Whether you like it or not, social media has become an integral part of how people interact and how brands communicate to their audiences. Across the board, social platforms are seeing explosive growth in their user bases, engagement, ad revenue and more. We gathered some of the most compelling statistics to show just how important social media has become in the modern media landscape, and why your brand should have a presence.

The World of Social Media

  1. The more the merrier – Hootsuite reports that an average of 11 people around the world join social media every second.
  2. Privacy worries – A 2018 survey of Atlantic readers found that 79 percent of people are concerned about their privacy on social media.
  3. Going cold turkey – A 2018 study by Pew Research Center reports that about 60% of people think it would be easy to give up social media.
  4. So many accounts, so little time – According to a 2016 report by Globalwebindex, the average consumer has about seven social media accounts, compared to an average of three in 2012. 98 percent of people have at least one account.

Facebook Statistics

  1. Facebook reigns supreme – According to a 2018 study by Pew Research Center, 68 percent of Americans use Facebook, with 51 percent of respondents logging on several times a day.
  2. It’s all those recipe videos – More than 100 million hours of video is viewed on Facebook every day, according to Facebook.
  3. The name to know – “Facebook” is the most popular search query in the world, according to Hootsuite’s 2018 report on the global state of digital media. That should be no surprise, considering the platform has more than two billion users.

Instagram Statistics

  1. Filters matter – According to Webdam, 60 percent of the most popular brands use the same filters on all of their Instagram photos. This creates a “vibe” that’s consistent throughout all your content.
  2. First place in engagement – A 2016 Forrester report noted that Instagram has a 2.2 percent engagement rate, which is much higher than other networks (Facebook’s was .22 percent at the time the study was published).
  3. Skyrocketing revenue – Instagram advertising revenue is projected to double to more than $10.8 billion by 2019, compared to just $4.1 billion in 2017. The platform’s recent updates and new features have helped it succeed, according to eMarketer.

YouTube Statistics

  1. Watch and learn – 70 percent of YouTube users use the platform to help solve problems, and 86 percent use it to learn new things, according to Hootsuite.
  2. From large to small screen – Google reported that in 2016, YouTube reaches more 18 to 49-year-olds on mobile alone than any cable or broadcast TV network.
  3. Ads increase views – Brands that use YouTube’s TrueView advertising have seen up to 500 percent increase in view of previously existing content when they upload a new video.

Twitter Statistics

  1. Taking action – A Twitter report found that 54 percent of Twitter users reported taking some sort of action after seeing a brand mentioned on Twitter, including visiting the brand’s website, searching for the brand name or retweeting their content.
  2. News in 280 characters or less – Pew Research Center reported that in 2017, 74 percent of Twitter users looked to Twitter for news.
  3. Popular promoted tweets – Kinetic Social’s 2015 Social Trends Report found that 88 percent of all Twitter advertising belongs to promoted tweets.

LinkedIn Statistics

  1. International audience – Microsoft reported that 70 percent of LinkedIn users live outside the United States. However, LinkedIn still has more than 145 million users in the U.S.
  2. Get social, get new customers – 80 percent of B2B marketing leads sourced through social media come from LinkedIn, according to LinkedIn’s 2017 B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks.
  3. More effective than Facebook – Sumo reports that LinkedIn is responsible for more than 50 percent of social traffic to B2B websites, proving that it’s a necessity for B2B companies.