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Understanding Social Media: What You Need To Know


Social media is a powerful revolution that has changed our lives all round; it has changed the way that we socialise, conduct our businesses, engage in political affairs, build professions and set job recruitments. It has attracted a massive number of users with an estimate of 3.5 billion users worldwide. Hassan Soukar caught up with Fadi Khater, Founder and Managing Partner - Netizency to give insights about some important social media facts.


Understanding Social Media: What You Need To Know
Fadi Khater, Founder and Managing Partner - Netizency

What are the relevant metrics for tracking ROI on social media?

ROI is calculated differently based on brand objectives. The simplest format is the number of sales generated; however, more complex formats include awareness, brand sentiment enhancement, changes in the share of voice, and lead generation.


How does customer service fit into a social media strategy? Customer service is an integral part of a social media strategy. Since brands will be servicing their customers on social media, they need to always:


1. Follow the same if not more stringent customer service SLAs on their pages.

2. Develop a list of social FAQs for community managers.

3. Use social listening to track the “voice of the customer” and understand their requirements.


Is social media really worth the investment? Brands are investing in reaching and interacting with their customers, not in the media. If brands’ users are on social media and are engaging on social platforms, it would definitely make sense for brands to be present.


A fascinating factor in advertising on social media is that the social platforms understand their audience very well, and allow brands to target (and only pay for) particular users instead of creating mass campaigns with significant spill-over.


What are the top social media platforms for B2B marketing?

The two top platforms are:


  • LinkedIn is where most people share their career accomplishments, look for jobs, and talk business.

  • Twitter is where government and business leaders are present, and where all CEOs and their staff are present to follow current news and such leaders.


How to spot the holes in any current social media strategy?

We have our own proprietary framework that grades the social presence of brands on a score of 100. It includes everything from consistency and tone of voice to response speed and platform relevance.


What is your breakthrough formula for standing out from the crowd in the social media sector?

We don’t believe in shortcuts; it’s about the hard work, detailed analysis, and the in-depth understanding of the brands, industries, social networks, customers, and trends.


Takeaway: Like all truly powerful things, social media is made up of simple concepts. We tend to like things that people we know or trust like. Social media has made it easier than ever to broadcast and share what we like right now.

Social Media Statistics

  • For context, as of Dec 2019, total worldwide population is 7.8 billion

  • The internet has 4.54 billion users

  • There are 3.725 billion active social media users

  • On average, people have 7.6 social media accounts

  • The average daily time spent on social is 142 minutes a day

  • 91% of retail brands use 2 or more social media channels

  • 81% of all small and medium businesses use some social platform

  • Social media users grew by 328 million between October 2018 and October 2019.

  • That works out at 10 new social media users per second.

  • Facebook Messenger and Whatsapp handle 60 billion messages a day.

  • When asked 81% of teenagers felt social media has a positive effect on their lives

  • Another study found the effect of social media on teenagers was ‘trivial.’

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