Every day the benefits of using digital media to communicate and connect with your audience are more evident, that is why either personal or professional, we all must have an active presence in the digital world. We must be present, active and projecting a certain image we want our audiences to perceive us because, big or small , we all have an audience that follows us.
A brand that does not have an active presence on social networks as if it did not exist. People from all over the world and at all times are visiting the web for information on brands and / or services, which is why experts recommend creating and maintaining healthy social networks that respond to the particular needs of its target audience. However, the maintenance and creation of content involves particular strategies of which we are not all experts, given that social networks are constantly changing and are also relatively new tools.
10 years ago, Facebook did not have its current 1,590 million users, and like this one multiple other social media platforms have emerged with great success being Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, just some of the most popular within the endless supply of online mass communication tools. The variety of content to which we are all exposed on a daily basis pushes brands to create more sophisticated communication, that not only speaks but also listens to its audiences and converses with them, thus generating engagement through effective story-telling.
The United States, England, and Italy are some of the countries with the most avant-garde development in the use of social networks, however Puerto Rico is not far behind. According to the most recent Digital & Mobile Behavioral Study in Puerto Rico, over 70% of people over 12 have regular access to the Internet. The most active users during 2016 were Puerto Ricans between the ages of 12 to 54, with women being the ones who used the Internet the most with 73.3%. The preferred social media platforms by the Puerto Rican public are Google and Facebook with 88% of active users, followed by Youtube with 78%, and Instagram with 41%.
This study has proven that in Puerto Rico users remember better advertising in social media networks than in any other medium, however some brands still choose to bet bigger budget cuts to traditional media that do not necessarily appeal to their target audience. Over the next few years we will see a logical transition in communication strategies in large, medium, or small businesses to expand digital efforts because of their proximity, accessibility, and measurable results. Staying in the forefront is imperative for the relevance of brands, and finding new ways to communicate useful information to the target audience is key to being relevant in this competitive market. It is the common task of all those who wish to communicate a message to investigate, analyze and study the most effective tools to take our communication to the next level within this competitive digital era.