The most important social media stats everyone should know

It doesn't matter if you're a social media marketer, manager, or even just an influencer; keeping up with annual social media data is essential to being competitive in your field. According to research by Statistica published at the beginning of 2022, an astounding 3.96 billion people all around the world were using some type of social media. That's equivalent to approximately half of all people in the world!It is difficult to argue against the fact that social media is here to stay. In addition, it is expected that it will remain one of the most important marketing tools for businesses and brands well into the foreseeable future. Social networking should be a top concern for anyone or any company that wants to stay relevant in their industry and attract customers from new demographics.So, how do you keep yourself in the game? By paying attention to all the statistics on social media marketing published online by big players like Statistica. Why do these stats matter so much? Here, we’ll discuss all that and more. So, let’s get into the hows, the whats and the whys of statistics on social media marketing:

How do these stats impact a company’s social media marketing strategy

As any social media marketer worth their salt would know: data plays a massive role in the success or failure of a company’s marketing strategy. Organic social is no different, although the data may be even more important here. Through the many nuances and evolutions that social media platforms go through, it’s important to learn these stats so you might adjust your social media marketing strategy to meet them.Still not convinced as to the impact social media stats have on a company’s marketing strategy? Then let’s look at every marketer’s favourite tool, the data. Here’s why these stats are so important for your strategy:

1. Benchmark current social media performance

Possibly the biggest reason why these yearly social media stats can impact a company’s marketing strategy is that without them, there would be no way to benchmark the performance of the social media profiles of the company. In terms of engagement, when we don’t have the overall statistics that test against various different profiles, we can fall into the trap of comparing our metrics against a single “competitor” profile. And that can be detrimental to one’s social media strategy simply because there are so many factors that affect how well a piece of content will do.Being able to benchmark your stats against that of a global average gives you something to strive for, at the minimum. The effect of statistics on social media marketing is great when utilised properly and to its fullest potential. However, ignoring them completely is a recipe for a social media marketing disaster.

2. Forces strategies to be fluid

It might be surprising to hear, but rigid, stubborn marketing strategies are a thing of the past. A brand cannot utilise a single strategy for all of its social media channels, which is especially important to keep in mind when it comes to social media. Not only is this clear from the characteristics of each platform, but it's also evident in the data that social media marketers should use to inform their work.With much easier access to data now than ever before, social media marketers are forced to keep their strategies fluid so that they don’t fall behind on the targets of their most important metrics. The many nuances of social media are easier to keep up with when you pay attention to the social media stats that are published not just yearly but sometimes quarterly, too. While it might seem frustrating to have marketers kept on their toes multiple times a year, being able to shift social media strategies at a moment’s notice is crucial to keeping on top of things.

3. Changes the way social media is used

Less than five years ago, who would’ve thought that Instagram would shift from its original unique selling point of being an image-first platform to placing such a heavy emphasis on video? This is why social media stats are so important. It helps social media managers and marketers make informed decisions based on the likes and dislikes of a platform or if there are any shifts in the tides – like what happened with Instagram. This then informs their content strategies moving forward.Keeping an eye on social media stats helps social media marketers make sure that they’re always doing the right thing according to the platform. Because one never knows when the next social media platform will pop up or when an established one decides to change their tune.

4. Uncover new opportunities

Sometimes, the yearly social media statistic reports come up with some surprising nuggets of information. For example, did you know that there are more millennials active on LinkedIn than any other demographic? Statistics like that highlight new opportunities for social media marketers to explore in order to build their respective bases and maybe even penetrate niche markets that perhaps weren’t so easily accessible before.Keeping an eye on social media stats is important, and paying attention to niche platforms or up-and-comers is even more so. Having a finger on the pulse of data ensures that social media marketers are always able to jump on the latest trends to boost engagement and even explore new social avenues.

Social media stats for every platform

As we can see, reliable stats are vital for any company’s social media marketing team. It offers a benchmark to compare one’s performance against, and it changes the way that certain platforms need to be used. All of this forces companies to adopt more flexible or fluid social media strategies in order to align goals with the data at hand, and, all in all, the data found from these social media stats can even help marketers discover new opportunities.Without the access to data that we have now, most social media marketers and managers would be running around like headless chickens, trying to figure out why some posts work while others might not work as well. And that’s not a great thing to happen when one’s responsible for a company’s entire social media portfolio. Social media marketers need to make decisions based on hard data and statistics in order to ensure the success of their strategies.With that said, there are some key pieces of data that everyone should know to inform their social media strategies moving forward. We’ll be taking you through some of the most important social media stats from the Big Five – Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok and LinkedIn. Guide your social strategy using these important statistics on social media marketing:

Facebook

The majority of brands and businesses that are active on Facebook have realised, within the past decade or so, that the site appears to enjoy receiving monetary contributions. Because businesses are required to spend money on Facebook ads simply to ensure that their content is visible on the platform, organic engagement is essentially impossible to achieve. And particularly now, after Meta announced that the priority of the Facebook Algorithm is to place the content of friends and family at the forefront, there has been an increasing number of marketers who have become more willing to buy paid ads on the platform. This is especially the case now that Meta announced that the priority of the Facebook Algorithm is to place the content of friends and family at the forefront.

