Social Media

So hubby and I facilitated an adult religious education class on social media at church last night. This is a topic we two had discussed for a couple of months, but had no idea how popular it would be with our fellow congregants. I’m still reeling this morning from the response we had and the mix of participants—social media pros, computer novices and quite a few in between.

I think some in attendance may have thought we were going to discuss the mechanics of different social media sites, but that was not our purpose. We covered the history and background of social media. Some of the figures that stood out for me…

In 1965, 35% of adult evening views could name a brand advertised in shows just watched. In 2000, less than 10%.

In 2005, 8% of the adults online had a profile on a social network site. Today, 35% do.

In December 2008, 54.5 million people visited Facebook – a 57% increase from the previous year. 22% of adults online have a profile on Facebook.

In December 2008, 4.5 million people visited Twitter – a 753% increase from the previous year. 70% of twitter users joined in ‘08. 5-10 thousand new accounts are created daily.

On an intellectual level, I realized that marketing has changed over the last couple of decades, but several slides really brought this message home for me.




This graphic echoes the article I read about today’s consumer being “unplugged” or “not paying attention.” Just a few years ago when you went to an airport or doctor’s waiting room, there was a television playing and you were a captive audience. The same holds true with home television viewing. Today everyone has a portable media device—laptop, iPod, Mp3 player, cell phone—which holds our attention. At home we record more and more programs and thus fast forward through the commercials.




This was Clark’s favorite graph—a timeline showing the evolution of the internet. Personally I was surprised that email began in 1971. I do remember hearing that the government created the internet to facilitate communications between universities. The one application missing from this timeline that Clark and I both agree was a major player in early internet, and in our opinions, the first social networking platform is American Online, AOL, or to some ex-customers, AO-Hell. Remember “You’ve got mail!”? While it is not a specific site, AOL was a way for non-technical “ordinary” people to access many people with like interests.




While Clark liked the timeline, this was my favorite graphic. With traditional marketing, whether it is email or television or radio, the consumer is being talked at. With social media marketing, it is a conversation, an interaction from a source with whom the consumer feels he/she has a relationship. As I asked the participants last night, if you see/hear a commercial from a company plugging a product and then receive a favorable review from a friend, which endorsement carries more weight?



¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N