The time to harness the power of social media in your marketing strategy is now.
In fact, it has never been more important. Social Media Marketing (SMM) has become the best way to get word of your business out there. SMM is inexpensive and allows you to target your audience and build a direct relationship with your followers and customers in a way that has not been possible until now. You can respond immediately to problems and questions that come up, and SMM will help you expand your customer base.
Not convinced?
Here are 35 empowering social media stats that will prove that you need to jump on the SMM bandwagon.
Social media consumer usage
1. Link Humans reports that 2.1 billion of the 7.2 billion people on earth have a minimum of one social media account.
2. According to SocialMediaToday, there was an increase of 176 million social media users in 2015.
3. SocialMediaToday also reports there are 12 new active mobile social media users every second.
4. Pew Research Center (PRC) reports that 76 percent of all online users used social media sites, compared to 65 percent of online adults.
5. PRC also reports that of the adult demographic, 90 percent of the 18-29 demographic use social media.
6. PRC reports that 35 percent of online adults aged 65 and older use social media.
7. PRC reports that 52 percent of online adults use at least two social media sites.
8. Statista estimates there will be 2.5 billion social media worldwide users by 2018.
9. Link Humans reports that 90 percent of Pinterest users are women.
10. According to Link Humans, the most active people on social media are mothers whose children are under the age of 5.
11. According to GlobalWebIndex, in 2014, people averaged just over 6 hours per day online and more than a quarter of that time was spent on social media.
12. GlobalWebIndex also reports that global internet users have an average of 5.54 social media accounts, with the 16-24 age group having an average of 6.55 social media accounts.
13. Hubspot reports that 78 percent of people watch online videos each week and 55 percent of people watch online videos each day.
14. Recode reports that Facebook users watch 100 million hours’ worth of video per day and that 500 million people watched videos every day.
15. Snapchat recently reported to Bloomberg that they hit 10 billion video views per day.
16. Mary Meeker’s Internet Trends reports that the most popular social media platform for teens and young adults is Instagram (32 percent), followed by Twitter (24 percent), Facebook (14 percent), Snapchat (13 percent), and Tumbler (4 percent). This makes Instagram an important target for SMM.
Social media business usage
17. Marketing Charts reports (based on research conducted by University of Massachusetts Dartmouth) that a whopping 93 percent of Fortune 500 companies have a primary LinkedIn profile. Of these Fortune 500 companies, 87 percent have an active profile on Glassdoor, 78 percent on Twitter, and 74 percent on Facebook.
18. Altimeter reports that 82 percent of the businesses they surveyed were already engaged in, currently adopting, or planning to adopt a social media marketing strategies in 2015.
19. Altimeter also reports that 38 percent of respondents spend more than 20 percent of their advertising budget on their social media presence.
20. According to TNW News, 61 percent of startups use social media as their primary marketing tool.
21. Social Media Examiner reports that 96 percent of small business owners make use of SMM. Of those surveyed, 58 percent “Strongly Agree” SMM is important for their business and 34 percent “Agree.”
22. Social Media Examiner also reports that Facebook is the most used social media platform for marketing as 93 percent of those surveyed indicated they use it.
23. According to Social Media Examiner, more B2B companies use LinkedIn for SMM (41 percent) and more B2C companies use Facebook (65 percent).
24. As reported by Social Media Examiner, 90 percent of small business owners agree increased exposure is the number one benefit of SMM.
25. MarketWatch reports that 54 percent of top 50 CEOs have appeared in a company video targeted to social media.
26. According to iMedia Connection, a mere 27 percent of C-level management get involved in social media in 2015, which is a drop of 20 percent since 2012.
27. Despite the above two stats, Lenati reports a whopping 84 percent of VPs and CEOs admit they use social media when making their own decisions regarding what to purchase.
28. SocialTimes reports that based on Yesmail’s research, 91 percent of all retail brands surveyed make use of at least two social media platforms.
Social media marketing
29. MarketingSherpa reports that 33 percent of adults between the ages of 18 and 34 prefer communicating with companies via social media.
30. Forbes reports that salespeople who are adept at social media use were more likely to exceed their sales quota. Of those surveyed, 74 percent of those who exceeded their quota were highly skilled or better than average, as were 56 percent who met their quota.
31. Forbes also reports that 64 percent of sales associates attribute the closing of at least one deal to social media use.
32. According to Direct Marketing, 57 percent of consumers say they would think more highly of a business if they saw positive comments or praise left for the business online.
33. Dazeinfo reveals that in the next five years 22.5 percent of the marketing budgets of companies will be devoted to social media.
34. According to Simply Measured, the top goal for SMM is brand awareness at 74 percent, followed by website traffic at 53 percent and lead generation at 41 percent.
35. TNW News reports that 43 percent of digital marketers agree that SMM is one of the most effective marketing methods.
It is clear from the array of statistics provided here that social media is a powerful platform from which to market your business. Despite what some naysayers once said about the internet — just check out the Newsweek article published in 1995 called Why The Web Won’t Be Nirvana — the internet flourished, as has social media.
So, make sure you don’t get left behind, and make the most of what social media marketing can do for you.
Have any social media marketing stats of your own to share? Leave them in the comments below!
