If you work in Communications, escaping the latest hype around social media can be tough. You may even find yourself obsessing about it and have a condition called FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) because you are not posting or monitoring the chat on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.
The U.S. Population Does Not Spend Their Day Using Social Media
Guess how much of the U.S. population (comprised of 311,446,341 people) uses social media these days? The stats may suprise you.
Twitter: 1.1 % of the U.S. population is on Twitter. (source: April 2011 results from Experian Hitwise.)
Facebook: While Facebook says that they have 150M U.S. “active” users, which is 48% of the U.S. population, only 50% of active users login any given day. So 24% of the U.S. population logs into Facebook on any given day to check or post updates. (source: Facebook)
LinkedIn: 0.37% of the U.S. population is on LinkedIn. (source: April 2011 results from Experian Hitwise.)
YouTube: 19.94% of the U.S population is on YouTube. (source: April 2011 results from Experian Hitwise.)
MySpace: 1.19% of the U.S. population is on MySpace. (source: April 2011 results from Experian Hitwise.)
Social Media: Just One Slice Of The Pie
While these stats are not terrible (in particular Facebooks and Youtube’s) it does demonstrate that the world does not revolve around social media for millions of people in the United States. Communications staff and organizational stakeholders need to put these stats into perspective and not be so captivated by shiny object syndrome. In 2011 a good communications and outreach plan still involves a lot of work around traditional tactics to generate earned media and to build movements.
More Resources:
Social Media: A Bubble About to Burst
Is It Worth It? An ROI Calculator for Social Network Campaigns
It's About Impact NOT Influence