50 FACTS ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIA FOR BUSINESS

It doesn’t matter what your industry, social media matters. And whether you’re a marketer, entrepreneur or some other professional, you’ve probably wondered what that means for you.

Here, to give you some interesting food for thought, are 50 statistics about social media for business today!

General Social Media Facts

1. 62% of adults worldwide now use social media
2. Over 80% of Americans use social media
3. 91% of those Americans access social media every month
4. People spend more online time social networking than they do emailing, searching or shopping
5. Social media is the most popular online activity
6. 22% of online time is spent on social networks
7. Around 40% of people access their social media accounts on mobile devices

Specific Social Networks

1. Facebook is still the top destination among social networks
2. There are over 800 million people using Facebook
3. Americans spend more time on Facebook than on any other United States website
4. More than half of Facebook users log in every day
5. 42% of mobile users are sharing multimedia on Facebook
6. 51% of Facebook users are more likely to buy from brands they follow
7. Smartphone users now spend as much time on social networking apps as they do playing games
8. 40% of Twitter users regularly search for products via Twitter
9. 64% of Twitter users are more likely to buy from the brands they follow
10. 12% of people have bought a product because of info on Twitter
11. Pinterest is the third most popular social network, right behind Twitter and Facebook
12. Buyers referred from Pinterest are 10% more likely to make a purchase
13. On mobile devices, Google+ is the second most used social network

Demographics Info

1. 98% of 18- to 24-year-olds use social accounts every month
2. College towns have the highest Facebook logins
3. 57% of Facebook users have completed some college (and 24% have degrees)
4. 46% of Facebook users are 45 or older
5. 60% of Pinterest users are female
6. 50% of Pinterest users are in the United States
7. 50% of Google+ users are 24 or younger

Social Media for Business

1. 53% of small businesses are using social media
2. 88% of them are using social media to increase exposure
3. 60% of small business decision makers spend less than $100 on social media
4. 53% of active social media users follow a brand
5. 65% of the world’s top companies have an active Twitter profile
6. 90% of marketers are using social media for business
7. 93% of marketers using social media rank these tools as important
8. 43% of marketers have seen sales increase due to social campaigns
9. According to Ning, it only takes 20 people to build meaningful, many-to-many networking

 Social Media for B2B

1. 44% of small to mid-sized business (SMB) decision-makers use social media
2. 86% of those SMB decision-makers use Facebook
3. 41% of SMB decision-makers use LinkedIn
4. 33% use Twitter

Social Media and Customer Relations

1. 20% of social media users would make a purchase from a social media site
2. 50% of small business owners have reported getting new customers through social media activity
3. 47% of consumers are somewhat likely to buy from a brand they follow online
4. Active adult social media users are 75% more likely to spend a lot of money on music
5. Active adult social media users are 47% more likely to spend a lot of money on clothes, shoes and accessories
6. Social media users are willing to pay a 21% premium for brands that deliver great service through social media
7. Social media users who have a great service experience tell an average of 42 people, compared to 9 for those who aren’t on social channels
8. 60% of them are also willing to post on Facebook about products/services if they get a great deal or discount
9. Social media users who have a bad service experience will tell an average of 53 people, compared to 17 for those who aren’t on social channels
10. According to research from ComScore, brands that post at least once a day will reach 22% of their fans in a given week.

WHY DIGITAL MARKETING IS SO IMPORTANT TODAY?

WHY DIGITAL MARKETING IS SO IMPORTANT TODAY?

                         There is no doubt that technology has changed our lives, the way we influence others and the way we are influenced by others. Gone are the days when the people come to you to buy your products or services. Today everything is online, so why not marketing.

In simplistic terms, digital marketing is the promotion of products or brands via one or more forms of electronic media. Digital media is so pervasive that consumers have access to information any time and any place they want it. Digital media is an ever-growing source of entertainment, news, shopping and social interaction, and consumers are now exposed not just to what your company says about your brand, but what the media, friends, relatives, peers, etc., are saying as well. And they are more likely to believe them than you. People want brands they can trust, companies that know them, communications that are personalized and relevant, and offers tailored to their needs and preferences. Digital marketing gives you a fair chance to interact with your existing as well as new consumers. Advertising on social sites brings in a lot of customers which in turn will benefit your company. Digital marketing helps even a small company to build its brand image in the minds of their target consumers. Today people don’t have much time to go to shop so as to save their precious time and buys their needful online. Selling the products and services online and making money is today’s world, I call it digital world.

