Data, knowledge, communications, know-how, etc. has been on this path since the advent of the Internet. It seems to have picked up steam of late.
Information to cultivate knowledge and wisdom (i.e. know-how) has been in the ether since the Universe came into being billions of years ago. Humans gathered that data and put them into sounds. Then we put them into words and eventually writing. Then we made books and encyclopedias. Eventually we put most of it on computers that connect everyone on the Internet.
Even if the knowledge and wisdom many people seek these days are fleeting social memes or social validation, the point is that people are getting their information from all kinds of social media sources on the Internet. The days or opportunities to force your service or product offerings in front of people are few. You need to meet your potential customers where they are at.
2006 Stats on Americans on a Typical Day:
57% watched TV news
54% watched their local news
34% watched cable news channels
28% watched the nightly network news
23% watched the morning news programs (The Today Show, Good Morning America, etc.)
40% read a newspaper
36% listened to news on the radio (yours truly has been an NPR fanatic since 2000)
23% got news online
18% visited news aggregators (Google News, Yahoo! News, AOL News, etc.)
14% visited national TV networks’ sites (CNN.com, MSNBC.com, ABCnews.com, etc.)
14% visited newspaper Web sites
4% visited news blogs
3% visited online news magazines (Slate.com, Salon.com, etc.)
2022 Trend: Social Media & Information
Data from a Pew survey in February 2022 in the U.S. showed that the most popular news source among millennials was social media, with 44% of respondents reporting daily news consumption on social networks. This was more than double the share who got their news via radio.
As adults of all ages spend more and more time on social media, consumption of information via this specific channel on the Internet is likely to increase. Now social media (closed-off personal/private social networks) has become the preferred option for younger audiences.
| Daily | A few times per week | Once per week | A few times per month | Once per month | Less than once per month | Never | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Social Media | 44% | 21% | 7% | 7% | 2% | 6% | 13% |
| Radio | 21% | 21% | 8% | 8% | 4% | 11% | 27% |
| Online | 18% | 26% | 9% | 13% | 4% | 9% | 21% |
| Cable | 15% | 19% | 7% | 10% | 3% | 10% | 36% |
| Network TV | 15% | 20% | 12% | 10% | 4% | 9% | 30% |
| Podcast | 12% | 17% | 7% | 10% | 5% | 11% | 38% |
| Newspaper | 11% | 10% | 9% | 9% | 5% | 15% | 41% |
And now more Americans are getting news on TikTok, bucking the trend of other social media sites
In just two years, the share of U.S. adults who say they regularly get news from TikTok has roughly tripled, from 3% in 2020 to 10% in 2022. This is in contrast with many other social media sites, where news consumption has either declined or stayed about the same in recent years.
While the video-sharing platform has has become especially popular among teens, adults under 30 is the group that regularly gets news on TikTok. About a quarter (26%) of Americans in this age group say they source their news from the platform compared to only 10% of ages 30-49, 4% of those 50-64, and just 1% of people 65+.
More of TikTok’s U.S. adult users are getting news there as well. Currently, a third of TikTok users say they regularly get news on the site, up from 22% who said the same in 2020. Still, TikTok users remain far less likely than users of Twitter or Facebook to get news on the site.
Marketing Moves: What to Do
This re-emphasizes our belief that social media are the modern equivalent of the latest pub or bar that has opened up in your city or area. People will flock and then leave. It is human nature. It is inevitable.
What are you doing to make sure you or your brand can be found wherever people loiter? What are you doing to control your brand and messaging?
To win new customers or remind your regulars of the quality of your offering and the effort that you put into ensuring their satisfaction, you must get in front of them no matter how they are browsing the Internet. Furthermore, your website must be the hub that has content to support discovery of your business by name, as well as location, categories of products or services, and individual value offerings.
Get it on your website first and then push it out everywhere!
When you optimize every opportunity to make your business more discoverable online by managing listings, getting involved with social media, and then making sure your have consistent messaging in all those communication channels, it will convey an energy in your organization and show your pride of ownership.
When you optimize the breadth of your reach (discoverability) and diligently present messaging with regularity, you will cultivate your brand and business volumes should follow.