How bizarre would it be if something could become so popular that it would earn its own national holiday? Extremely… and it just recently happened. If you haven’t heard of it yet, the fourth annual Social Media Day was celebrated last Sunday, June 30, in honor of the ongoing digital revolution. The sold-out event—designed to celebrate the connected generation around the world—took place at Milk Studios in New York City and was hosted by Mashable, VICE and Milk Studios.
According to Mashable, the jam packed event with hundreds of guests was a huge success. And although the event first kicked off in 2010, this year’s event was one of the biggest successes to date.
In fact, this year’s event was made especially special thanks to a series of events that demonstrated the power of online. Specifically, Home Depot introduced a “Call to Hacktion” contest in which participants were challenged to create DIY hacks that were put on display and used at the party. Moreover, Social Media Day goers were able to play around with GIF animator, Instagam filter and booth to sign up for free domain names.
The event, of course, led to a serious Twitter trend of users tweeting “#SMday.” Fans used this hashtag not only on Twitter but on Vine and Instagram as well to bring to life the hype surrounding the celebration. Their updates were displayed at the event throughout the night.
So, just how far has social media come in our world? If the fact that it has its own holiday doesn’t say enough, let’s consider some other riveting statistics.
Social media isn’t just highly used by millions of people around the world but it has also become an intrinsic part of the marketing world. According to a 2013 Social Media Infographic, Facebook receives 665 million active users daily while Twitter receives 288 million monthly active users. What does this mean for marketers? A day like Social Media Day is a great opportunity for businesses to take advantage of driving their social media marketing success.
Twenty-one percent of marketers say that social media has become more important to their company over the past six months. In 2013, marketers have found customers using the following links.
- 52 percent of customers via Facebook
- 36 percent of customers via Twitter
- 43 percent of customers via LinkedIn
If your business is looking for better ways to market, now more than ever is the time to start using social networks to get yourself out there. Social Media Day may be over, but there is more to come. If you missed the celebration, tune in for next year’s run of the holiday.
