Mariko Urimoto

MOST IMPORTANT SOCIAL MEDIA STATISTICS AND FACTS FOR 2017 The New Year has dawned and marketers are busy at the drawing board, designing new strategies to be more successful in 2017 than ever before. According to a study performed by Pew Research Centre, internet usage has shot up tremendously in the past decade. People are spending more and more time in front of their computers and mobile devices, and that means digital marketing is where it’s at. We’re here to help you bring all your social media marketing dreams to fruition. To make your life easier, we’ve gathered some of the most important stats and figures across all of social media, giving you plenty to work with to make sure 2017 is your best year ever. Hint: Looking for a bit of a boost? Consider buying social media signals to boost your growth, such as followers, likes, and shares. G ENERAL F ACTS AN D F IGURES As more and more consumers migrate to social networks for all of their daily media consumption, marketers everywhere are scrambling to keep up. The internet has over 3.7 billion users worldwide. (Statistica) 2.3 billion of those are active on social media. (We Are Socials) We spend over 1.72 hours on average on social media daily. (Global Web Index) Social media users have increased by 176 million over just the last year. (Social Media Today) There are 1.97 billion active mobile social users. (We are Socials) 8 out of 10 social media users rely on their mobile devices for daily check-ins and browsing. (Global Web Index) 1 million new active users sign up to social media networking sites daily. (Social Media Today) T WITTER S TATISTICS Twitter currently has 317 million active users. (Twitter Blog) Users who send a complaint through Twitter expect to receive a response within an hour. (Lithium) 77% of consumers say that they feel better about a brand who interacts with them on the platform. (Twitter Blog) Asia and North America have the largest number of Twitter users. (Statista) Twitter has around 100 million active daily users. (US Securities and Exchange Commission) 80% of the active users on Twitter log in using a mobile device. (Twitter Blog) 34% of Twitter users log in multiple times a day. (Global Web Index) I NSTAGRAM S TATISTICS Instagram has the highest per-follower engagement, which is 58 times higher than Facebook and 120 times higher than Twitter. (Forrester) 30% of internet users have an Instagram account. (Global Web Index) Retailers on Instagram have a follower growth rate of 237%. (Yes Lifecycle Marketing) Only 43% of brands from 5 major industries (Beauty, Apparel, Big Box, Electronics, and Home Goods) interact with their consumers on Instagram. (Yes Lifecycle Marketing) Beauty, Home Goods and Apparel brands (209%, 274% and 417% respectively) are the industries that have seen the most significant follower growth in the past year. (Media Post) Posts with a location receive 79% more engagement compared to those that don’t. (Simply Measured) I NTERNET M ARKETING IS ON AN U PWARD S TREAK These numbers and statistics speak for themselves – internet marketing is the way of the future (and the present). Take some time to examine these numbers, and think about what they might mean for your particular marketing campaign. In social media, authority and credibility are everything. Having a great reputation will multiply the positive effects of your marketing campaigns. That’s why purchasing vital social signals such as followers, likes and comments for your social media accounts can help you reach your marketing goals a whole lot faster. It’s the bandwagon effect, where people will be encouraged to join in when they see everyone crowding around your account. Armed with the information in this article and some social media boosting services to speed things along, you’ll be prepared to plan your strategy for the year. Are you set up for 2017? HOW TO AVOID LOSING BOUGHT TWITTER FOLLOWERS Launching a marketing campaign on Twitter can be highly rewarding for brands and businesses. Given how engaging this platform is, connecting with potential and existing customers is a lot easier here than on any other social media network – but you have to have the followers in order for it to work. Having a solid following on Twitter can give you leverage to propel your promotional and brand awareness campaigns. This is the very reason why we see so many businesses take aggressive measures to beef up their follower count. High quality bought followers can help you hack your growth quickly, without exhausting your marketing resources. We’ve seen big brands use bought followers to establish themselves on the platform to kick start their organic growth, making this method one of the oldest in the book. When purchased from a reputable provider, bought followers won’t leave or mess up your account. These followers will stay with you for the long run. However, there are companies out there who might not be able to follow through with the same reliability, so you have to choose carefully. Below, we run down a few tips to help you avoid losing bought followers. Be informed and never risk your marketing efforts by letting a less-than-reputable provider take advantage of you. GO FOR C REDIBILIT Y When purchasing followers, you’ve got to choose your provider carefully. The one you pick can make or break your campaign’s success. There are hundreds upon hundreds of companies out there who claim to provide the highest quality followers available – but you should know better than to believe every single one of them. Find a provider whose credibility you can trust. (Hint: we take the time to actually review the services of these companies, so you can see what you’ll get before you buy.) We put them to the test to make sure they follow through with their claims. When you buy high quality followers, you’ll wind up with users that look basically like normal Twitter accounts. They have profile pics, names, bios, and they often tweet too. It’s worth it to buy from the right company, even