5 reasons why digital marketing is so important:

1. Today more and more people are going online. As per February 2013, India’s Internet Population stood at 150 Million (which is the 3rd Largest in the world).
2. India is Google’s 3rd largest market globally. Google is the finest search engine and usage of Google is increasing rapidly.
3. Indians spend around 16 hours online (in a week) on an average. That’s more than the time we spend watching TV
4. The Indian Online advertising market IN 2010 has crossed 1000 crores and is growing fast at a rate of 50% per year. With this information, you can imagine why digital marketing is so important.
5. India has nearly 950 mobile subscribers and at least 50 million subscribers have internet enables mobile phones.

                

                   “THE WORLD IS OF INTERNET, USE IT”.

HOW TO BECOME AN ENTREPRENEUR

HOW TO BECOME AN ENTREPRENEUR

Firstly who is an Entrepreneur? In simple terms, the person who runs his own company  nationally or internationally is called anEntrepreneur.

Entrepreneur is a person with great skills and ideas, takes the risk as well as rewards and is actually a business leader.

So,

If you want to become your own boss

If you want great talent to work for you

If you want to be recognized as the great entrepreneur

Read this some tips and walk the way to your new successful business.

1.      Choose your own business line:

Firstly make a choice of your business line. It depends on your skills, interest in a particular business and again it depends on your ideas to develop a purely new business that never exist. Engaging in a new business that never exist is a good choice because less number of competitors and more profitable.

2.       Business plan:

Prepare the business plan from the scrap including your investments, business line, marketing expenses, etc… Each and every aspect must be there in your plan.

3.       Startup capital:

Introduce the startup capital to back your business idea. Venture capitalist can help you to start your business if your business plan is worthy and profitable.

4.       Business building process:

After your capital arrangement, start your business process, i.e, developing network, targeting the consumers and selling them.

5.       Brand building:

After you start running your business profitably, take a further of promoting your company’s image and developing your brand image in the minds of your target market. This can be done through promotional activities like online and offline marketing, free samples to promote your brand, etc….

These are some simple steps to become a successful entrepreneur. The steps are simple, but the execution of these steps are challenging. One should have great passion to become his own boss.

5 things one should not do in business

5 things one should not do in business

Running a business is not an easy job to do. Some of the leaders run their business successively because they do not do the “Don’t do”things and most of the people ignore this things resulting in harming their business. These are very important things that one should understand for a successful business career.

These are 5 things one should not do:

1.       Doing business unethically:

Business ethics is very important for running a business successively. Ethics means doing a right thing in a right way. Unethical businesses may be successful but only for some time. There is a right saying “You can fool one person every time or you can fool everybody once, but you cannot fool everybody every time”. One should serve the right value to the nation.

2.       Not serving value to consumers:

If you are selling a product to your consumer, the consumer must feel satisfied with price and also quality. Consumers must be the biggest asset that the company should have. Satisfying the consumer’s need is very essential for the company’s success. For successful business, retention of consumers is also important because if they are not satisfied, they have many options.

3.       Harsh with employees:

In today’s hyper competitive business scenario, retention of good talent is very important because it is very difficult to find a good talent. Employees are the pillars of a successive business. Today, many big multinational companies aim to retain their employees by providing promotions, monetary and Non-monetary incentives. Behaving well with employees and focusing on them for better performance will always take the company to the top.

4.       Not focusing on competitors:

One should be aware of what the competitors are doing. Competition is necessary for the overall growth of the nation, but it is always necessary to keep an eye on competitors. Business leader should have the knowledge of each and every move of his competitors, i.e., what strategies they are using, which product they are launching and how, if any, etc… Knowing about the competitors, one can manage and formulate the strategies that can serve the company more than that of competitors.

5.       Not formulating Zero defect policy:

It is always advisable to the company to formulate the zero defect policy. Zero defect policy is nothing but improving the quality of the products again and again, at the regular basis. Improvement is essential for the overall growth of the company.

THE ART OF SELF- MOTIVATION

THE ART OF SELF- MOTIVATION

None of your visualization or imagination will do any good if you do not believe in yourself. Many of us have goals that we are really excited about — goals that have rewards so big we did give almost anything to get there. But sometimes it feels like those goals are just fantasies that won’t ever happen, and that’s when every ounce of motivation disappears.

If you want to stay motivated then you have to believe in yourself. You need to believe that you can accomplish your goals, you can get everything on your hands if you want.

Learning how to motivate oneself  is something that I feel is not only one of the most important skills one can have, but may be one of the greatest gifts I can give to myself.

I think one of the biggest differences between an ordinary person and an extraordinary person is their degree of consistent motivation and passion.

Creating Self-Motivation

So if motivation is one of the most critical aspects of success, and motivation comes within, then what is the secret to staying motivated? Underlying motivation is your desire.  Desire is sort of the root of motivation.  First there has to be a strong desire in order to create motivation. Desire is analogous to fire — a small fire makes a small amount of heat.  A big desire creates big motivation.

