In 2018 social media has become the crucial part of digital communications strategies. Here are social media trends that will influence marketing in 2018. Social media delivers measurable results in sales, leads, and branding. It also enables to reach a large number of people at a low cost. The world of social media networks is dynamic and in constant change. So check out the important numbers behind it.
3.196 billion global social media users in 2018, equaling 42% penetration.
Source: We Are Social
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Social Media Marketing Statistics in General
Social media just keeps growing and growing. Facebook is reaching 2.2 billion monthly active users. And most other social networking sites and apps are at the top of their all-time high user numbers.
1. Online adults aged 18-34 are most likely follow a brand via social networking (95%). (Source: MarketingSherpa) Think about your audience and see where they are most likely to follow your brand.
2. 71% of consumers who have had a good social media service experience with a brand are likely to recommend it to others. (Source: Ambassador) Use social media as an effective customer service tool to increase brand engagement and win new customers.
3. 2.56 billion global mobile social media users, equaling 34% penetration; globally with 1 million new active mobile social users added every day (Source: We Are Social). Make sure to optimize your mobile social media campaigns and since mobile ads are relatively cheap and easy to produce, test multiple versions to see what works the best. Users spend on average 69% of their media time on smartphones (comScore).
4. 96% of the people that discuss brands online do not follow those brands’ owned profiles. (Source: Brandwatch) Companies need to go beyond their own channels and monitor those unbranded conversations to gain valuable insights and manage brand health.
5. Visual content is more than 40 times more likely to get shared on social media than other types of content. (Source: HubSpot) Flying Point Digital has a great post on how to create an innovative content strategy on social media.
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Facebook statistics
6. In 2015 Facebook influenced 52 per cent of consumers’ online and offline purchases, up from 36 per cent in 2014. (Source: The Drum) This shows the importance for retailers to manage their social media channels which will have a direct impact on purchase behaviour.
7. There are now more than 50 million small businesses using Facebook Pages to connect with their customers (Source: Facebook). 4 million of those businesses pay for social media advertising on Facebook. (Source: Forbes) The social media advertising statistics show that small-sized companies should consider paying for Facebook ads in order to gain visibility and surpass competitors relatively easily.
8. There were over 4.4 million videos uploaded directly to Facebook in February 2016, generating over 199 billion views. (Source: ReelSEO) Video marketing is a powerful tool that personalizes your brand and increases conversions. 68% of marketers have published video content on Facebook, and 70% of marketers plan to use Facebook Video this year (wyzowl.com). 34% of marketers have used Facebook Live and 37% plan to use Facebook Live.
9. Only 20% of Facebook posts generate an emotional response while no ads did. (Source: AdEspresso) Instead of using Facebook as an emotional medium, delivering dynamic and tailored messaging to people in specific stages of at key times can yield much better results.
10. The best time to post on Facebook is 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday. Other optimal times include 12:00–1:00 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays and 1:00–4:00 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays. (Source: HubSpot) Try using tools like Buffer or Timely to auto schedule your posts.
Twitter statistics
11. Link clicks account for 92% of all user interaction with tweets. (Source: HubSpot) Link clicks are the your easiest and strongest chance of gaining views and shares for your content.
12. 78% of people who complain to a brand via Twitter expect a response within an hour. (Source: Lithium) Customers are turning to social media outlets to unleash their frustration or questions. Make sure you are actively engaged on your social networks.
13. There is a total of 1.3 billion accounts, but 336 million are active. (Source: Business Insider) According to Content Marketing Institute, as Twitter’s sign-up growth has slowed down, it will boost its stock price by making ads more prominent, so be ready to start paying for visibility.
Twitter has a serious competitor now. Reddit is fighting to become the same number 3 number 3 social networking site in the Top 10 Social Networking Sites by Market Share of Visits. But for now, Twitter has found new growth and reached all-time highs. The growth also shows on Twitter’s stock price that’s moving steadily up during the last year or so.
14. Latest study by Locowise found that adding hashtags had no effect on engagement rates. In fact, tweets without hashtags outperformed tweets with hashtags. (Source: Adweek) Therefore, it is better to focus on the quality of your original content instead of overly relying on hashtags for increasing engagement.
Instagram statistics
15. Top brands on Instagram are seeing a per-follower engagement rate of 4.21% which is 58 times higher than on Facebook and 120 times higher than on Twitter (Source: Hootsuite) Instagram has become a powerful platform for marketers and its potential cannot be overlooked any longer.
16. Media brands are the most active whereas business services, financial services, and fast moving consumer goods have the lowest percentage of brands represented on Instagram. (Source: Simply Measured) Also, the increase in business activity on Instagram the brand posting frequency is becoming more normalized and standardized to highlight the increase in a more measurable approach. 41% of marketers have used Instagram video and 44% plan to use Instagram video (wyzowl.com).
17. 90% of Instagram users are younger than 35 (Source: ScienceDaily) Instagram has become the social media network for targeting millennials. 32% of teenagers consider Instagram to be the most important social network. Female internet users are more likely to use Instagram than men, at 38% vs. 26%.
18. Products were the top content types for the top 200 global brands in terms of engagement, at 60% in 2015 beating lifestyle category by over 20%. (Source: Hootsuite) This is great news for marketers since people who follow brands on Instagram are aware and accept the fact that they’re going to see offers of products, services, and general marketing messages.
19. Posts tagged with another user (56%) or location (79%) have significantly higher engagement rates (Source: Simply Measured) So don’t forget to add ‘with whom’ and ‘where’ to your Instagram posts.
Youtube statistics
YouTube is the main channel for moving pictures. Even YouTube on mobile alone, reaches more 18-34 and 18-49 year-olds than any cable network in the U.S.
20. There are 1.8 billion logged-in Youtube monthly active users visiting the website at least once a month. “Logged-in” part is important as there may be a lot of people coming to YouTube who aren’t using Google Accounts to do so. (Source: Youtube official blog)
21. In 2015 YouTube posted the figure of 40 billion all-time views for branded content. (Source: ReelSEO) That means video marketing has gone from nice-to-have to must-have, one that will set the pace for the foreseeable future. 87% of marketers say they plan to use Youtube this year (wyzowl.com).
Bonus 22. More than half of YouTube views come from mobile devices, and the average mobile viewing session lasts more than 40 minutes. (Source: YouTube) As mobile captures consumers’ full attention, at home or on the go, brands now have the opportunity to reach people anywhere. Combined people spend over an hour on Youtube every day.
Bonus 23: 2018 looks set to be a breakout year for LinkedIn video. The number of marketers sharing video content on LinkedIn is around 38% right now – this is set to rise to 55% in 2018