Social media facts, statistics, and marketing

What if you one ebook told you everything you need to know about every social media platform out there? Social media-marketing guru Esteban Contreras has been sharing his knowledge on the subject on his blog SocialNerdia.com for almost four years. President of Social Nerdia Consulting and former Social Media Marketing Manager for Samsung, Esteban has just released the perfect complement to his content: an ebook on everything social media—every stat, story, and best practice for the platforms. Social State: Thoughts, Stats and Stories about the State of Social Media in 2024 isn’t just a collection of statistics; the book also contains “analysis and thoughts on themes ranging from digital influence and privacy, to marketing, social business, and social good.” His case studies of social media campaigns run by Coca-Cola, Subaru, and others give many interesting insights and tips.

Enhanced with images, charts, graphs, and links, Social State is a great read for authors, publishers, and anyone building their social media strategy.

We asked Esteban about his thoughts on the future of social media and how authors and publishers can take advantage of all platforms.

What do you think the next "big" thing in social media will be?

From an advertiser perspective, "native ads" will continue to gain relevance. From a user perspective, I think people will continue to move towards newer services that solve problems that have been ignored by today's big social networks. We won't see people abandoning the major social networks, but we will certainly see smaller services gaining importance. From a consumer perspective, privacy and influence will become increasingly hot topics. Social networks will continue to try to get people to become more open and transparent; we need to understand what this means because there are great opportunities, but there are also great risks.

Do you think authors/publishers should read this book?

Authors can no longer depend on publishers or old-school PR. I think authors these days need to be great marketers as well, and social media should be at the core of such marketing efforts. Reading Social State is a great place to start.

What do you think is the most valuable platform for authors?

I believe it's essential to leverage multiple social platforms. I'd recommend authors start with a Facebook page, Facebook events (particularly for time-sensitive promotions and offline events), a Twitter account, and a website with a blog. Depending on time, other platforms like forums, Google+, Instagram, YouTube, and curation services like Pinterest, Storify, and Delicious can be great resources. Depending on budget, I'd highly recommend social "native" ads on Facebook and Twitter as well. The Social State chapters about social advertising and marketing cover this and more.

Social State is a great example of an ebook’s format naturally fitting its content. As well as allowing Esteban to create his book in just a matter of days—he finished writing it on December 26th and it was published on January 1st—Vook’s flexible ebook creation tool allowed him to enrich the book with hundreds of hyperlinks, photos, graphs, and charts. Buy your copy now on the Vook store. Thinking about turning your content into an ebook? We've worked with other blogs on their ebooks, and we can help you with yours. Sign up now for a free consultation with one of our VookMakers.

Check out all topics covered in Social State below:

Introduction – Social Media: Transforming Our Lives, For Better or Worse
Chapter 1 – The Social Universe: Life and Technology in Perpetual Beta
Chapter 2 – Facebook: Now Connecting Over 1 Billion People
Chapter 3 – Instagram: The New American Dream
Chapter 4 – Twitter: The MMS of the Internet
Chapter 5 – Google+: The Little Social Engine that Could
Chapter 6 – LinkedIn: A Network Building the Economic Graph
Chapter 7 – Pinterest: The World’s Visually Social Pinboard
Chapter 8 – Tumblr: Part Blogging Platform, Part Meme Machine
Chapter 9 – The Social Long Tail: Startup Hype and the Search for the Next Blank
Chapter 10 – Social Media Election: How Obama Won the Presidency, Again
Chapter 11 – Virality: YouTubers, Hot Pockets and Klout Scores
Chapter 12 – Trust No One: Skepticism, Privacy and Trauma in an Age of Openness
Chapter 13 – Social Advertising: How Social Media Gets Paid
Chapter 14 – The New Customer Journey: Empowered Consumers and Advocacy
Chapter 15 – Social Storyteller: A New Kind of Marketer
Chapter 16 – The 3 C’s of Social Media Marketing: Easier Said Than Done
Chapter 17 – Social Business: From Buzzword to Reality
Chapter 18 – Social Good: Changing the World One Tweet at a Time
Afterword – Trends and Predictions: Re-Imagining Social Media