Social Media in 2014

Social networking is one of the most common internet activities today. So if you haven’t created a social media strategy already, now might be the time to start thinking about it.

Think of your social media strategy as a post-winter garden; everything is there, but it needs reviving in order to grow and flourish. Now, I’m no Alan Titchmarsh, in more ways than one, but I would think it fair to say that a fruitful garden will involve some digging, some investigation into soil type, planting, feed, water and sunshine.

Your social media strategy will follow a similar path. It will rely on research into the current social media climate (digging), identification of current social media trends (investigation), implementation of action following key findings (planting the seed), and regular attention (food, water and sunshine).

To help you get started, we have done some digging of our own and grouped together some key social networking statistics below.

Facebook:

  • Facebook has 1.15 billion+ total users.
  • 751 million users access Facebook from mobile devices.
  • 189 million users access Facebook via mobile devices only.
  • 23% of Facebook users check their account more than 5 times per day.
  • The 45-54 year old age bracket is the fastest growing demographic on both Facebook and Google+.
  • There are more than 10 million Facebook apps available.

Twitter

  • Twitter has 500 million+ total users.
  • 288 million users are active on Twitter each month.
  • Twitter’s fastest growing age demographic is 55-64 year olds.
  • 60% of users access Twitter from mobile devices.
  • An average of 400 million+ tweets are sent per day.

Google+

  • Google+ has 500 million+ total users.
  • More than 343 million users are active.
  • 67% of Google+ users are male.
  • 80% of Google+ users login at least once a week.
  • 60% users login every day.
  • The +1 button is served more than 5 million times a day.
  • Animated GIF’s are the most engaging type of post on Google+.

LinkedIn

  • LinkedIn has 238 million+ total users.
  • There are 1.5 million LinkedIn groups.
  • 27% of users access LinkedIn via mobile.
  • 50% of LinkedIn users have a Bachelor’s or Graduate degree.
  • 2 new users join LinkedIn each second.
  • LinkedIn has a lower percentage of active users compared to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter and Facebook.

Instagram

  • Instagram has 130 million+ total users.
  • More than 16 billion photos have already been uploaded on Instagram.
  • 8,000 users like a photo every second.
  • More than 5 million photos are uploaded every day.
  • 1,000 comments are posted on Instagram per second.

Pinterest

  • Pinterest has 70 million+ total users.
  • More than 69% of users on Pinterest are female.
  • The top category on Pinterest is food, with 57% discussing food-related content.
  • Pinterest is one of the fastest growing social networks.

The key with social media marketing, like gardening, is not to be too eager. It’s important to research the current social media climate during the early stages in order to identify trends that will help you create or adapt your strategy.

The statistics above present some interesting facts. If we look at size (audience reach), for example, Facebook is clearly the front runner with its staggering lead in engagement, but other measures such as time and engagement are equally as important when it comes to your strategy.

Using the LinkedIn stats to illustrate this, we can see that LinkedIn is an extremely popular platform, with two new members joining every second. Its number of active users, however, is lower than most of the other big social networks, so if engaging people with your business is a priority, then other platforms such as Facebook or Twitter may be more effective.

Social media statistics also bring to light certain trends. The statistics above reveal that the fastest growing demographic on Twitter is currently the 55-64 year age group. This age bracket has also seen a 46% rise on Facebook and a 56% rise on Google+, so if this age group fits into your target demographic it’s worth focussing your attention on these platforms.

The rise of mobile users is also impossible to ignore. A whopping 189 million users access Facebook via mobile devices only, 60% of users access Twitter via mobile devices only, and 4.2 billion people use mobile devices only to access a range of social media sites. It’s therefore important to ensure content is rendered suitable for mobile devices in order to reach out to this audience successfully.

There are a wealth of social media facts, figures and statistics available out there, but try to find information that is current and pick out key facts that are relevant to your business and your goals. We hope our collection of statistics has already given you some ideas and inspiration to get your social media strategy started, but keep digging, and feel free to share your findings with us below.

*Sources: The statistics above have been compiled from sources which we believe to be current, reliable and up to date. Sources include: Digital Insights, Fast Company and Business Insider.

One thought on “Social Media in 2014

  1. Pingback: Digital Trends for Marketers in 2014/15 | First Directory Ltd | Blog

Comments are closed.