News on Social Marketing, according to eMarketer: eMarketers estimated that this year, the number of social network users around the world will increase to 1.4 billion from 1.18 billion last year. However, this growth is just a slim drop from the rise in 2011. Expect more moderate growth rates as the market matures.
Emerging markets of the world, like the Middle East and Africa is where the base of social network users remains small, and Asia-Pacific is where the fastest growth comes from. With Latin America’s below worldwide average growth rate, it’s still slightly increases, growing its user base by 18.5%.
Within this year, eMarketer calculates that Facebook will have almost 826 million users around the world, an increase from 650.7 million users in 2011 signifying 58.8% of social network users, 36.4% of internet users and 12% of the total worldwide population.
North America has the highest Internet users’ penetration followed closely by the Middle East and Africa and Latin America, although these countries have smaller bases of internet users than countries like the US and Canada.
The Middle East and Africa and Latin America will also post higher-than-average growth rates for Facebook user. Asia-Pacific will have the fastest Facebook user growth with adoption rates in India, Indonesia and Japan surpassing the worldwide average growth of 26.9% this year.
Read more at Emerging Markets Lead World in Social Networking Growth
News on Content Marketing, according to Brafton: as the web’s role in research for purchase decisions increases, an important component of web marketing is the development of content that helps inform and guide prospects to conversion. About.com reported that positive perceptions of their companies can be created by marketers and consumer trust can be built by developing website content and establishing a presence on social networks. Perception
According to 41% of survey respondents, social media helps them monitor businesses to see what other consumers’ insights on the brand. For 33% of respondents, a strong indicator of a company’s trustworthiness are Likes and Retweets and 25% of respondents are persuaded by the number of engagement content receives. The best way to achieve the goal of building greater social influence is through a content marketing strategy.
A study by Buddy Media shows that Tweets including links are more likely to result in engagement and that a short social content that quickly transmits a message is more interesting than longer Tweets.
About.com also found that authority and a sense of transparency that drives perception are more likely to be established by companies using the web to share content and educate their audiences.
According to About.com, 56% of respondents said that branded video content can be a great addition to their research process while 71% of respondents said that content marketing efforts are more attractive to them when using their mobile devices.
Read more at Survey shows consumers trust companies that use social and content marketing
News on Facebook Marketing, according to Marketing Land: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, admitted that one of the “biggest mistakes … if not the biggest strategic mistake” for the company was the focusing too much on HTML5, rather than native applications
Facebook experiments with integrating its ads more into people’s news feeds, but they remain tucked off to the right. Mark Zuckerberg said that this would soon change in mobile as people are consuming twice as many feed stories since the update to the new iOS native app. Since mobile is the path to ad revenue for the company, Zuckerberg said that there’s plenty of engagement with mobile and that better monetization will follow.
According to Zuckerberg,”We think we’ll make a lot more money” from mobile use of Facebook than desktop use and that people underestimate “how fundamentally good” mobile is for Facebook.
“We’re not going to have ads in a separate column. There’s no room. The ads have to be more integrated … they have to be fundamentally integrated into the product,” Zuckerberg said.
There is a gradual modification on the decision which was made two years ago and to expect a lot more on the mobile use of Facebook. The effort done to product a native iOS app for Facebook will help with other iOS apps that want to use Facebook plus pay off for native Android development.
Read more at Zuckerberg: Facebook Mobile Ads To Be More Integrated Into Feed Than On Desktop
Other Social Marketing Articles of Interest
17 Lessons About Content Marketing for Small Business
Luxury Marketers Move Online Fast
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