Intensify your Desires to Drive Motivation

Just thinking about what you want or desire is not enough to create the type of sustained motivation that drives success.  You really need to intensify those desires by thinking intently about how much you really want those desired outcomes.

Motivate yourself after now and then, that is, “Yes I can do it”. Repeat this as a Mantra or some shlok.

4 Free WhatsApp Alternatives

BY KARISSA BELL1 DAY AGO

Facebook acquired WhatsApp for $16 billion Wednesday, and as with Instagram and Facebook's other acquisitions, many users are already expressing concern that the social network could ruin the app.

For its part, Facebook said the messaging service will continue to operate independently. But in case you're still worried about WhatsApp's future, we've rounded up four free alternatives, below.

1. Viber

IMAGE: VIBER

Viber, which was also recently acquired — if for a considerably less $900 million— offers free messaging and voice calls to its more than 200 million mobile and desktop users.

The app also offers calling to non-Viber users for 1.9 cents a minute via Viber Out. What's more, there is a desktop version of Viber, so users can sync messages from any connected device to their PC.

Viber is available for iOS, Android, Windows Phone 8 and BlackBerry.

2. Kik

Kik, which began as a BlackBerry app in 2009, also offers free messaging services to its more than 100 million users. Unlike WhatsApp and other competitors, Kik doesn't require its users to have a mobile phone number. The Canadian company recently updated its Android and iOS apps to include a built-in browser, so users can browse and search the web, as well as use web apps without ever leaving Kik.

The app is available for iOS, Android, Windows Phone 8 and BlackBerry.

3. WeChat

IMAGE: WECHAT

Although China-based WeChat initially started as a more straightforward messaging service, it broadened its reach, transforming into a kind of social network. WeChat (formerly Weixin) offers its users a variety of ways to connect and share with each another, including messaging, photo-sharing, group chatting, voice and video calling, location sharing and friend discovery.

WeChat is available for iOS, Android, Windows Phone 8 and BlackBerry.

4. Tango

Tango is another messaging app that is moving toward becoming a full-fledged social network. In addition to standard text services, it offers video and voice calls, photo-sharing, in-app games, friend discovery and Spotify-powered music messaging.

Tango is available for iOS,Android and Windows Phone 7. A desktop version is also available.

Lets wait what latest features facebook is going to add on whatsapp..................

How WhatsApp buyout will help Facebook in India

It's $19 billion buyout of WhatsApp that will help Facebook expand footprint in emerging markets of Latin America and Asia, especially India, where the mobile instant messaging app is very popular.

Founded in 2009 by Ukrainian Jan Koum and American Brian Acton, Mountain View (California)-headquartered WhatsApp is a Silicon Valley start-up with over 450 million monthly users.

It allows users to exchange text, pictures and videos using smartphones. The app is very popular among youth across Europe, Latin America, parts of Asia including India, where Facebook is beefing up its presence.

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said messaging is a "very competitive space" and WhatsApp is a "clear global leader".

"It (WhatsApp) is in Europe, Latin America, India... Its kind of a clear leader," he told analysts on a concall.

The focus will be on simplicity, speed and reliability and "something that does not clutter the app with features and over time, people will pay for that", he added.

"WhatsApp has built a leading and rapidly growing real time mobile messaging service, with over 450 million people using the service each month, messaging volume approaching the entire global telecom SMS volume and continued strong growth, currently adding more than 1 million new registered users per day," Facebook said.

Facebook CFO David Ebersman said the focus is now on growing the platform over the next five years.

"Considering that messaging in the number one activity on smartphones and the direct messaging business is about $100 billion globally for telecom carriers, our focus is on the next 5 years," he added.

On the acquisition and monetisation, Zuckerberg said: "Our explicit strategy for the next several years is to focus on growing and connecting everyone in the world.

"WhatsApp has a strong presence internationally...but it's a fragmented market with many competitors. Outpacing them right now is critical. Once we get to be a service with 1 billion, 2 billion, 3 billion people, there are many clear ways that we can monetise," he said.

Koum, who expects the smartphone userbase globally to touch 5 billion in the next few years, said the alliance with Facebook will give WhatsApp "the flexibility to grow and expand, while giving me, Brian, and the rest of our team more time to focus on building a communications service that's as fast, affordable and personal as possible."

WhatsApp is the biggest acquisition till date for the Menlo Park-headquartered firm. In 2012, it had acquired picture-sharing app Instagram for about $1 billion. Last year, its $3 billion-bid to acquire photo sharing app Snapchat got turned down.

Facebook, which expects to close the deal his year, will pay WhatsApp $4 billion in cash, $12 billion in stocks and another $3 billion in restricted stock that vests over several years.