by Mike McLaughlin

Wondering what the recent acquisition of Instagram means for
small business? So are a lot of other people! In a somewhat
surprising announcement, Zuckerberg announced that Facebook spent
$1 Billion dollars to acquire Instagram; a move that has drawn
more than its fair share of instant criticism as well as
admiration. Certainly Facebook can clearly afford it; with a
pending IPO and valuation of nearly 100x that amount, even a
lavish purchase in the $1 Billion dollar range isn’t going to
break the bank for Facebook. On the other hand, many investors
and users are unclear why the social media giant needs the new
acquisition in the first place. As a social media marketing firm,
we make it our business to keep you informed so here is what you
need to know about the Instagram deal and how it will (or won’t)
impact your business both today and in the future.

What is Instagram?

Instagram is a photo sharing site with approximately 30 million
users as of April 2012 and perhaps another 1 million recent users
thanks to a Android application launch. However, thanks to the
Android application launch, total number of users is expected to
reach 50 million in a matter of weeks (yes weeks!). Certainly not
shabby but just a drop in the bucket when it comes to the total
number of social media users associated with mega sites like
Facebook or even Twitter.  Basically, Instagram provides a niche
service in the social media segment by allowing users to snap a
photograph, apply various filters and share on other social media
sites. With the new Android app, that functionality expands to
the cell phone and beyond.  It’s a simple concept but one that
has caught on among users with roughly 150 million photo’s having
been uploaded and shared or roughly, 15 every second. While these
stat’s initially sound pretty impressive, there are some
concerns; roughly 1/3 of users never actually get around to
uploading any photographs and another 25% only upload a few then
stop. On the other hand, roughly 5% are “super users” and upload
more than 50 photographs. It’s this last group of users which
provide a lot of information and activity for marketing
professionals; why do they use the service, why and what are they
sharing and how is it being used? These are just a few of the
questions big social media companies (like Facebook) want to
know…and will know thanks to the recent acquisition of
Instagram.

Picture Worth a Thousand Words & $1 Billion Bucks!

They say a picture is worth a thousand words (especially in
marketing) and apparently, in social media circles, it’s also
worth a cool $1 Billion bucks or roughly $33 per current user! At
least according to Facebook economics. But what exactly makes
Instagram so attractive to a social media site that already has
the largest online population in the world and the ability to
share photographs? This single question set off a fire-storm
among critics that claim Facebook is squandering cash or simply
trying to put a smaller competitor out of business before they
continue to impinge upon the photo-sharing segment of social
media. Neither explanation really rings true especially among
those that have spent time understanding the business of social
media marketing. The facts are somewhat more elusive and a lot
more exciting as they give the first real glimpse into what the
future of Facebook (and social media marketing) holds in store.

Benefit of Instagram to Facebook

So, how can a photo sharing site that produces zero revenue, be
so valuable to the world’s largest social media site? First of
all, Facebook already has approximately 250 million photo’s
uploaded each and every day leading some to speculate the move
was nothing more than a quick attempt to put a competitor out of
business. Others believe it was an attempt to gain more
Intellectual Property rights but with over 800 patents in the
works, most dismiss that idea outright. No, the more savvy social
media business empires believe Facebook is once again positioning
for future growth in the mobile marketing arena. Instagram has
already demonstrated a strong commitment to mobile with the
Android application which launched the application into the
mobile arena in a very big way. While Facebook may currently have
plenty of photo sharing users online, they are limited to desktop
users rather than mobile ones…and Facebook has openly declared
the future of social media is mobile. Facebook gets a talented
team with vast mobile experience which includes insights such
as:
•       Where people prefer to see photo’s from.
•       Where people are when the photo’s are taken.
•       Range of interest areas, passions, hobbies and other users
interests (big big big potential here!)
•       Potential for a new type of Open Graph advertising based upon
mobile.
Final Notes

The final notes on the Instagram acquisition won’t be heard for
quite some time but in the interim, expect to see some volatility
as disgruntled users export their photo’s off of Instagram and
head for the hills in order to avoid doing business with
Facebook. How many will take such drastic steps? It’s impossible
to tell for sure but most experts predict only a very small and
insignificant number of users. On the other side of the spectrum,
expect to see even more interest among Facebook fans and other
users that weren’t familiar with Instagram until now; but don’t
expect to see total integration between the two sites anytime in
the near future. According to Zuckerberg, Instagram will remain a
stand-alone application and continue to evolve new features of
its own accord while providing enhanced functionality to Facebook
users; in short, the sites won’t be merging but will work
together very closely.

