The Mega Infographic of Lesser Known Social Media Facts [Infographic]

Posted on February 2, 2017   12:07 am by Josh Wardini

Social media is one of the main topics of conversation in today’s day and age and for a good reason. 31% of the global population are active users of social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, and that number continues to rise as the internet and mobile tech coverage increases. Social media in itself, is a massive business, with Facebook generating a market cap of $312.78 billion alone.

Social media’s application within society is in almost every aspect of day-to-day life. It is used for entertainment, news, to business, and its impact on our behavior and mental health is being studied with an eye of caution after its rapid adoption over the past ten years. However, whether you use these networks to chat and share photos with your friends or market your brand, there is always something new to learn.

An insightful infographic from Skilled.co can be viewed below and looks at 115 must-know facts about social media. This includes growth statistics, tips for business owners, and data about usage habits and addiction. Are you one of the 85% that rely on Tweets and status updates to get the morning news, or the 18% who can not go a few hours without checking their Facebook timeline? People’s daily habits are completely changing.

Perhaps you are also one of the 114.6 million users that like soccer icon Cristiano Ronaldo on Facebook or the 90.3 million that follow pop queen Katy Perry on Twitter. That is far more than any political or academic figure. It is numbers like these that demonstrate how big the medium has become and how useful it is for reaching varied audiences.

Whether you are a website or small business owner, represent a corporate brand, or are a celebrity reaching out to fans, social networks are where the masses are spending their time. Social media platforms are designed perfectly to connect with people around the globe and influence their actions. In fact, 37% of those surveyed said Facebook had impacted their decision to purchase a product or service. Twitter was found to be the best platform for users to discover new products and be reminded about purchases, though its overall influence was a bit less than Facebook. Retailers and service providers are missing out if they do not utilize these channels to promote their business. By 2019 there will be a collective spending on social media marketing is projected to reach a staggering $17.34 billion.

For the full list of social media facts and supporting data be sure to check out the full infographic.

 

Although social media has existed for almost two decades, it has only become popular in the last ten years. During that decade, social media platforms transformed from sites that people once hesitated joining and have now become some of the most frequently visited sites on the Internet. Social media has gained billions of global users, and the number of users continues to increase with each passing year. Furthermore, a substantial number of users around the world cite that they check their social media accounts on a daily basis or even multiple times throughout the day. This is to ensure that they have not missed out on the latest posts from their friends, family members, or even the most recent news reports.

Examining the global social media penetration rate can provide insight into how widespread Social media has become. Social media has  59% of users located within North America and 50% South America. This is followed by 48% in West Europe and  East Asia, 45% in East Europe and Oceania and 40% in Central America. There is 37% of social media users located in Southeast Asia and 26% in the Middle East. The continents with the lowest amount of social media users are from South Asia, Africa, and Central Asia. Overall, the global average of users on social media is 31%. It is important to keep in mind that many of these users are accessing social media on a daily basis. For example, Facebook leads with the highest percentage of daily users at 70%. 59% of daily users log into Instagram, followed by 38% for Twitter, 27% for LinkedIn, and 22% for Pinterest. 92% of teenagers go online on social media daily, and 71% of these young users have reported that they use more than one social networking site.

However, individuals do not just check social media exclusively to find out what their friends and family are doing online or what is going on in other people’s lives. Social media is used as a news source to keep up to date with current affairs. Recent data reported that 68% of millennials use social media as their primary source for receiving news and that Facebook is the number one social media platform choice for this. In contrast, 24% of high school students rely on Instagram as a primary source of news. The number of users that choose social media platforms as a primary news source varies from site to site. 70% of users on Reddit rely upon the site for the latest news information, and Reddit is closely followed by Facebook at 66% and Twitter at 59%. Tumblr and Instagram are used for news by 31% and 23% of users respectively, but this is likely to be represented by the younger demographic such as high school aged students. In general, 85% of people around the world use Twitter and Facebook as a source for their daily morning news.

While it may seem unusual to some that there are people that log into Facebook and Twitter early in the morning to read the news, it is not an uncommon practice at all. In fact, in some ways, it has become a part of the social media addiction that many people have developed over the years. 28% of iPhone users check their Twitter feed before they get up and out of bed in the morning. Studies suggest that 18% of people cannot spend a few hours without checking their Facebook for updates and that 1.23 billion users log into Facebook for an average of 17 per day. Collectively, it is estimated that 39, 757 years are spent on Facebook in a single day simply by the amount of time that its active users dedicate to engaging on the site.

Companies, brands, and corporations have not overlooked social media addiction. It is undeniable that social media use can influence people’s purchasing decisions on a daily basis. People turn to sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest for additional product information, purchase reminders, product discoveries and product recommendations. Social media also provides purchase location information and product sales and purchase alerts. This is because social media users are not only looking for information from sponsored posts and related ads, but they want to know about the experiences that other people have had with those products and services. It does not matter whether users know the people directly or not. Whether a user is following a YouTube guru, a celebrity endorsement or a friend that is another country, knowing from social media post that a product has legitimate results influences an individual to make a purchase.

A positive or negative post can impact whether a consumer will buy a product or not.  This decision can be influenced by the different social media sites where information is posted. The social media site that is most likely to affect a purchase is Facebook, ranking at 31%. Facebook is followed closely by YouTube and LinkedIn, which both rank at 27% respectively. Google Plus ranks at 27%, followed by Pinterest ranking at 12%, and Twitter ranking at 8%. The level of influence involved with purchases on these sites varies by the products or services that are discussed. For example, the purchase of professional services might be far more influential on social media site like LinkedIn as it targets a professional demographic. Facebook is likely to be equally prominent in these circumstances as the site has implemented a variety of review elements reflecting the quality of the services available.
Ultimately, social media has become an integral part of daily life. Social media is used for professional purposes and is an essential part of everyday living.  There are billions of people that use social media platforms on a day to day basis. It is easy to understand why many brands and companies have started to implement social media into their marketing campaigns and content marketing plans. Some people may still view the implementation of social media into marketing projects as a potential risk, statistics highlight that this is the chosen future of communication in a digital world.

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