57.6% of the world (which translates to roughly 4.55 billion people) uses at least one social media platform. And those who do spend on average two hours and (approximately) thirty minutes per day on it.

From the moment we wake up until we go to bed, our lives revolve around Facebook, Instagram, and numerous other equally fantastic apps.  And we don’t just focus all our attention on one app: the average internet user has 8.6 social media accounts.

Let us take you on a quick trip regarding some interesting facts about our beloved (and most used) Social Media platforms.

Facebook

Let’s start with the King. A group of college students founded Facebook back in 2004, and it has since expanded to become the largest social networking platform in the world with more than 2.8 billion daily active members. Of those members, the largest demographic group of Facebook users (26.3%) is between 25 and 34, and more than half of Facebook users are female.

In addition, the business (as a whole) now controls other significant social media websites and applications, like Instagram, Facebook Messenger, and WhatsApp.

People create Facebook accounts mostly to keep in contact with friends and family, to be entertained, read news, follow brands, strengthen their professional network and many other reasons. Nowadays you have thousands of social platforms that allow you to do each of these actions individually, however Facebook packs them all in one and still has the lead.

Instagram

We are dominated by it. Since its launch in 2010, Instagram has retained its popularity and established itself as one of the most popular social media channels.

It is so popular that it even surpassed Facebook by 10 times when it comes to advertisement engagement. People and companies no longer choose the number 1 social media platform as their preferred one to advertise and sell products.

According to a post they released, Instagram has the power to help 81% of its users look for goods and services they’re interested in. In addition, 80% of users stated that their interactions and research on Instagram influence their decision to make a purchase.

Tiktok

Tiktok has experienced a growth spurt in followers and users over the last year. If brands aren’t running to TikTok yet, they will be soon. 

This may be due to the fact that the platform is mistakenly considered a place solely for younger generations, which is not entirely true anymore. Despite having the youngest user base of all social media sites with 68% of its users under the age of 30, it also introduced several helpful business tools in the last two years, including business profiles, ads, and a creator marketplace.

Over the last two years, Tiktok has been the most popular app overall for downloads. It reached over 150 countries, especially because it is an app developed in China and therefore it’s allowed in the country (unlike some others). The time spent on this app (over 850 min p/month) can be widely used by brands to promote products, if done right, and soon enough the app will reach another target demographic.

Twitter

A little bird told us that tweets travel almost as fast as the speed of light and surely faster than Larry Bird, Twitter’s very own logo mascot. In one minute, 350k people tweet on average, which means every day, around 500 million tweets are sent.

Just like Instagram, Twitter also has a positive impact on brands and products. 40% of users claim that they have made a purchase directly from an Influencers tweet. Because brands are most active on Twitter, users expect a direct reply from them (or their head of socials). This makes 77% of users feel more positive about the brand in question when they get a reply to their tweet.

Twitter’s success as a medium is based on breaking news. It stands to reason that roughly one-quarter of all verified Twitter accounts are journalists. Therefore, the people that have the highest number of followers on Twitter do so for a very different reason than other socials. Fun fact? The most followed Twitter account is of Barack Obama.

YouTube

You probably think of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and perhaps Pinterest when you consider your social media possibilities. However, have you thought of YouTube? Despite the fact that you might not consider it a social platform, it attracts more engaged users than any other social network.

Compared to referral traffic from any other social platform, YouTube visitors stay on websites longer, browse more pages, and bounce less.

YouTube is the second-most-visited website in the entire world after Google, its parent corporation. The website saw almost 20 billion views in January 2020, of which 1.947 million were unique.

LinkedIn

With 650 million members, LinkedIn is a media platform used mostly for job hunting and job offerings. Around 75% of people that have recently left their job use LinkedIn to help them find a new one. And it’s a mission many accomplish due to the number of active job postings the platform has: 10 million.

According to LinkedIn news, three to four people are hired every minute out of the 40 million users who utilize the platform on a weekly basis for job searching. Moreover, 81 job applications are submitted to the platform every second and more than 210 million are published each month.

LinkedIn thrives on making connections. Without expanding your network and aiming for the right targets your chances of finding new opportunities are lower. If someone is actively searching for a new job, LinkedIn is definitely the place to start because over 3 million companies have accounts and among these companies, the most well-represented area is Information and Technology Services.  Have you peeped at PrimeIT’s page today yet?

These facts and statistics show that social media is still a growing industry. Social networking is a critical weapon that can be the key to engaging authentically with your target audience, regardless of whether you’re a blogger, digital marketer, or small company owner.