There are two words that can simultaneously excite business owners and fill them with dread: social media.
On the surface, social media seems like a great way to connect with users and build a brand. But dig deeper, and you’re bound to find more questions than answers.
Social media is an ever-evolving beast. It moves at lightning fast speeds – and marketers are scrambling to keep up.
Social media is popular. We all know that. But what does that mean for businesses and their marketing budgets?
How do you even start to understand the behemoth that is social media? Here are a few social media facts and statistics that will help guide a business’ social marketing strategy.
User Growth
You don’t need to look at social media statistics to understand its growth.
Social media experienced a meteoric rise – and it continues to grow every day. But just how popular is social media?
There were over 2.46 billion people on social media by the end of 2017. Experts predict that number to surpass 2.77 billion in 2019.
Not only are more people using social media, but people are committing more of their time to these websites. In fact, daily social media usage of global users reached 135 minutes per day in 2017. That’s up nine minutes per day from the previous year.
The growth in both users and time spent on social media present a huge opportunity for businesses.
Facebook is Still King
You might be ready to invest time and money into social media for your business. The question is: where do you start?
There’s no shortage of social media platforms available today. But there’s really only one true king when it comes to attracting users: Facebook.
Facebook represents four of the five most used social network and messaging services on the planet. Facebook has over 2 billion users, followed closely by WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger at 1.3 and 1.2 billion, respectively.
The only non-Facebook network in the top five is Instagram. The photo-sharing platform is now over 700 million users worldwide. For a reference, Twitter only has about 328 million users.
The stats about social media don’t lie: Facebook is still on top. If you’re looking to target the most number of users, Facebook is the way to go.
Advertising
Social media advertising has undergone rapid change. A number of new trends emerged over the last few years.
For one, marketers are moving from TV to digital ads. One survey revealed digital ad video spend among large brands increased by 53 percent in the last two years.
Are you looking for the best bang for your buck? You might want to consider mobile ads.
Mobile accounts for nearly 80 percent of time spent on social networks. Not only are people searching on mobile, they’re also converting. 55 percent of mobile-search driven conversions happen in one hour or less.
These social media statistics for businesses reveal that mobile – not desktop – are the key to a successful campaign.
More Social Media Facts
Are you looking for more social media facts? We can help.
Contact us to learn more about the power of social media for your business.
