM ET for #SMChat!

Tagged: Brian Solis, Dawn Westerberg, Facebook, instagram, Jess3, linkedin, Marketing, Mashable, Pew Research Center, Pinterest, Social Media, social networking, socialmedia, tumblr, twitter

Posted in: Marketing, Trends