There are certain silly statements that are often made by bloggers and marketing “gurus” from time to time. Sometimes, they post about them to get a rise out of people, often as a way of generating engagement and page views. Other times, changes are made that make their techniques stop working so they dismiss a particular marketing segment as dead (this happened quite a bit after the Google Penguin update).
Of course, there are those who simply get it wrong. This can be expected. Nobody’s perfect.
Some of the most common ones that constantly pop up only to be proven incorrect weeks or months late include:
- “SEO is dead.” (been hearing that one since 2007)
- “Email is dead.”
- “QR codes are finally ready to be big.”
- “Mobile apps are a must-have for your business.”
You may have noticed an omission from the list. Today and really for the last year, there is one formerly common false statement that few are willing to make anymore: “Social media is reaching it peak.”
It’s a phrase that has been used by marketers since 2008, reaching its highest point in 2011/2012. Then, it stopped. The gurus stopped betting against social media. Between the rise of mobile and continuous growth across the country and around the world, very few are willing to embarrass themselves by saying that social media is going anywhere but up.
In this infographic from Search Engine Journal, they take a long look at some of the statistics surrounding the growth of social media. If you’ve been watching you’ve probably seen some infographics in the past that were very similar to this one. The reason, of course, is that social media just won’t slow down. People are spending more time on social networks. They’re doing it on more devices. New social sites keep popping up.
Remember this one because when you hear someone say that social media is slowing down (and they have to start saying it soon since gaps like these don’t last forever), you’ll want a reminder that it’s not likely to happen any time in the near future.
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