I think we can all agree that social media platforms have taken over as the main mode of information dissemination for both business and personal use. We have discovered over the past few years how extremely important our social media platforms have become to our athletes, families, alumni, high school and college programs, associations and our competition. Where else can you reach such a broad range of people all focused on the sport of volleyball with one single post?

In 2017, Munciana VBC became the most followed club on twitter with over 5,300 followers. Now in the vast expanse of these platforms, that number seems extremely small, but that number can be deceptive. Social media giant, Brandwatch (the world's leading social intelligence company) tells us that number is not indicative of the actual number of people who see your post, only the number of people who have chosen to follow you. Depending on your social media privacy settings, that number could literally be 10x greater.

Brandwatch has posted some mind boggling facts about social media statistics. Let's take a look at some of those stats and see how it can correlate to a whole new era of marketing for the volleyball community. With volleyball in mind, I have chosen to look at the four top platforms that are utilized in our sport.

The sheer numbers of users are more than enough to convince you that social media platforms dominate the communication highway. Check out some of the amazing social media facts and statistics.

Facebook: 2.072 billion users

Instagram: 800 million users

Snapchat: 178 million daily users

Twitter: 330 million users

Facebook Statistics

• Facebook adds 500,000 new users every day (6 profiles every second)
• 79% of all online US adults use Facebook
• There are 60 million active business pages on Facebook
• 76% of Facebook users check it every day

Instagram Statistics

• Instagram clocks up 3.5 billion likes every day
• Over 40 billion photos have been shared
• On an average day, 80 million photos are shared
• Instagram usage has doubled in the last two years

Snapchat Statistics

• Snapchat has 178m active daily users
• 60% of them are under 25
• 47% of US teens think it's better than Facebook
• In 2016 $90m was spent on Snapchat ads

Twitter Statistics

• 500 million people visit Twitter each month without logging in
• Average Twitter user has 707 followers
• 500 million tweets sent each day = 6000 tweets every second
• 65.8% of US companies with 100+ employees use Twitter for marketing
• 77% of Twitter users feel more positive about a brand (company) when their Tweet has been replied to (liked or retweeted)

If those numbers are not enough to put you in a tailspin, let's get some context and look at some general
Social Media Statistics:

• As of October 2017, the total world population is 7.6 billion
• The internet has 3.5 billion users
• There are 3.03 billion active social media users
• 81% of all small & medium businesses use some kind of social platform
• Social Media users grew by 121 million between Q2 & Q3 of 2017
• That works out to a new social media user every 15 seconds

I thought it was important to share these startling numbers to confirm that social media is currently the single most effective marketing tool for a business...especially for a volleyball club. As we began to recognize the value of these tools that were at our fingertips, it was critical we formulate a plan that reflected the philosophy & goals of our organization.

First and foremost, we chose the following key areas that would drive our social media presence.

• Honoring our athletes & coaches' accomplishments off and on the court
• Highlights and Congrats to our alumni (both players & coaches)
• Collegiate Commitments
• Program & Special Event Announcements
• Tryout/Camp Information
• Innovative Methods of Utilizing Social Media

As social media platforms and apps continue to evolve, so has our utilization. We continue to work as a team to find new and creative ways to get our posts out to the volleyball community. Our goal is to communicate, clear, concise, honest information and present a positive example of social media usage for our athletes and families! There is great power in the written word and we all know a picture is worth a thousand words! Since those tenets are what drive current platforms, we will continue to forge into 2018 with a renewed mindset in our social media presence.

Each month, we will share some tips, explore current technology & apps to utilize and manage social media posts. In addition, we would appreciate your feedback, questions & input on how you utilize social media for your club.