The exponential rate of growth in social media surpasses that of any other media to date.
Facebook alone, in one year, added over 200 million new users. And now, just six years after its launch, claims over 750 million unique users worldwide. The number of unique users across all online social networks is estimated to climb to a staggering 1.971 billion by 2015 - which is close to 30% of the world's population in around a decade. By comparison, television took 13 years to reach a mere 50 million users. With numbers of unique visitors to social media sites growing by the millions almost every day, it's not hard to understand why marketers are enamoured with the idea of including social media as a staple in their media mix.
The changing environment
From a consumer's perspective, the changes in the media environment are positive. We now live in a totally wireless world where convenience and technology are available 24/7. We can podcast, stream, blog, vlog, upload, download, SMS and RSS all from the palm of our hand. Indeed, the way we consume and interact with media has changed forever. No longer are we simply receivers, but rather fascinated publishers, broadcasters, opinion leaders, sharers, researchers, advocators and voters. In the wake of such convenience, concurrent media usage is increasing, yet overall media consumption, in terms of total actual time, has remained stable.
So what does this mean for advertisers?
Read more in unisabusiness magazine.