Social Media Consumers: Behaviour & Trends

As time goes on and technology improves, we as a population are spending more time on our phones and computers than ever before. There are different kinds of social media consumers and trends that those consumers follow. Understanding the differences between these consumers, as well as the current trends they [consumers] are following is CRUCIAL when it comes to being successful in your business, whether it be traditional or online.

Image Source

Not all users of social media are interested in using their profiles for researching products and services that they are potentially interested in buying. So little of them being interested in fact that only 16% (Sensis, 2017) of users use social media occasionally for this reason.

Hodis, M. A found that when looking at Facebook users, there are four general categories in which the users can be filed under. These being; 'Attention Seekers', 'Devotees', 'Entertainment Chases', and 'Connection Seekers'. These groups being segmented depending on the individuals creation (posting) and consumption on Facebook.

Note that although this study is about Facebook users, it can be loosely applied to all social media platforms.

The Facebook Segmentation Matrix

What I would say is more important to you as a business, is not the personalities of the consumers, but instead the trends that they tend to follow. The reason being that if a business is not fully aware of the trends of their past, current and future consumers, they are then wasting significant opportunities to appeal to them in an efficient and effective way.

Now you're asking yourself - "What are these trends you keep talking about?" - and to that I tell you that there are an almost countless number of trends as the industry is ever-changing. But there are significant trends that are reliable. iConsumer has found six of these trends, but I'm just going to tell you about two of these and how they be useful to current and future business owners.

The Device Shift

The device shift trend has noted that mobile phones and tablets (iPads etc.) are occupying 44% of all personal computing time (recorded in 2013) and 60% of households in the United States (recorded in 2013) have a smart phone. This trend is continuously increasing as more and more smart phones are releasing at different price points with every passing year since then. This list of phones running only on the android operating system will give you a hint into just how many phones there are out there.

But why is this trend of any use to you as a current or future business owner?

The device shift is a trend that you should jump on. There's pretty much no foreseeable reason as to why this trend would die down so the risk of joining a dying trend is not present. Creating a webpage and advertisements for your business that is compliant with the usage of a smart phone and/or tablet will do nothing but benefit your business by providing social media consumers with a seamless way to view all your offerings from the literal palm of their hands.

Image Source

The Retail Shift

The retail shift trend has less supporting evidence in its success than the device shift, but the facts are present. In 2013 there was a documented growth of 5% in eCommerce. This statistic was said to be predicting a massive change in the way retail operates. Several years later in 2019, it was documented that 16% of all retail purchases were made through eCommerce systems.

There is a very obvious trend here. One that's saying that eCommerce will dominate the markets in as little as a few more years. This trend is basically screaming at all business owners to, if they haven't already, create options for their products and services to be purchased online. This does not mean you need to substitute a physical retail store for an online eCommerce store, it just simply means that you should at the very least have both. The statistics don't lie and you shouldn’t hesitate to make the next step.

Thanks For Reading

Thanks for your time. If you have any comments or questions, please feel free to leave them below.

Blog #2 of 7