Social Media Statistics

Whether you’re creating a social media marketing strategy, designing a campaign, or making a business case for using a particular platform, you need to start in the same place: research.

The basis of any successful social activity is understanding the platforms, who uses them, and how.

That’s why we’ve compiled this list of social media statistics to show what sets each platform—and its users—apart. Whatever idea you’re cooking up, we’ve got the stats to help you plan.

The statistics in this post are organized by network and sorted into two categories: users and usage; and businesses, brands, and marketing.

Facebook statistics

Facebook is still No. 1. Despite what you may have heard, everyone uses Facebook. Everyone. And they use it a lot. And because everyone uses Facebook, it’s a big deal for brands.

Users and usage

• Facebook has 1.65 billion monthly active users and 1.09 billion daily active users, on average.
• The platform boasts 1.51 billion mobile monthly active users and 989 million mobile daily active users, on average.
• It remains the most-used social media site among all ages, used by 64 percent of Americans 12 and up.
• It spans generations—83 percent of parents with a teen between the ages of 13 and 17 are friends with their child on Facebook.
• It isn’t just North America either. Nearly 85 percent of Facebook’s daily active users are outside of the U.S. and Canada.
• Facebook accounts for one in every six minutes spent online and one in every five minutes spent on mobile.
• Facebook is the most-used app.
• The average Facebook user has 155 friends. Women have more Facebook friends on average than men: 166 compared to 145.
• The site tallies 8 billion average daily video views.
• Facebook users rack up 100 million hours of daily video watch time.

Businesses, brands, and marketing

• A colossal 50 million businesses use Facebook Pages.
• Every month, 2.5 billion comments are made on Facebook Pages.
• Nearly one-third of Facebook users (32 percent) engage with brands regularly.
• More than 2 million advertisers regularly use Facebook to market their business.
• In September 2015, 1.5 million small and medium businesses shared videos.

Twitter statistics

The majority of Twitter users are news junkies who use the network to seek out information about what’s happening in the world. The micro-blogging platform is also a place for people to connect with brands.

Users and usage

• Twitter has 310 million monthly active users.
• Of those, 83 percent are active users on mobile.
• Every second, 6,000 Tweets are sent.
• Over 100 million GIFs were shared on Twitter in 2015.
• Of Twitter’s users, 79 percent of accounts are outside the U.S.
• A whopping 86 percent of Twitter users say they use the site for news, 81 percent of users say they keep up with the news daily, and 40 percent of Twitter users use the site to be alerted to breaking news.
• Of those who say they use Twitter for news, 70 percent say that they do so because it’s a great way to get news in real time.
• Another 36 percent of users use Twitter to pass the time and 28 percent use it to second-screen with live events.
• A surprising 53 percent of Twitter users never post any updates.

Businesses, brands, and marketing

• More than 130,000 active advertisers market on Twitter
• Twitter users are three times as likely as Facebook users to follow a brand, with 49 percent of monthly Twitter users following brands or companies.
• Twitter is a place to interact with brands: 42 percent of users learn about products and services via Twitter, 41 percent of users provide opinions about products or services on Twitter, and 19 percent of users seek customer support on Twitter.

Instagram statistics

Five years in, Instagram’s still a hot network. It’s one of the five most-used apps and it continues to grow in popularity. And it’s an up-and-coming destination for advertisers.

Users and usage

• It has more than 400 million active monthly users.
• Of its user base, 75 percent are outside the U.S.
• Users have shared more than 40 billion photos.
• Users Like 3.5 billion photos every day.
• On average, users share 80 million photos per day.
• In Piper Jaffray’s spring 2016 Taking Stock with Teens survey, 27 percent of teens ranked Instagram as the second most important social network.

Businesses, brands, and marketing

• Instagram has the highest per follower engagement rate of any of the major social networks at 2.3 percent.
• A whopping 68 percent of Instagram users engage with brands regularly.
• Instagram has 58 times more engagement per follower than Facebook.
• Engaged Instagram followers are worth more than those on Facebook, with an average order value of $65 versus $55.
• Instagram users are 2.5 times more likely to click on ads than users on other social media platforms.
• Ad recall from a sponsored post on Instagram is 2.8 times higher than Nielsen’s norms for online advertising.
• According to a November 2015 user survey, 60 percent of users say that they discover new products on the platform. That same survey found that 75 percent of users say that they’ve taken action after being inspired by a post.
• An astonishing 96 percent of U.S. fashion brands use Instagram.

