Social Media Networks that Matter Most

I must first admit that I am neither well versed nor do I have a diverse social media presence.  When I was in college for my undergrad, Facebook was really the first social media experience I encountered.  It came out actually while I was in college, so I got to experience firsthand the changes that took place during the first years of the platform.  At first, Facebook was intended to unite college students within the same university network.  If I remember correctly, you actually had to have a university email address to even create an account.  That was kind of a cool feature because it created a club with a unique membership.  Myspace was another social media platform (I think it’s still around?) similar to Facebook that granted everyone access, giving Facebook kind of an elitist feel.  I think that is one of the reasons that Facebook may have overtaken Myspace; everyone wanted in but only a few were granted access, and you know that everyone wants a piece of those kinds of clubs!  But it was pretty obvious during those early days that Facebook’s popularity was going to overtake this hurdle.  A few years later, Facebook opened up to the world.  (check out this article https://usatoday30.usatoday.com/tech/news/2006-09-11-facebook-everyone_x.htm). 

It was after going fully public that the unique paid for features started popping up, (giving “gifts”, advertising, etc.)  Here, Facebook’s true intrinsic value overcame speculation and began to be realized for what it was.  Now Facebook is by far the most popular social media platform, and according to Zephoria Digital Marketing (https://zephoria.com/top-15-valuable-facebook-statistics/), Facebook now has over 1.9 billion users.  For perspective, it is estimated that the world is currently populated with 7.4 billion people, which would mean that over 25% of the world’s population uses Facebook!

In Dave Kerpen’s Likeable Social Media, he ends with an Appendix on titled “A Refresher Guide to Social Networks That Matter Most”.   In this chapter, he discusses the social media platforms that entrepreneurs should become proficient in or at least be familiar with.  During this discussion, he notes what each platform is best used for.  He, of course, notes Facebook, but also goes on to discuss Twitter, Myspace, YouTube (which I think is arguably not a true targeted social media platform), Foursquare, LinkedIn, Blogosphere, Flickr, Yelp, etc.  Facebook is best used for engaging a target audience, Twitter for gathering Consumer Insight and Customer Service, YouTube for marketing, LinkedIn for networking and recruitment, and all others for connecting to a highly targeted audience.     

I agree that social media can take shape in many forms and that having a basic understanding of all platforms is beneficial.  But for those entrepreneurs that are not social media savvy, like me, Facebook is by far of the greatest concern.  According to Statista (https://www.statista.com/statistics/272014/global-social-networks-ranked-by-number-of-users/), next in the running is WhatsApp with 1.2B users, and YouTube with right at 1B users.  All others represent a fraction of Facebook’s user base.  While I do think that each platform has a specific purpose, Facebook is the platform that users mindlessly utilize the most.  The others are more purpose driven, and I would argue that users tend to ignore advertising when actively engaging.  Kind of liking watching TV, I see marketing on other social media platforms as noise or an interruption to programming.  I think that users get on Facebook with no real purpose in mind much of the time… so it’s a great (possibly the best) opportunity take advantage of the mindless browsing!