if it costs a few bucks more. Learn more about specific providers here before signing up for anything. L OOK FOR A R ETENTION G UARANTEE Retention guarantees (also called replacement guarantees) are in place to ensure that newly bought followers won’t disappear for a specified amount of time. Depending on the provider you’re buying from, retention guarantees can span anywhere from 30 days up to a year – that means if your follower count drops below the promised number, they’ll be replaced for free. Reputable providers like Devumi will usually offer retention guarantees. This shows that they stand behind the quality of the followers and services they provide. If you can’t find any information about a provider’s retention guarantee on their website, don’t hesitate to contact support and ask if they have such policy in place. If they don’t have a retention guarantee – watch out. A SK H ARD -H ITTING Q UESTIONS If you can’t seem to find the information you are looking for on a provider’s website, reach out to their customer service and see if they can provide you with prompt and adequate assistance. A reputable provider should go to great lengths to make sure their customers are taken care of – whether it’s with their pre-purchasing questions or any inquiries after purchasing. Most of the providers we’ve encountered have contact forms on their website, like BuyRealMarketing above, which you can use to send any questions and concerns you might have. Others also have phone lines you can call during certain hours. If you can’t even find a contact page – which is rare – it’s best to step away and find another company, who actually cares about their customers. Based on our experience, most reputable providers respond to our inquiries within 2 business days – some even responding within minutes of us hitting the send button. There are also a few whom we’ve never heard a reply from. Again, this just shows that you can’t really trust all of them. Consider the response time regarding any inquiries you have when making a decision, and you’ll avoid running into any unnecessary headaches later on. T AKE A DVANTAGE OF F REE T RIALS Not a lot of providers offer them, but in some cases you’ll be able to find a free trial to test out the services of a particular company. This is usually a good idea, especially if you’re nervous or unsure about how the process works. Some providers run these offers only occasionally. In other cases, companies offer a very small package for a very small price, letting you try the service before you make a significant purchase. It’s not exactly a free trial, but for $1 it might as well be. Traverse at your own risk, though. A free trial doesn’t automatically mean they provide high quality followers. This is just a way for you to get a feel of how bought followers work, and if you end up losing them at least it didn’t cost you anything. A CCEPT THE I NEVITABLE Twitter is home to fake bot accounts that get deleted on a regular basis. Twitter even admits that 5% of the accounts on their platform are deemed fake or highly inactive. This means that you’re bound to lose a few followers here and there from time to time. This does not put you or your credibility at stake. Public accounts don’t have any control over who follows them, and it’s accepted that people may accumulate low quality bot followers over time. These followers tend to have egg pics, no bios, and if there are any tweets at all they are very spammy. These followers may get deleted or unfollow you after a certain amount of time. In general, their impact is so small; they are hardly noticeable and will not make a substantial dent in your credibility. You may sometimes lose followers that you buy. Providers will often over-deliver, however, to help negate this effect. That means if you buy 1,000 Twitter followers, you may actually get 1,135, or something like that. The retention guarantee of the provider, mentioned above, usually only covers the specific number of followers you paid for. You’ll only get replacements if your followers dip below that number – the extras won’t be replaced. GO FOR H IGH Q UALITY , A LWAYS Purchasing followers and losing them later on is devastating and a waste of money. In order to avoid this, always go for high quality followers from a reputable provider. High quality followers not only look as authentic as you can imagine, they also have high retention rates (that means they won’t disappear on you!) and come with comprehensive guarantees that protect you as a user. That includes the retention guarantee, mentioned above, as well as money-back and satisfaction guarantees. Going for the cheapest option available is not always the best way to go. Like many things in life, you get what you pay for. Cheap followers may sound tempting, but if you end up losing them you just wasted your money. High quality followers, although a bit more expensive upfront, come with value adding services such as comprehensive protections, high retention rates and a kick-ass customer support team that make them well worth your buck. Ultimately, these are the type of followers that can help you reap all of the marketing benefits Twitter has to offer. B E P ICKY W ITH Y OUR F OLLOWERS When shopping around for a provider, be very discerning and choose wisely. There are hundreds of providers out there and they’re all vying for your business, so it’s only natural for them to aggressively promote their services with enticing promotions and prices. Know what to look for in a provider in order to make the most out of your campaign. After all, you’re doing this to hack your growth on the platform – if you end up with a provider who doesn’t have your best interest in mind that could set you back tremendously. There are good and bad providers out there and they all come with varying price tags. Know the difference and be smart about your campaign, so you can fully maximize the marketing potential of Twitter. WINE GUIDE FOR BEGINNERS There is simply a lot to know about wine