Social media statistics carry vast amounts of valuable data that can be used to benefit your business. Since becoming a global powerhouse in the world of digital marketing, social media has had a significant impact on sales and driving revenue. Aside from email, social media is the most effective digital marketing tactic a business can employ.

Take some time to review important social media statistics you can use to optimize your marketing campaigns, influence messaging, and inspire strategies.

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Social Media Marketing Statistics

The landscape of digital marketing is constantly evolving, thanks in large part to social media. Shifting demographics, social media marketing budget increases, and new technology updates all play a major role in shaping the future of marketing. Reviewing social media statistics provides an opportunity to spot emerging trends you can capitalize on.

Social media ad budgets reached approximately $31 billion in 2016.
Spending on social media ads is estimated to reach $35 billion in 2017.
Experts predict that global social media ad spending will increase by 26.3% in 2017.
Social media spending in the U.S. will increase to more than $17 billion in 2019.
More than 70% of marketers plan to increase their use of video ads next year. Via Hootsuite.
57% of social media users ages 16-24 are most active on Snapchat, 37% on Instagram, 33% on Facebook Messenger, 31% on YouTube, 31% on Whatsapp, and 29% on Pinterest and Google+. Via Smart Insights.
Approximately 89.4% of companies in the U.S. will use social media in 2017.
Engagement rates are 18% higher on Thursdays and Fridays than other days.
American’s who follow brands on social media are 53% more loyal to those brands. Via Invesp.
Almost 20% of the total time spent on the internet in the U.S. is devoted to social media. Via Business Insider.
71% of consumers who have a good customer service experience on social media are likely to recommend that brand to others.
Visual content is 40% more likely to get shared on social media than other types of content.
78% of people who complain about brands on Twitter expect a response within an hour. Via DreamGrow.
80% of marketers say social media has helped increased traffic. Via Business 2 Community.
70% of the U.S. population has at least one social media network profile and more than 50% have two or more accounts.
90% of people aged 18-29 use social media.
1/3 of millennials say social media is one of their preferred business communication channels.
84% of CEOs and VPs use social media to make purchasing decisions.
92% of small business owners think that social media marketing is important for their business.
The average social media user maintains 5 accounts.
Mothers with children under the age of 5 are the most active social media users.
The most important social media channels for teens and young adults aged 12-24 are Instagram (32%), Twitter (24%), Facebook (14%), Snapchat (13%), and Tumblr (4%).
80% of marketers believe that engagement, audience size, and website traffic are the most important social media metrics.
The share of marketing budgets allocated to social media is projected to more than double over the next five years to 24% in 2020.
64% of sales professionals say they closed at least one deal as a direct result of using social media.
74% of small and medium sized businesses say their top goal on social media is brand awareness.
57% of consumers say they’d be influenced to think more positively of a business after seeing good reviews online. Via Business Insider.

Facebook

If ever a social media platform deserved the term juggernaut, it’s Facebook. Without a doubt the largest global social platform, Facebook also has one of the most sophisticated and successful native advertising platforms. It’s also one of the most well-documented, so an understanding of statistics is essential to being successful on Facebook.

Facebook has 1.6 billion daily active users. Via Small Business Trends.
Facebook holds 18% market share, 7% more than its closest competitor, WhatsApp.
Facebook has 98% penetration of US internet users. Instagram is second with 32%.
People access Facebook 8 days out of the month on average, compared to 6 days for Instagram, 5 days for Twitter, and 2 days for Google+.
76% of Facebook users log on daily, compared to 51% with Instagram, 42% with twitter, 25% with Pinterest, and 18% with LinkedIn.
Facebook has 1.96 billion active mobile social media users. Via Smart Insights.
Facebook’s advertising revenue increased from $4.3 billion in 2015 to $6.8 billion in 2016.
Facebook mobile ads produce click-through rates 9.1x higher than normal web ads. Via Hootsuite.
Engagement rates on Facebook posts in the first 5 hours are 75%.
Facebook posts with less than 250 characters receive 60% higher engagement.
Images posted as photo albums rather than single images receive 12.9x more clicks on Facebook.
Photo posts account for 87% of all engagement on Facebook pages. Via Invesp.
Facebook influenced 52% of online and offline purchases by consumers in 2015. Via DreamGrow.

Instagram

It’s all about visual content on Instagram. The Facebook-owned social media platform is very popular among younger demographics and is surprisingly brand-friendly, as these social media statistics prove.

