Some recent stats from an eMarketer research project reveal the ways people of all demographics use social networking sites. The data from a recent survey is as follows:
- 75% of people using social networking us it to keep in touch with friends.
- 55% of people use it for fun.
- 41% of people use it for keeping in touch with family.
- 5% of people use it for keeping touch with their business network.
- 4% of people use it for job hunting.
- 3% of people use it for business development and/or sales
So what's to be learned from all of this? When you engage people in a social network, you're more likely to be talking to them in "personal" time rather than professional time. They're there for fun, friends, or family. They're not there for you and your business interests.
If you're going to use a social networking component to your marketing plans you need to understand the space and what the people are there for in the first place. Without understanding what a person's primary interests in social networking are, you're likely to have them either ignore you for being irrelevant and valueless or they'll get frustrated at you and fire back for violating their online personal space.
If you went to another country for business you would study the culture and customs to keep from damaging your relationships. The same thing applies here.
Here are the full results from that portion of the study for those who may be interested.
