“What is Social Media?” Depends on who you ask.

This is another great article for retailers to understand how the minds of online users work. It also helps you to understand why they use social media. Each person that uses it has a different reason as to why. By making these “why” connections then you begin to form a real relationship with your community in order to convert them into a buyer someday.

If they follow your brand then that means that you have a 1 in 5 chance for them to buy a product from you. Americans said they have bought a product after first hearing about it on Facebook or another social network.

FACEBOOK USAGE AND INTERNET STATISTICS FOR DEC 31, 2011
Geographic World Regions	Population ( 2011 Est.)	FB Users Aug. 31, 2010	FB Users June 30, 2011	FB Users Dec. 31, 2011	FB Penetration Dec. 31, 2011
Asia	3,879,740,877	93,584,580	152,957,480	183,963,780	4.7 %
Africa	1,037,524,058	17,607,440	30,665,460	37,739,380	3.6 %
Europe	816,426,346	162,104,640	208,907,040	223,376,640	27.4 %
Latin America	555,856,161	68,189,920	115,288,940	141,612,220	25.5 %
North America	347,394,870	149,054,040	167,999,540	174,586,680	50.3 %
Middle East	216,258,843	11,698,120	16,125,180	18,241,080	8.4 %
The Caribbean	41,427,004	3,925,060	5,903,520	6,218,960	15.0 %
Oceania / Australia	35,426,995	11,596,660	12,881,560	13,353,420	37.7 %
WORLD TOTAL	6,930,055,154	517,760,460	710,728,720	799,092,160	11.5 %
NOTES: (1) Facebook (FB) User Statistics and Facebook Penetration in the World for December 31, 2011, according to the official Facebook number of users reported in each individual country and/or world region. (2) The “Facebook Penetration” corresponds to the ratio of Facebook users in relation to the total number of estimated total population in each world region, expressed as a percentage. (3) World Demographic (Population) numbers are based on mid-year 2011 data from the US Census Bureau . (4) For definitions, disclaimers, and navigation help, please refer to the Site Surfing Guide. (6) Information in this site may be cited, giving the due credit to www.internetworldstats.com. Copyright © 2001 – 2012, Miniwatts Marketing Group. All rights reserved worldwide.

Becoming your social communities’ leader is quite the task to accomplish.

You must first:

1.) Let your community get to know you.

Ask yourself: What makes myself and my business unique?

Then express that online.

Differentiate yourself and your competitors.

2.) Educate them on products, brands and your industry and how to navigate your website.

3.) Be attentive, fun and creative with your content.

4.) Inspire your community with a cause, or your passion.

Read entire article here:

http://mashable.com/2010/06/11/top-20-mashable-reader-responses-to-what-is-social-media/

1. Collaboration: Ask not what the Internet can do for you, but what you can do with other Internet users. – Jonny Rose

2. Network: Social media is a phenomenon which creates a personalized network for sharing digital content among all people in the cyberspace. - Rohan Aurora

3. Conversation: Tools or platforms that allow anyone/everyone to share information or engage in conversation. – Veena Mathew

4. Sharing: Social media = Sharing information through conversation. – Scot Chisholm

5. Relationships: Relationshipping on steroids. – Pat Graham-Block

6. Multi-dimensional: Social media is a multi-dimensional communication information system connecting people to people. -Peter Feuersenger

7. Inclusive: It’s a conversation in an instant with anyone, anywhere, anytime that gives control back to the individual & consumer in unpredented ways.” – Charles Ubaghs

8. Information: Information funneled to users from all angles. – Sarah Thomson

9. Community: Set of updated communication tools that allow us to build new communities at a time when our local community had almost been lost. – Jerry Daykin

10. Personalization: It is the ability to connect and see the world in your own way. The personalization of one of the greatest human achievements: communication! – Benjamin Fischbein

11. Empowering: Social media is an online renaissance empowering people with influence to facilitate conversations around shared ideas. – Mark Blackman

12. A Radical Shift in Communication: The radical shift from one-way broadcast type communications to dialog and conversation using web based tools. - Joe Buhler

13. Real-time: “Social Media is on-demand, real time interaction, that uses technology to enable genuine engagement with others around media vs simply sharing data with them.” – Corina Newby

14. People: Social Media is the instantaneous aggregation and creation of content by the people, of the people, for the people, on the social web. – Eric Pena

15. Content Distribution: Social media consists of online technologies that facilitate the creation and distribution of content. – David J. Perdue

16. Self-expression: Social Media’s my friend. I can finally broadcast my belief in God, my likes in music, my emotional state & my dinner all from my fingertips – E. A. Freire

17. Unity: The never ending drive for humans desire to unite. – Sean Farrell

18. Dynamic: Social media is dynamic user-generated content coming from the bottom up, which bypasses static media forms through adding a social layer. – Anees Younis

19. Discovery: Social media is communication, friending, family, media, learning and discovery at one click. – Glenn K. Bolton

20. Power of the Crowd: Social media is the ability to put out a message and having worldwide responses via email, text, tweet, or whatever form in a matter of seconds. – Lilian Ongelungel

Vadim Lavrusik