and even the most experienced connoisseur knows how important it is to keep learning about them. Unlike most drinks out there, choosing the right wine involves knowing a bit of the basics in order to maximize your drinking experience. To help you get on the right track, we have gathered a few wine basics that will surely help you learn and enjoy these drinks even more. Get your wine glasses ready because we are about to teach you a thing or two about our favorite drink! T HERE ’ S M ORE TO W INE T HAN YOU T HINK You’d be surprised to know that most wine beginners assume that wine can be made from table grapes you can purchase at the grocery store. There is a lot that goes in making a fine bottle of wine that most of us think. Wine grapes are different from the ones you are used to seeing at the grocery store. For starters, they have thicker skins and are a lot sweeter. It requires a bit more tendering compared to the ones we regularly see on the market. There are over a thousand different wine grapes and each one makes a different type of wine. This is what makes wine such a diverse drink that is full of character in every note. S INGLE V ARIETY W INE Single variety wine refers to wine that is made from just one type of wine grape. Not a lot of labels tell you whether the bottle you are getting is single variety or not so this might be a more advanced piece of information. B LEND Blends refer to wine that is made from different types of wine grapes. Traditionally, wines are named after the place they are sourced from so it can be a tad bit hard to tell whether the bottle you are holding is a blend or not - especially if you are a beginner. Soon enough, once you get acquainted with more bottles and different kinds of wine, you’ll be able to tell the difference. C OMMON T YPES OF W INE There are hundreds upon hundreds of wine available in the market but getting your hand on the most common ones is the best way to know the different range of flavor available. Below are some of the most common type of wine and a little background on each kind. C ABERNET S AUVIGNON This full-bodied red wine is probably one of the most popular kind. Usually made from black cherry, black currant and cedar, this wine is smoky and bursting with flavor. They have a higher dose of alcohol than most and goes well with a variety of dishes. P INOT N OIR A direct opposite of the Cabernet Sauvignon, this light bodied red wine is another popular type that is known for its light and airy taste. It has a highly floral and fruity taste that makes it a less intimidating drink of choice for beginners. C HARDONNAY The chardonnay is a popular drink due to its sweet caramel notes given by the oak. There are different types of Chardonnay that that vary in flavor. There are those that are more robust and spicier than most while there are those that are zestier and more refreshing to the taste. Chardonnay wine in a glass with taste profile and pronunciation There you have it a few of the most common types of wine and some of the basics you need to know in order to get a head start in your wine drinking journey. Remember, there is still a lot more to know about wine so be sure to keep on learning about them as you proceed. The best way to enjoy a good bottle of wine is in the company of those you hold dear to your heart. Take it up a notch by adding unique and memorable wine glass markers to celebrate the occasion. Simply Charmed has a fine selection of handcrafted wine glass markers that will definitely make wine drinking a whole lot more memorable. MAKE THE MOST OUT OF YOUR WINE After a long and tiring week, we all look forward to winding down with our favorite glass of wine in tow. While nothing beats a good glass (or maybe even two) of your favorite wine, we have discovered a few “hacks” that can help you make it even better. Make the most out of your wine with these ingenious tips. C HILL Y OUR W INE IN H ALF THE T IME There comes a point where you have to choose between a warm white wine or a diluted white wine but we find that neither works for us. This wine chilling tip will have you enjoying your favorite white wine in half the time. Grab an ice bucket and fill it with ice and cold water. Once half filled, throw in two handfuls of rock salt and nestle your bottle in the bucket. This should chill your wine a lot faster than throwing them in the fridge. S TORE Y OUR C ORKED W INE B OTTLES S IDEWAYS If you manage to muster the willpower to save your wine for another day, storing them sideways is the best way to go. Storing them upright can allow the corks to dry out. Also, storing your wine bottle makes for less oxidation so your wine will taste better for longer. U SE W HITE W INE FOR C OOKING While white wine can still taste good even when old, we find that we are better off using them in the kitchen. Use a splash of old white wine in pasta or vegetable dishes to give it more dimension and flavor. This can also be a great way to put your least favorite bottle to good use. Are you on a budget? When you are trying to stay under $10 and still want a bottle that you can serve to guests, stick with a red blend, versus a wine that is only one varietal. When wine makers blend different grapes, they can achieve smooth and rich flavors. To do this with a single varietal is harder to achieve, and to get a good one the price points are much closer to $20 and up. U SE W INE G LASS C HARMS We all need to feel special sometimes. Adding a sparkly Swarovski encrusted wine glass marker to your glassware can add that special touch to an ordinary glass. This is especially helpful if you have a few friends coming over, as they help prevent guests from mixing up their drink with someone else’s. The Simply Charmed Swarovski crystal magnetic wine charms are also perfect stuffing stuffers for your wine loving friends and loved ones. There you have it, a few “hacks” and tips to help you make the most out of your wine. Never waste a good bottle of wine ever again with these helpful tips. Cheers!