Social Media Today
So it seems like hardly a day goes by without hearing about Facebook or Twitter in the news. You know that it’s all being taken rather seriously when judges grant Twitter-super injunctions for naughty sportsmen to prevent the spread of their personal news. Social media has now been so well integrated into our lives that people forget Facebook has only been around as we know it, since 2006. What did we even do with ourselves before then??
In the 6 years since Mr Zuckerberg’s empire began its first tentative steps towards total world domination,Twitter has risen – initially from Facebook’s shadow – to establish itself at the heart of everything from celebrity culture, marketing and advertising, to driving the digital revolution in how news reaches the consumer. In the meantime, Linkedin has also grown exponentially in the past few years to become the world’s largest professional network. Inevitably, any media format that creates such a large consumer base is likely to attract considerable attention from businesses…yet every now and again, I still come across the odd business owner, manager or CEO that declares that they have ‘no use for Facebook and stuff like that’.
Here are some not particularly groundbreaking, but nevertheless highly interesting stats on some of the big players in the social media arena. Whatever your standpoint, the growth and numbers involved are astonishing. Make up your own minds whether you can afford not to get social…
- Facebook how boasts over 800 million users – with 200 million of those being added in 2011
- The US leads the pack with 155 million users followed by India at 45 million, and Brazil with 43 million
- By the end of 2011, Facebook’s ad revenue, stood at a massive 22 times larger than Twitter’s $139.5 million, at $3.15 billion – which accounted for 90% of its overall revenue.
- An average Facebook user has 130 friends and 80 page likes
- Over 3.5 billion shares per week on Facebook
- In 2011, Facebook served 175 billion advert impressions
- There are 250 million photos uploaded on Facebook
- 95% of wall posts are not answered by brands
- The average Facebook user spends 7 hours per month on the site
- A total of 53.5 BILLION minutes were spent on Facebook by Americans in 2011
- 17% of users interact with brands, 13% post updates about a brand they like
- 2.5 million external websites have been integrated with Facebook
- Over 500 million registered users (as of March 2012)
- 34% of marketers have gained leads through Twitter, and 20% have actually closed a deal on there
- 40% of members don’t actively Tweet
- It roughly takes one week for a billion tweets to be sent
- 60% of new users currently come from outside the US
- 80% of tweets concerning customer service are negative
- 5% of users create 75% of the content
- 11 Twitter accounts are created every second
- Twitter’s advertising revenue is predicted to hit $540 million by 2014
- The US lead the way in terms of numbers – with 108 million users – 28% of all Twitter members.
- The US however, lags behind Netherlands, Brazil and Japan in terms of active profiles.
- Twitter signups TRIPLED with the intergration of iOS 5, showing the impact of mobile phones on social media
- Linkedin now boasts 150 million registered users across over 200 countries
- 60% of Linkedin members come from outside of the US
- Linkedin has executives from every single Fortune 500 company as members – 82 of the Fortune 100 use its corporate recruitment solutions
- Linkedin had a 2011 revenue of $522 million
- There are over 2 million companies with Linkedin Company Pages
- 60 million users are from the US, 34 million from Europe, 25 million from Asia Pacific, 14 million from India and 7 million from Brazil
- By the end of December 2011, Linkedin jumped from 45th to 36th most visited website on the internet.
The predicted growth of overall social media usage from 2011 through 2014
The numbers may look pretty but the point is that every platform has something to offer. It’s just about finding the right balance for each medium. And I haven’t even covered the likes of Pinterest, Google Plus or Flickr yet….emarketer do a pretty good job of predicting how it’s all likely to grow (on the left).
I really could sit here and keep blasting wads of statistics at you but that could get slightly boring. So I’ll keep it at that.
It’d be rude for me not to end on a self plug for our own social media presence….If you did like what you just read, then give us a follow on our Facebook or Linkedin as we’ll keep things updated through those. We’re also constantly on Twitter having a ramble.
Here’s some of the sites we used to aggregate this wonderful info;
http://thesocialskinny.com/100-more-social-media-statistics-for-2012/
http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/social-media-waste-of-time_b17840
http://www.socialbakers.com/facebook-statistics/#chart-intervals
Other sources: Socialmediatoday, Techcrunch, emarketer, Readwriteweb, Chitika
Good post- thank you. What would also be helpful is if someone could look at all that stuff through a B2B lens. The challenge with statistics like these is that they get non-marketing folks thinking, “Wow, look at all those people on Facebook and Twitter. We should really be pushing hard to market there.”
Thanks for the comment David. Indeed, there’s a lot of people that get flustered but actually when you break it down, each network has its own clear strengths that can be utlised. It’s not all about Facebook anymore! I’m going to be getting more blog posts up covering each social network and how to get the most out of them so check back when you find some time. Cheers again!
Most definitely agree here. We’re on Twitter and Facebook for different reasons as to why we’re on Linkedin. It used to be that Facebook was the be all and end all of social media but it’s interesting to see how the social media arena has become a platform for marketing – with the likes of Twitter and Linkedin growing, Facebook is a less comprehensive tool for marketing and brand awareness than it used to be. I think that’s to do with companies wising up to what people want – and that’s the most important aspect of it in my opiion – marketing = people.
Though I guess the point is that social media will grow depending on the audience, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see some other, even more suitable social network for marketing spring up in the next few years.Thanks for the comment