People spend so much time on social media. Can you name the first three social media platforms that you can think of?
According to the social media app statistics, the most popular platforms include Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Linkedin, and many more.
Even if you’re not an active social media user, you’ve probably heard of all those mentioned applications or know a thing or two about them.
These platforms help you to connect with other people around the world. Social media accounts are essential for any business since they can help promote your products and services.
Editor’s Choice
- 75% of social media consumers use the platform to search for new products and services.
- After a positive social media experience, 71% of users recommend a brand.
- Social media is used by 77.6% of small businesses to promote their products and services.
- An average user spends 2 hours and 31 minutes on social networking.
- Almost 90% of Instagram users follow at least one brand.
- Visual content has 40 times more than any other type of content.
- As of 2023, there are already 4.9 billion social media users globally.
- 59.4% of the world’s population is active on social media as of 2023.
- Humans can process visual content 60,000 times faster than text.
Statistical Overview on Social Media Marketing
If you want to sell something, you need people to recognize your products. Social media is giving you exactly that exposure you need.
It promotes awareness of your brand and engages with your customers—a typical person sees up to 10,000 social media ads daily.
It’s the best way to bring any B2C strategy to life.
| ✅ Pro Tip Social media marketing involves using different platforms to sell or promote a brand, product, or service. If you’re a beginner and want to learn the basics, check out this guide: |
Below are social media stats to illustrate that clearly.
1. Users spend around 2 hours and 31 minutes daily on social media.
(Smart Insights)
Social media marketing stats show people spend over 2 hours on social networks daily. This is such a perfect opportunity for brands.
Social media apps are very addictive as you might intend to log in and check 1 or 2 notifications. According to experts, 7 out of 10 young people in the US already depend on social media.
You can be hooked for over 30 minutes reading, commenting, and liking posts without noticing the time.
2. Over 75% of potential buyers do their research about products and services on social networks.
(Oberlo)
Social media plays a vital role in buying, with over 75% of potential buyers researching products and services on social networks. Statistics show that over half of the prospects will check out your business pages and groups to see what people say about you and what you sell.
Deleting negative comments on your pages doesn’t help, as they could still crop up in other groups you have no control over.
The good news is a review from happy and loyal clients will always redeem your reputation against haters.
Always be polite when responding to negative comments. In addition, invest in high-quality photos, videos, and top-notch written content.
Positive reviews from satisfied customers can boost your reputation, while deleting negative comments may only sometimes solve the issue. Be polite when responding to criticism and invest in high-quality content to positively impact potential customers.
3. 71% of users would recommend your brand if they’d had a positive social media experience.
(LYFE & Reputation X)
You all know how vital customer service is. Social media allows you to appeal to future clients and show off your fantastic customer service.
In social media marketing, one important truth about human beings stands out— they hate being ignored. You should respond to all comments, questions, and mentions you receive, like as many of them as possible.
People like feeling validated, and showing that your brand cares about them will positively impact how they perceive you.
They also like to share their happiness. If you leave a good impression, users will talk about you. As Cam Newton said, word of mouth travels faster than anything else.
Recommendations from friends and family usually carry more value than any other online review. Having a positive relationship with your customers on social media is vital.
4. As of Q1 2022, over 200 million businesses use Facebook.
(Hubspot & Social Pilot)
As of 2022, over 200 million businesses are on Facebook, taking advantage of its extensive reach. With 71% of Americans using Facebook, it offers a vast pool of potential customers.
The platform hosts around 60 million Facebook business pages, where businesses can showcase their offerings, add customer reviews, product descriptions, and run effective online ads.
Facebook provides abundant marketing opportunities with its intuitive tools, enabling brands to share location and contact details, making it easy for potential buyers to reach them.
In addition, Facebook Marketplace’s large user base (561 million) makes it an excellent avenue for organizations to expand their visibility and gain more customers.
| 💡 Did You Know? The Facebook marketplace has revolutionized selling, buying, and renting, making the process fast and convenient. This is evident in Messenger statistics, where businesses and customers exchange a staggering 20 billion messages monthly. To find out more, visit |
5. Over 90% of Insta subscribers follow at least one business as of 2023.
(Instagram)
With over 200 million business profiles on Instagram, the platform offers an excellent opportunity to enhance a brand’s presence. Social media marketing stats reveal that as of Q1 2023, nearly every Instagram user follows at least one brand.
Moreover, each business profile on IG receives daily visits from 200 million users, showcasing the platform’s significant engagement potential.
Instagram’s user-friendly interface and robust business management tools make it effortless for brands to:
- Interact with customers
- Run ads
- Achieve brand awareness.
With its constant growth and wide-reaching audience, Instagram has become a powerful platform for businesses to connect with their target market and elevate their online visibility.
6. Over 70% of people visit Pinterest for inspiration before buying.
(Pinterest)
According to social media stats, nearly ¾ of users go to Pinterest for purchase inspiration, and 59% use it to find more information about their purchases. Most people are naturally drawn to visually attractive content, making Pinterest a valuable business platform.
If you’ve considered signing up for Pinterest, now is the time. By showcasing visually appealing content, you can inspire many visitors to buy your products or services, tapping into the platform’s potential to drive sales and attract potential customers.
7. Visual content has 40 times more than any other type of content.
(HubSpot)
Users must be more active and refrain from reading long texts or listening to long lectures. They prefer short-summarized information, which includes pictures or a video.
Irony aside, humans process visual information faster than anything else. So to grab someone’s attention, you must present the information engagingly (read infographics, videos, data visualization, and images).
Also, if you pair information with images, people remember 65% of the data served for 3 days. This is a considerable percentage, and when you think about all the people using social media, you can realize how you can make it work in your favor.
