Social media sites reach 82% of the online population and Facebook reaches over ½ of the world’s population. 
Social media continues to show amazing growth. In “It’s A Social World”, ComScore has issued a report concerning the growth and impact of social media. Without a doubt social media has become the most popular online activity. In 2007 social media represented only 6% of online activity but that has now increased to 20%. Over 1.2 billion people globally use social media sites.
The report verified that women spend more than 30% more time online than men. Social networking is no longer a young person’s activity as the participation now spans all age groups. And Facebook now reaches 55 billion people, which is more than half of the world’s population. Despite the hype for mobile access and marketing, it still captures just a fraction of the fixed-line connection.
The study just proves again the impact of social media. The extensiveness of social networking. But it does not answer, for healthcare marketers, the question of how to take full advantage of this massive audience. Savvy healthcare marketers have experimented with some success. But there are so many unanswered questions. We continue to learn and hopefully grow smarter. But with limited resources and some of the limitations of healthcare marketing, it’s still a learning process. There is still much to be explored as we attempt new tactics and new ideas. Stay tuned….there will be much to come.
