How do people use social media?

Social media platforms are digital tools that enable people or companies to create, share or exchange information such as ideas, interests and thoughts, using text, images and videos. Social media can be accessed using mobile and web based technologies to create highly interactive platforms.

Brands and consumers are using social media to interact on many levels from sharing content to handling complaints; the instant nature of social media is proving increasingly popular worldwide.

People use social media in many ways. Behaviourists have reported that there are four key psychological reasons behind social sharing:

Instant gratification: the reactive nature of social media provides users with instant gratification.

Feel connected: social media makes people feel connected, even with people they haven’t met in real life or haven’t seen for a long time.

Influence others: Posting, sharing and liking certain things on social media shows people what you think of the world and provides a way for people to influence others choices and opinions.

Be the first: There is so much information now widely available that it can prove difficult to be the first at anything or to find something new but social media provides a way for people to share the unusual to a very wide audience.

 

Guide to Social Media

Brands can create a huge online footprint by building their social media presence. To drive traffic around various platforms brands can link platforms together and embed their social media accounts into various brand websites and landing pages.

 

A few facts and figures:

• Facebook is still the primary social network accessed globally
• 40% of people who like brands on Facebook do so to receive discounts and promotions.
• The typical Facebook user will spend 1 minute out of every 3 minutes on Facebook.
• Instagram and Snapchat are seeing significant growth and are particularly popular with younger people.
• Mobile is how the world communicates. There are nearly 5 billion mobile phones globally, over half of which are smartphones.
• Consumers spend 1 to 4 hours a day online using smartphones.
• A third of consumers use their smartphone whilst shopping.
• Consumers use devices in conjunction with offline activities to access price comparisons, to read reviews and to locate products in stores.