Video SEO statistics show it surpassed blogging in content and social media strategies. 63% of marketers rely on it rather than long texts—according to 87% of marketers, video has a solid return on investment (ROI).
Good marketers know it, too, and implement visuals in their marketing strategies. Articles and posts with visual content are more likely to get shared and go viral.
8. 50% of B2B buyers use LinkedIn for research and purchasing decisions.
(LinkedIn)
LinkedIn is all about making professional connections. Showcasing your skills and professional milestones can do wonders for you and your business.
It’s a beautiful way to build work connections and get recommendations since it has 660 million users, with 310 million people actively using it monthly.
It’s not only research that people prioritize; educational content gets attention as well.
Also, as mentioned several times, people like researching and checking future colleagues’ and employees’ resumes and recommendations on LinkedIn. Business pages are also regularly visited, so updating yours is paramount.
9. About 5% of the world’s population does not use social media.
(Smart Insights)
As of January 2023, there were 5.16 billion internet users worldwide, which implies 64.4 of the global population, but about 5% of the world population is not active on social media.
This can be due to little or no network coverage in these geographical areas or their decision not to be on social media.
10. 69% of users would rather watch than read about a product or service.
(Neal Schaffer)
People rely heavily on videos as our attention spans are getting shorter. That’s why there’s such a massive variety of video types you can use on social media.
- Collaborate with influencers for vlogs
- Create behind-the-scenes content through Instagram’s or Facebook’s live-stream option
- Create explainer videos, as already mentioned
| 🎉 Fun Fact In 2018, Fidji Simo reported that hundreds of millions of Facebook users went live, with nearly 2 billion people watching Facebook Live broadcasts. The total live broadcast posts reached 3.5 billion within two years of launching. For more information, check Facebook Live Video Statistics |
As a bonus tip—reviews and testimonials from other clients can also be used for video content.
This is advantageous for businesses that offer goods or services because 80% of customers would rather watch a live stream than read a blog article.
11. Only 15% of users play Facebook videos with the sound on.
(LYFE)
Although some users enjoy watching videos without sound, subtitles are your friend. Using it can also make your videos accessible to more people—you guarantee that everyone will get the message, with or without sound.
Another approach is to make your videos easy to comprehend without sound. Most videos on Facebook manage to get their point across without the help of sound.
Using written captions can also help, as the audience reads what the video is all bout from the write-up.
12. Emojis raise engagement by 33%.
( LYFE)
Emojis seem to be everyone’s favorite. More and more brands are using emojis in their posts or photo captions.
Just don’t go overboard—the line between adorable and annoying is thin.
Using emojis in your posts helps make the write-ups friendlier and more engaging to the audience, putting them at ease and in a more relaxed mood to read through your posts.
| 💡 Did You Know? The human skull emoji has historically been linked to death and scary themes. However, nowadays, 💀 is increasingly replacing laughing emoticons, used mainly when people find something funny. To learn more, explore this topic The Meaning and Usage of the Skull Emoji |
13. Questions lead to 50% more engagement.
(Small Business Trends)
Questions are engaging and invite users to share their opinions. Remember that people do like having their voices heard.
Questions also improve your fans’ social media experience with your brand. You generate loyalty by making your audience feel like their contribution is essential and your brand cares about them.
With more and more types of social media platforms trending up and an ever-wider user base signing up, the benefits of standing out are well worth the effort.
Still, the importance of social media is undeniable, and the benefits those platforms hold for businesses are staggering.
The world population is 7 billion, most of whom are on or will be on social media soon enough. It’s a massive pool of potential buyers and clients; you must make the most of it.
14. US online buyers will grow to 218.8 million by 2023.
(Oberlo)
Due to the pandemic, users’ time on social networks increased from 56.23 minutes in 2019 to about 65 minutes in 2020 and 2 hours and 31 minutes in 2023.
Industry players predict buyers in this sector will be over 218.8 million by 2023.
The more people spend time on social networks, the more they come across excellent products and services and share the information with their friends, acquaintances, and family.
15. Facebook has added new tools that help Group admins manage their communities better.
(Hootsuite)
In March 2022, Facebook introduced QR codes that community users could scan and be directed to a brand’s About section. Other novelties include the Suspend feature and email group invites.
This helps increase brand awareness and manage misinformation.
16. Instagram has 1.44 billion monthly active users, and over 500 million use the platform daily as of 2023.
(Instagram)
As of June 2023, Instagram reached over 1 billion users, and 63% of them use the app at least once per day. With over 500 million users engaging with Instagram posts daily, it’s evident that the platform is a favorite among social media users.
Instagram’s addictive nature stems from its quality user interfaces and seamless navigation, making it a popular choice for individuals and brands. Businesses can leverage these features to advertise their products and services and build their brand presence on the platform.
Conclusion
Hopefully, these social media marketing stats show you how important social media is for businesses in the 21st century.
Social media is more than just apps and platforms: It’s a digital environment reshaping the marketing world, as apps like TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube are the arenas where your brand can connect, engage and grow with your audience.
A solid online presence, engaging in conversation, and responding to questions and issues that impact society while advertising your products or services will increase your ROI and help you attain your social media marketing goals.
FAQs
How many people use social media daily?
80% of every generation uses social media at least once a day.
What percentage of the world will use social media in 2023?
Over 59.4% of the current population will use social media in 2023.
What was the first social media?
The first social media site was Sex Degrees, created in 1997.
Which gender uses social media more?
Many studies have found that women are more likely to be social media users.
Sources
Timeline Of The Article
Muninder Adavelli is a core team member and Digital Growth Strategist at Techjury. With a strong background in marketing and a deep understanding of technology's role in digital marketing, he brings immense value to the TechJury team.