STATS INTERESTING: Social Media By the Numbers

Social media is NOT about stats. Too often, companies put too much emphasis on the numbers (how many followers; how many “likes”, etc.) at the expense of ignoring the true value that social media provides.

And even though I believe in the old adage, “There are lies; there are damnable lies; and there are statistics”, I recognize that having a few quick stats on hand can help you gain support for social media — so here are a few:

• 5 percent of online shoppers note that social media influenced them to visit a retailer’s website (Foresee)
• 82 percent of 18-29 year olds utilize a form of social networking (Pew)
• 40% of corporate Twitter accounts engage in some kind of customer service (Burson-Marsteller)
• In 2011 marketers will increase their social media usage by 75 percent (Brian Solis)
• 48 percent of consumers combine social media and search engines in their buying process (GroupM)
• Of all social networks, YouTube has the highest Net Promoter Score with 50 percent of users saying they would recommend it to a friend (MarketingProfs)
• ~140 Million Tweets are sent each day (Twitter) (update: July 2011 ~200 million/day)
• 24 percent of adults have posted a review of a product they have purchased (HubSpot)
• 41 percent of the companies report that there is no staff dedicated to social media (Useful Social Media) (see graphic)
• 35 percent of small businesses utilize social media in their marketing mix (eMarketer)
• Facebook expects to bring n $4.05 billion in ad revenues this year (eMarketer)
• One out of every six minutes spent online is on a social network (comScore)
• 73 percent of the US internet population visits Facebook each month (comScore)
• 62 percent of Facebook users between 35-54 years of age have liked a brand (eMarketer)
• 47 percent of journalists will use Twitter as a source for a story (Digital Journalism Study)
• The average media site integrated with Facebook has seen a 300 percent increase in referral traffic (Search Engine Land)
• 61 percent of Facebook users who have liked a brand note that they are more likely to purchase from that brand (AllFacebook)
• 96 percent of Americans use Facebook (Business Insider)
• 46 million Americans check their social media profiles daily (Edison Research)

For more interesting social media stats, see the source article for this entry: Social Media Stats for the C-Suite by  Jeff Esposito