52% of the population in America have a profile on Facebook, LinkedIn, Myspace or elsewhere. Social media is growing fast and we are at a tipping point for social media adoption overall. Social media is becoming an integral part of life online as social websites and applications proliferate. Some trends we are following that are becoming key factors in getting mobile software to the right markets:

SOCIAL LISTENING - One third of people who have a Facebook or Twitter account use those sites several times a day. Most traditional online media now include social components like comment fields for users. In business, social media is used to market products, promote brands, and connect to existing customers and develop new ones. Data is gathered from blogs and social media websites and analyzed to make business decisions. Social media analytics provides information about customer sentiment that is then used to support marketing and customer service activities. If you want to understand consumer needs, you need to listen to social media.

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING (SMM) – Social media marketing takes advantage of social networking to help companies increase brand exposure and broaden customer reach. The goal is to create compelling content that users will share within their social networks. 57% of marketing is dedicated to SMM.

EMAIL INTEGRATION – Believe it or not, email is still a major component of social media. Almost 70% of marketers use email to make their products known to consumers. Social media marketing is great for initial contact but email is still considered effective for private one-on-one connections. 

CREATING AN IN-HOUSE SOCIAL MEDIA TEAM – Having one point person dedicated to following social media is a must in this day and age. Having a team is even better. Most brands understand that having a dedicated team is key to successful social marketing.

CALCULATING ROI – Measuring allows you to assess which of your marketing activities are revenue generating and which ones are useless, allowing you to maximize your resources in terms of both time and money.

SOCIAL MEDIA OPTIMIZATION (SMO) – One of the key components of SMM is Social Media Optimization. Like SEO, Search Engine Optimization, SMO is a strategy for drawing new visitors to a website. SMO can be done in two ways: First, by adding social media links to existing content, like RSS feeds and sharing buttons. Second, by promoting activity through social media via status updates, tweets and blog posts.

SOCIAL CRM (Customer Relationship Management) – Social CRM is by definition the use of social media to enable organizations to better engage with their customers. For example, establishing a Facebook page allows people who like your brand and the way you conduct business to “Like” your page, which creates a venue for communication, marketing and networking. Social media sites allow you to follow conversations about your brand for real-time feedback and market data.

From the consumer’s perspective, social media makes it easy to tell a company and everyone else about their experiences with that company -- whether those experiences are good or bad. The business can also respond very quickly to both positive and negative feedback, attend to customer problems and maintain, regain or rebuild customer confidence.