Social Media Marketing For Dummies®

Chapter 2. The Lay of the SIM Land

In This Chapter

• Getting to know the consumers using the social Web

• Discovering sites where consumers spend their time

• Researching consumer online activity

• Tracking your competition

Knowing which consumers are using the social Web is a subject of much debate. For some skeptics, the social Web is equated with Facebook. They consider the social Web to be a youth phenomena and of no consequence to adults. But they are just as wrong as the evangelists who believe that everyone is using the social Web all the time.

The truth is that who is using the social Web is a difficult question to answer. This is because the term social Web is most commonly used to describe how people socialize and interact with each other across the Web. With every passing day, many Web sites are becoming social platforms where visitors can interact and learn from one another. So then how can you find out which consumers use the social Web? The best way is by understanding the different kinds of usage behavior and looking at traffic on specific social media platforms.

In this chapter, I explain how to do that while also highlighting some of the key traffic statistics so that you have a sense of what to expect when you do your own research. Having a firm grip on the lay of the land in the social Web makes it easier to craft a marketing plan that works with it.

Measuring the Size of the Social Web

When you're convincing yourself or someone else that launching a social influence marketing ...