If your business has yet to embrace Social Media as a marketing tool, you may soon find yourself in the minority. This year companies are predicted to spend a total of $11.72 billion on campaigns that utilize the likes of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. This has been predicted to increase to $17.34 billion in 2019. There are many unique ways in which social media can help boost business depending on the target audience and individualised goals. This article alongside the adjoining infographic designed by the team at skilled.co, looks at how social media is becoming an integral part within people’s personal and professional lives.

Your Audience Can Be Reached Regardless of Niche and Demographic

Social media is no longer for an elite group of people. It has morphed into an everyday part of everybody’s lives. It has a global penetration rate of 31% with North America making up 59%. It was reported that over 70% of teenagers use more than one social network.The largest social network to date is Facebook. Facebook has over 1.59 billion users, which is roughly 23% of all people on the planet. 1.23 billion of the total users logging into Facebook for at least 17 minutes per day and 18% admitted to not being able to go more than a few hours without checking their account. The amount of men and women that use social media is practically on par. Therefore regardless of whom you wish to target, social media can meet your requirements.

Your Target Audience Can Be Reached On the Go

Social media is not restricted to laptops or desktop PC. Social media usage on mobile devices has been increasing steadily. In 2014, 26% of social media users were using social media on their smartphones. This grew to 30% in 2016. Ten years prior, it would have been unfathomable to business owners that they could reach their target audience at any time and any place.

It’s Cost Effective

A key success measurement of any marketing campaign is the return on investment (ROI). If the return profit is not higher than the initial amount put in, is it worth it? The ROI rate for Facebook is 95.8%, followed by Twitter at 63.5% and Instagram at 40.1%. This indicates that social media is a cost effective marketing tool if utilised and targeted correctly.

Social Media Actively Influences Purchasing Decisions

Social media plays a key role in influencing consumer purchasing decisions. Social media is a great place for businesses to promote products, provide learning opportunities and to remind customers to complete the purchase. The data collected reported that facebook has a 31% chance of influencing purchases.

It’s A Great Recruitment Tool

As well as reaching a target consumer base, social media is also great at reaching the target talent pool. This is a key way to boost business as the better the employers are, the better the business will be. It has been reported that 73% of companies have successfully hired a candidate with social media. The most popular platform for recruitment is LinkedIn with a 93% recruitment rate. This is closely followed by Facebook with 66% and Twitter at 54%. The data further suggests that LinkedIn and Facebook are better for hiring 45 year olds and over, whereas younger people are better targeted via Twitter.

For the full 115 facts you never knew about social media, check out the full infographic below.

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