• 79% of marketers report buying paid ads on Facebook in 2021.
• An average of 19.6 hours are spent a month on Facebook alone.
• Over one in three American adults admit to regularly getting their news on the platform.
• 98.5% of Facebook users access the platform through its mobile app.
• A survey by HubSpot found that marketers rank Facebook as the best social media investment as it provides the highest quality of leads and ROI when using paid advertising.
• Facebook is responsible for about a quarter (25%) of all digital ad spending in 2020, which was less than Google’s 28.9%.

Instagram

After being acquired by the Meta, Instagram has gone through a number of significant transformations, becoming yet another member of the Meta family of products. The social media statistics on Instagram are possibly among the most important to pay attention to. This is due to Instagram's history of removing the chronological feed and then more recently reintroducing it, as well as their significant shift away from being a photos-first platform and toward becoming something more akin to TikTok. Not only do these statistics inform social media marketers as to what kind of material they should prioritise on the platform, but they also inform them as to who they should develop the content for in order to be successful.

• According to Statistica, 64% of Instagram users are under the age of 34.
• Instagram is touted to be the most influential platform for influencer marketing and partnerships.
• Video content such as Reels receive 21.2% more interactions compared to static image posts.
• Carousel posts have been found to have the highest engagement rates per impression, averaging around 8.01% compared to 7.04% for video and 7.36% for images.
• By the end of 2021, the use of “#ad” among influencers had declined by 17%.
• 44% of Instagram users shop for products on the platform weekly, with only 28% of those shopping activities being pre-planned.

Twitter

The microblogging platform has been under the spotlight in recent months due to the potential purchase by Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, plus all the drama surrounding it. However, it’s still one of the strongest and most influential platforms currently available, with a steady and healthy number of global active users. That being said, there still leaves a lot to be desired for social media users in terms of management and censorship. Let’s take a look at some of the most important statistics on social media marketing that you need to know about Twitter:

• Every day, around 500 million Tweets are sent out.
• Twitter has a total of 436 million monthly active users worldwide.
• Roughly 17% of Twitter users are based in the United States
• 84% of Twitter users use the platform weekly, while only 52% are daily active users.
• In terms of demographics, 71.2% of Twitter users are male, while 28.8% are female.
• Twitter posts seem to do best at 9 AM Central Time (CST), with Tuesdays and Wednesdays seeing the best engagement on Tweets.
• According to Twitter themselves, Tweets using #hashtags get 100% more engagement.

TikTok

TikTok's meteoric rise is something that the majority of businesses can only hope to achieve in their wildest dreams, despite the fact that it has only been accessible in the Western hemisphere for slightly more than four years. After being made available all across the world for a little more than two years, the social video platform reached 2 billion mobile downloads in October of 2020. With a direct line into the younger Gen Z market, it is not surprising that firms all over the world are jumping at the opportunity to meet them at their level.

• 70% of TikTok users say that they feel a deeper connection to people they interact with on the platform
• Two out of three users are likely to make a purchase while using TikTok.
• As of January 2022, around 57% of TikTok users worldwide are women.
• TikTok is the most popular social media platform among Gen Z.
• The average engagement rate for users at all follower levels is much higher on TikTok compared to any other social media platform.
• TikTok users on Android spend 19.6 hours a month, on average, on the platform.

LinkedIn

Some of the most shocking social data that you will read today come from LinkedIn, out of all the statistics that you will read today. Not only do the demographics of the platform not correspond to what you believe they are, but the users of the platform also engage in some of the most peculiar behaviours. In spite of the fact that it is widely regarded as one of the most effective social networking platforms for users who place a premium on organic growth and engagement on social media, LinkedIn continues to fulfil its original purpose of serving as a meeting ground for individuals interested in professional endeavours.

• 59% of LinkedIn users are aged between 25 and 34 years old.
• As of the end of 2021, LinkedIn has over 850 million users across 200 countries and regions worldwide.
• 82% of B2B marketers find the best success on LinkedIn.
• 46% of all social media traffic to company websites comes from LinkedIn.
• The most popular days to post on LinkedIn are Saturdays and Sundays. Despite this, those days offer the lowest engagement levels.
• The best time to post on LinkedIn is on Tuesdays, between 10 AM and 12 PM CST, as studies have found that those timings offer the best engagement.
• LinkedIn has the most-educated active user base on social media, with 51% of highly educated U.S adults reporting to be LinkedIn users.

Conclusion

While there are tons of social stats available for everyone to see, there are only a few that truly matter. Throughout the Big Five social media platforms – Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok and LinkedIn – it’s clear to see that data is key to ensuring that social media marketers are making the right moves and posting the right content for the respective platforms. Social media is a finicky creature with many facets, and a catastrophic social media mistake would be the same strategy used across the board. Take heed of the important statistics on organic social marketing that we’ve highlighted in this article, and utilise the information to create a more successful social strategy.Getting in touch with an experienced digital marketing agency will insure that your brand's social media pages will remain on top of all the data and that you don't lose out on growth.