Instagram has 500 million active monthly users. Via Small Business Trends.
Instagram’s mobile ad revenue will bring in more than $1.5 billion this year. Via Hootsuite.
Brand engagement on Instagram is 4.21%, compared to 0.07% on Facebook and 0.03% on Twitter. Via Invesp.
90% of Instagram users are under the age of 35. Via DreamGrow.
Global ad revenues are estimated to reach $2.81 billion in 2017.
75% of Instagram users live outside the U.S.
Instagram usage doubled over the last two years.
70% of brands are projected to have an Instagram profile in 2017.
Photos receive higher engagement than videos on Instagram. Via brandwatch.

Twitter

Despite the fact Twitter has experienced a decrease in active user growth recently, it’s still a formidable social platform that offers excellent marketing opportunities. A quick look at these statistics reveals that Twitter is thriving internally.

Twitter has 317 million active monthly users. Via Small Business Trends.
Twitter’s revenue from advertising was $545 million in Q3 of 2016, an increase of 60%.
86% of Twitter’s advertising revenue came from mobile advertising.
Promoted Tweets increased by 91% in 2016 from 2015. Via Hootsuite.
Tweets with 1-2 hashtags receive 21% higher engagement than those without hashtags.
Tweets with images receive 150% more re-tweets. Via Invesp.
Link clicks make up 92% of all engagement with tweets.
Of people who complain about brands on Twitter, 78% expect a response within one hour. Via DreamGrow.
37% of Twitter users are under the age of 30. Via Business 2 Community.

YouTube

Millions of users watch hundreds of millions of hours’ worth of videos on YouTube every day. As video becomes more and more relevant in social media and digital marketing, YouTube continues to grow and produce dizzying usage numbers.

YouTube has more than 1 billion active monthly users. That’s almost 1/3 of all internet users.
More 18–34 and 18–49 year-olds are reached by YouTube than any U.S. cable network.
Over 50% of YouTube views come from mobile devices. Via YouTube.
300 hours of video are uploaded every minute.
The average viewing session on mobile lasts more than 40 minutes.
An average 1,000,000,000 mobile video views occur every day. Via brandwatch.
All the top 100 global brands have run ads on YouTube in the last year. Via Hootsuite.

Well known for having a female-skewing audience, Pinterest is seeing a slight but obvious shift in gender demographics.

Pinterest has 100 million active monthly users. Via Small Business Trends.
71% of Pinterest users are women.
The number of men using Pinterest doubled in 2014 and continues to grow.
75% of all Pinterest traffic comes from mobile devices.
93% of all users shopped online in the past six months.
Pins that include prices receive more likes than pins without prices. Via Sprout Social.

It’s the go-to social networking platform for professionals. While it does have many users, LinkedIn fails to produce engagement numbers that match those posted by its more popular social media peers.

LinkedIn has 106 million active monthly users. Via Small Business Trends.
LinkedIn in the least effective platform at generating user engagement among the top social media platforms. Via Business Insider.
70% of LinkedIn users are outside of the U.S. Via DMR.
40% of active users check LinkedIn every day.
56% of users are male.
The average user spends 17 minutes on LinkedIn.
Only 13% of 15–34 year-olds use LinkedIn.
83% of LinkedIn users don’t use Pinterest, and 59% don’t use Twitter. Via Katy Elle Blake.

Snapchat

Snapchat is the relatively new kid on the social media block. Started in September of 2011, it’s just over five years old and has already captured a sizeable chunk of the market, especially with younger demographics.

Snapchat has more than 100 million active daily users.
54% of users log on daily.
The number of videos users watch each day increased 350% from 2015 to 10 billion in 2016.
Snapchat is the most used platform among 12–24 year-olds.
Geofilters delivered to a national audience are seen by 40–60% of all daily users.
Vertical videos are watched 9x more than horizontal videos.
It costs approximately $750,000 a day to advertise on Snapchat. Via Hootsuite.
Snapchat engages users 5x better than Twitter users. Via Business Insider.
Snapchat’s videos views increased by 400% from 2015 to 2016. Via Business 2 Community.
60% of all smartphone owners use snapchat.
7 out of 10 Snapchat users are millennials.
60% of all users are between ages 18–34. Via Mediakix.

Wrapping Things Up

A few things should standout after reading this extensive social media statistics roundup.

Facebook is enormous and can be used to influence consumers both online and offline.
Instagram rules when it comes to users interacting with brand profiles.
Snapchat users watch more videos everyday than Facebook users.
Pinterest is very product-friendly.
Twitter has some issues, but advertising revenue isn’t one of them.
LinkedIn users are far less engaged than other major social platforms.

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