Every quarter, Simon Kemp along with his partners, Hootsuite and We are social, write a report which is the "state of the nation" for digital.

Let's look at this in detail.  The report is here if you want to dive in.

The top headline this quarter is that social media users have passed the 4½ billion mark

Let's look at Simon's comments

The ‘state of digital’ in October 2021

Let’s start with a look at the essential headlines for digital use around the world today:

• More than two-thirds of the world’s population uses a mobile phone today, with global users increasing by almost 100 million (+1.9 percent) over the past 12 months to reach 5.29 billion in October 2021.

• There are now 4.88 billion internet users around the world, which equates to almost 62 percent of the world’s population. The latest data show that global internet user numbers have increased by more than 220 million (+4.8 percent) over the past year, but with COVID-19 continuing to hamper research, the real figure may be considerably higher.

• Social media users increased by more than 400 million (+9.9 percent) over the past 12 months to reach 4.55 billion in October 2021. User growth has slowed slightly over the past 3 months, but the global total continues to increase at a rate of more than 1 million new users every single day.

• For context, the world’s population reached 7.89 billion at the start of October 2021, representing an increase of roughly 80 million people (+1 percent) compared with this time last year. Current growth rates indicate that the global population will exceed 8 billion by mid-2023.

These numbers provide some great context, but what does the latest data tell us about how people’s digital behaviours are evolving?

Let’s dig deeper into this quarter’s report to learn more.

Social media users reach another impressive milestone

The top story in this quarter’s report is that there are now more than 4½ billion active social media users around the world.

That figure is more than 400 million higher than it was this time last year, equating to year-on-year growth of almost 10 percent.

Those active social media users spend 2 hours and 27 minutes in social media.

Current trends suggest that social media users will still pass the equivalent of 60 percent of the world’s total population some time in the first half of 2022.

Social media has transformed the world.  It transformed society and transformed the way we do business.

But many business still have a "digital hope" strategy.

They hope that somehow the millenials and Gen Z will come up with a digital plan, it's assumed as digital natives they will figure it out.

Social and digital in and organization is not a much of tactics, hints and tips.  Using social now is a business imperative and it needs a strategy and a methodology.

So who's social selling?

In case you missed it, the Bank of America’s Merrill Lynch have banned cold calling and have moved all their people to social selling. This isn't some trendy tech company that might have decided to do this on a whim, this is a very conservative financial services company that has made a decision based on data.

But surely cold calling has a better ROI than social selling?  Not according to Merrill Lynch.

"They will also be encouraged to contact prospects over LinkedIn, which has a higher hit rate than cold calling"

The CRO (chief revenue officer), Richard Eltham of Namos Solutions, of one of clients posted a comment on LinkedIn about social selling. See here.

“Social selling is not an option now it is the way of the world and you either learn and execute it or fear getting left behind” 

Kevin Murray who is the Head of Sales at MacArtney Underwater Technology recently posted about his success with social selling here and wrote an article about the transformation that has happened in sales here.

I don't believe you Tim!

If you check out this video of Chris Mason CEO at Oracle reseller Namos, fast forward to 19 minutes 55 seconds. Chris talks about a $2.6 million win from being on social, after completing the DLA Ignite social selling and influence course. 

Here at DLA Ignite we don't do "hints and tips sessions" we don't want you to waste your money. Our social selling and influence methodology will provide your sales team with the stable platform for growth. It is also the only social selling program based on 70:20:10 change management principles which gives your business the mindset change and habit change they need in this digital world.