Pinterest statistics

Pinterest remains one of the most fundamentally useful social networks. It’s the network of choice for planners—pinners use it to plan for holidays, travel, and special events like weddings. It’s primarily popular with female users (but men are catching on).

Users and usage

• Pinterest has 100 million active monthly users.
• Men use Pinterest too. Pinterest increased male users in the U.S. by 74 percent in 2014 alone. Now, one-third of sign-ups are men.
• It’s a mobile-focused platform, with 75 percent of Pinterest usage taking place on phones and tablets.
• The average Pin is Repinned 11 times.
• More than one-third of Pinterest users choose Pinterest over Google search.
• Pinners are two times more likely to celebrate events and holidays.
• Planning on Pinterest begins two to four months early.
• Holidays are a big deal—45 percent of Pinners plan for holidays at least 60 days in advance, 21 percent higher than the general population.
• Pinterest is home to 1.4 billion wedding idea Pins.
• In the last year, 16 million Pinners have saved a grand total of 780 million travel Pins.
• In 2015, 3.78 billion DIY Pins were saved worldwide.
• The site serves more than 1.5 trillion recommendations annually.
• More than 14 million articles are Pinned daily.
• Compared to the average online consumer, people on Pinterest are nine times more likely to plan to get pregnant or have a child in the next six months.

Businesses, brands, and marketing

• Two-thirds of all Pins are from a business’ website.
• A whopping 75 percent of Pins saved come from businesses and two-thirds of all Pins are from a business’ website.
• At the end of 2015, 1 million businesses worldwide used Pinterest.
• In the past six months, 93 percent of Pinners shopped online.
• Pinterest is the No. 2 source of social media traffic to Shopify stores.
• A solid 65 percent of Pins lead to product sites like Etsy, Amazon, and eBay.
• People referred by Pinterest are 10 percent more likely to make a purchase on e-commerce sites than users of other social networks.
• Every day, nearly 2 million people Pin rich product Pins, which include real time pricing, availability, and information about where to buy the product.
• Pinners are 45 percent more likely to be introduced to new brands vs. people on other social platforms.
• Pinners who click through to a business website are four to five times more likely to sign up or buy something compared to those who just see the Pin.
• Pinners who repin or tap for a closeup of a Pin are 1.5 times more likely to buy something compared to those who just see the Pin.
• Pinners who are moms are 30 percent more likely than non-moms to buy products they discover on Pinterest, according to Ahalgoy.
• People who saw Promoted Pins had a 40 percent greater awareness of new products and a 50 percent higher purchase intent than Pinners who haven’t.
• An astounding 93 percent of Pinners use Pinterest to plan or make purchases.
• More than half (52 percent) of Pinners have seen something on Pinterest and made a purchase online and 72 percent of Pinners have seen something on Pinterest and made a purchase offline, according to Millward Brown.
• Pinners are two times more likely to buy products in-store after engaging with certain types of Pins.
• It’s a tool for shopper—87 percent of active Pinners use Pinterest to help them decide what to purchase, according to Millward Brown.
• Not only that, Pinners use Pinterest while they shop—45 percent of active mobile Pinners use Pinterest to look for inspiration while shopping, especially when it comes to clothing, food, and arts and crafts, according to Ahalogy, and another 64 percent of Pinners look at items they’ve Pinned while they’re at a brick and mortar store, according to Millward Brown.

Linkedin statistics

Perhaps more so than any other social network, LinkedIn’s purpose is clear. It’s a place to connect with colleagues and professional contacts. Many businesses use it for hiring. It’s also a destination for brands in the B2B sector.