Orginal Post - April 13, 2012

Interesting Tidbits

• Roughly half of television viewers Tweet about shows both
during and after viewing. In fact, a significant number of
television viewers use an IPad, cell phone or other device to
comment on their viewing experience in real time making it an
interactive activity.

• Facebook attracts almost 735 million unique visitors each
month although tends to have a lower satisfaction score among
users than other sites.

• Google ranks #1 in satisfaction and is listed as one of the
top companies overall.

• The average social media user in America spends well over 5
hours each month networking, sharing and commenting.

• Google+ users tend to be the most affluent among all social
media site participants.

• Over 43 percent of all adults online use a social network in
an average day…only email and search outranks this activity.
Gender Gaps

Women are making exponential leaps in their use of social media
comprising 55% of all social media users. They are also now the
primary spenders and decision-makers about monetary issues in the
household with 91% of new homes purchased by women, 92% of
vacations and 93% of food. Over 80% of women make major
healthcare choices for the entire family and 68% of new car
purchases are made by women. Although 60% of all wealth is now
held by women in the United States, over 90% of women report that
advertisers do not understand their needs, desires or wants.
Sounds like a major opportunity to connect!

So, how do women use social media? Well, YouTube is the most
equitable in terms of gender with a fairly even 50-50 split
between men and women making this a great choice for small
business owners seeking to generate interaction equally among
both men and women.

Facebook, with over 800 million users, shows a growing trend
toward women with a 55-45 gender split. Due to the ability to
connect with family and friends, Facebook is now a preferred
method of staying in contact with those at a distance, sharing
information and interest areas.

Twitter approximates Facebook in terms of gender differences with
a 55-45 split divided over 250 million tweets each day.

Pinterest, a relative newcomer to the social media sphere is
making a big splash among females with an estimated 55 to 70
percent of new users being women and less than 45% of users being
men. The visual element seems to appeal to women making it
especially favorable for small business owners that have
interesting products to display.

SoundCloud, another newcomer to social media, is the opposite.
Roughly 60% of users are men with nearly 1 out of every 3 between
the ages of 18 and 24. An obvious choice for small business
owners seeking to attract young, hip men via music, humor etc…

Foursquare. Designed with mobile users in mind, FourSquare has a
predominately male following with 60% of users being men and only
40% women. A superb social media marketing opportunity for local
restaurants, spas’s, nightclubs and other amenities and
attractions.

Google+. Although still new, Google already has 100 million users
and is still growing. Approximately 2 out of every 3 Google+
users are women

The Future is Bright

Last but not least, social media marketing agencies and small
business owners are always planning for the future and the future
is bright for women. In the next decade it is estimated that 65
percent of all consumer wealth in the United States will belong
to women with upwards of 80 to 90 percent of all household wealth
controlled by women. In fact, even among products designed
exclusively for men, 50% are actually purchased by a woman. It’s
a trend likely to continue well into the future as more women
than men are now enrolled in college…especially graduate and
post-graduate education programs. Women now own 40% of all
private business entities (and growing), senior women have a
combined net worth of just under $20 Trillion and outlive men by
an average of 6 to 8 years. Additionally the gender gap related
to earnings has narrowed with 1.3 million women now earning more
than $100,000 annually in salary.

Courtesy of Mike McLaughlin Feb 28, 2012

As a small business owner you recognize the need to invest in
social media marketing but perhaps have been sitting on the
sidelines waiting for the economy to improve or perhaps you
intend to take a do-it-yourself approach but never seem to find
the time. Whatever the reason, one thing is certain, you are
falling behind the curve when it comes to adopting new
technology; in fact, it’s not unusual for social media
consultants to hear a common complaint among small business
owners…”I used to be so on top of new technology but now,
instead of being an early adopter, I’m a laggard”. Sadly, it’s a
growing complaint as business owners try to do more with less.
More marketing with less staff. More service with fewer
employees. More paperwork with less support. Fortunately there is
a solution that actually helps increase marketing, decrease
paperwork and minimize the need for additional staff
members…all while providing clients with better service and
more responsible interaction. Simply outsource your social media
marketing.

