Social Media in the 2010s: What Web Sites Were in the 1990s

Karen Hiser

Imagine you were asked to take your tech transfer office’s Web site offline today. That would be crazy, right? I believe that in less than 5 years, you will feel the same way about your office’s social media presence.

The Pew Internet and American Life Project just released their latest survey statistics on social media usage. Social media engagement continues its dramatic rise, with nearly half of all adults using at least one social media Web site.

But social media is no longer the domain of the “young people.” The average age of adult social media users has risen to 38, and over half of all media users are over 35.

LinkedIn^® users are by far the most educated of the bunch, with most having a university degree. Twitter^® and Facebook^® also have reasonably well-educated populations, with about a third of their users having a university degree. Of the main players, Twitter is the fastest growing, with 36% of its users having registered within the last 12 months. (Hint: A great time to capture a social media user’s attention is when they are a brand new user!)

If you’re like many who use social media for business purposes, you may be thinking of focusing only on LinkedIn. If that’s the case, think again. Consider the fact that only 6% of LinkedIn users log in at least once a day. Compare that with 52% of Facebook users and 33% of Twitter users. It’s clear that you need to have a diversified strategy that will reach out to your entire audience, regardless of which platform they prefer.

Special Offer: Buy the video of our recent webinar on social media, attend live Q&A. Details here.

In Fuentek’s recent webinar How I Rode the Social Media Wave: Lessons Learned From a Technology Marketing Effort, we talked about leveraging social media to reach your audience. It’s clear from the Pew statistics that much of your audience likely uses social media on a regular basis. Just as you couldn’t ignore the Web trends of the 1990s, you can’t afford to ignore today’s social media trends. Research is making it more and more clear that organizations that do so will be left behind.

So the question is not whether your tech transfer office needs to be using social media, but how to use it effectively and efficiently. You might find these previous blog posts helpful:

• It’s Not Just for Job Searches: Using LinkedIn for Technology Transfer Marketing
• Facebook versus LinkedIn: Which Is Better for Your Business?
• Social Media: Choose the Right Sites and Make Your Message Clear
• Other Fuentek Insights on social media tools
  

And of course, there’s our social media webinar. And right now we have a special offer. Buy the webinar video and you can participate in a live Q&A session. Find all the information you need here.

--By Karen Hiser