“But there’s no way to track outcomes. How will I know what I’m
paying for?”

Without a doubt, this is one of the most frequently cited
misperceptions plaguing small business owners…and it’s not
their fault! Part of the problem stems from the early days of
Internet marketing when less than scrupulous “experts” made all
sorts of claims; put down your hard earned money and watch the
traffic increase – only sometimes traffic didn’t increase.
Instead, promises were made but results were always a day late
and dollar short. Other times, traffic did come but it didn’t
result in more sales – just a big surge in viewers that crashed
the site and required more maintenance. Still other commonly
encountered scenarios included increased traffic and
profit…everything was great as long as you didn’t stop payments
or try to change providers… at which point the small business
owner realized they didn’t actually own their own traffic but
merely rented it. In short, lack of understanding resulted in a
situation where small business owners were often exploited,
bamboozled and left out to dry.

This time it really is different!

The ugly fact is there are a lot of people pretending to
understand social media marketing – after all, anyone can claim
to be an “expert” simply by spouting a bit of lingo and pressing
the right buttons. Of course, we’ve said it before an will say it
again – just because it’s simple doesn’t mean it’s easy and
social media marketing is the prime example of this valuable
lesson. If you can click a mouse, chances are you can conduct
some sort of social media marketing “campaign”….but whether or
not that campaign yields actual bottom line results is another
question entirely.

This is where big business comes in. Over the past several years
there have been tremendous challenges to the social media sphere.
Once considered the domain of teenagers wishing to connect with
one another at college, social media has grown into a big
business capable of generating massive returns. Big business is
not going to take a chance on unproven results – instead, they
insist on understanding exactly what is being done, by whom, at
what cost and what outcome. It’s all the information any small
business owner needs and wants to know…plus some!

Data – What’s Hot and What’s Not?

Remember “hits”? Those impressive figures that were touted as the
next best thing to a real live person at your business door?
Until small business owners that hits could be manipulated to
exaggerated impact, Hits were all the craze. Then page views and
click through rates. Yes, they are valuable at times but only
tell a small portion of the full story. In short – they are “old
school” data with limited insight into what is really driving
sales or support on your website.

Today, rich data from a multitude of websites is available to big
business (and increasingly small business) concerns. Everything
from search engine rankings to prior search and view functions of
each customer across the entire Internet. The term “big data” is
now being used to describe this meta-analytic inquiry into the
minds of consumer audience segments but what does it actually
mean? Is big data different and if so, how and why?

The Era of Big Data and Small Circles

Big data might seem like an incongruent term for something
capable of generating granular results on users but rather than
describe the specificity of information, it denotes the ability
to gain a firm understanding of the “big picture”. For instance,
a visitor that searches for baby diapers might be buying a gift
for an expectant parent or could be anticipating a new addition
to the family. Taken as an isolated event, it’s difficult to
tell. On the other hand, by examining all data derived from a
multitude of different venues, locations and other habits it
could be easy to distinguish between a new arrival versus gift.
These various venues are veritable gold-mines for online
marketing firms and social media consultants and include:

Channel Views – Most small business owners think of YouTube when
the word “channel” is mentioned but in the big data sphere, a
channel view is used in association with each specific mode of
communication. For instance, YouTube may be one channel whereas
the corporate blog may be another. Social media sites like
Facebook and Twitter represent yet more channels.

Cross-Channel Views – As we’ve already mentioned, the ability to
discern patterns across multiple channels is where things start
to get really interesting. Currently small business owners have
limited ability to track information from one channel to another
but that is rapidly changing thanks in part, to Google+ which
allows advertisers to track results from YouTube, search, groups
and other venues.

Big Data Delivers! The most important thing to keep in mind is
that big data is able to deliver big results – results which can
be tracked across multiple channels to create a comprehensive
user experience. It’s one more way a reputable social media
consulting firm is able to enhance the image of your small
business both today and into the future.

Original Content Provided by Mike McLaughlin March 6, 2012

Formed in 2005 as a small web marketing firm

Sounds Local llc has developed into a full service lead generation company; providing simple solutions for small to medium size business’s. Services include media rich direct response marketing strategies for small business, Mobile Web Design, Automated Text Messaging Services, WordPress Web Development, Social Media SEO, and eMail or Social Media List Building campaigns.

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