Users and usage

• It has 433 million users in more than 200 countries and territories.
• Of those, there are 100 million active monthly users.
• More than 128 million users in the U.S.
• Users are signing up at a rate of more than two new members per second.
• One in every three professionals in the world is on LinkedIn.
• Among its users are 40 million students and recent college graduates.
• Military and veteran members are among the most active—LinkedIn has 2 million self-identified U.S. military and veteran members. On average, they have 14 percent more connections and 55 percent more group views than non-veteran members. They also follow companies at a rate of 46 percent higher than non-veteran members.
• Nearly half (49 percent) of key decision makers are on LinkedIn.
• Only 25 percent of users log in monthly.
• But when they do log in, they create content—more than 1 million members have published long-form posts and over 19.7 million SlideShare presentations have been uploaded.
• Users conduct 1 billions searches per day.
• They use it to connect—100,000 LinkedIn members join new groups every day.

Businesses, brands, and marketing

• It’s a big deal for hiring—87 percent of recruiters use LinkedIn, according to a 2015 survey.
• Half of LinkedIn users say they’d be more likely to buy from a company they engage with on LinkedIn.
• A whopping 94 percent of B2B marketers use LinkedIn to distribute content.
• LinkedIn drives more than half of all social traffic to B2B blogs and sites.

Snapchat statistics

Snapchat’s users may skew younger, but they’re not the only ones who use the app. Increasingly, older users and brands are jumping on the bandwagon.

Users and usage

• It’s the fastest growing network
• Snapchat has over 100 million daily active users and growing.
• It’s is the second most-used social network after Facebook.
• The user base skews young—of Snapchat’s monthly U.S. users, 18 to 24-year-olds are the largest user base at 37 percent. They’re followed by 25 to 34-year-olds (26 percent) and 13 to 17-year-olds (23 percent).
• More than half of new users signing up to Snapchat are over the age of 25.
• More than 60 percent of U.S. 13 to 34-year-old smartphone users are Snapchatters.
• In Piper Jaffray’s spring 2016 Taking Stock with Teens survey, 28 percent of teens ranked Snapchat as the most important social network.
• More than 60 percent of smartphone users in the U.S. between 13 and 34 use Snapchat.
• Users watch 10 billion videos a day, up from 8 billion in February 2016.
• Users spend an average of 25 to 30 minutes on the app each day.
• Approximately 65 percent of daily active users create new content every day.
• More than 400 million Snaps are sent per day and 8,796 photos are shared on Snapchat every second.
• More than a third of Snapchat’s daily users create Stories.
• Though a more recent addition to the app, 10 million users use lenses each day.
• When asked what they like most about Snapchat, 48 percent of users cited “creating my own stories.”
• More than half (54 percent) of Snapchat users use the app daily. Another 32 percent use it two to five times per week.
• Snapchat’s vertical videos have up to nine times the completion rate compared to horizontal mobile video.

Businesses, brands, and marketing

• An impressive 58 percent of college students would be likely to purchase a brand’s product or service if they were sent a coupon on Snapchat.
• Up to eight times  U.S. 13 to 34-year-olds view Live Stories vs. TV for similar events.
• Americans have a greater brand awareness of Snapchat than Pinterest or LinkedIn.
• Cosmopolitan, one of the publishers on Snapchat Discover, averages 3 million viewers per day.

YouTube statistics

Social video is a big deal. A really big deal. And YouTube is the social web’s destination for video.

Users and usage

• Over 1 billion users.
• Almost one-third of all people on the internet are YouTube users.
• YouTube reaches more 18 to 34 and 18 to 49-year-olds than any cable network in the U.S.
• A whopping 80 percent of viewers are from outside the U.S.
• YouTube has 4 billion daily views.
• More than half of YouTube views come from mobile devices.
• The number of hours people spent watching videos on mobile is up 100 percentyear-over-year.
• The average viewing session on mobile is 40 minutes.
• Users have already watched 350,000 hours of VR video using Google Cardboard.
• More than half of Canadians (57 percent) find YouTube more engaging than TV.
• U.S. users spend an average of five hours per month in the YouTube app.

Businesses, brands, and marketing

• Nearly two-thirds of gamers (64 percent) of gamers downloaded a game after seeing an ad for it on YouTube.
• YouTube viewers who completed a TrueView ad are 23 times more likely to visit or subscribe to a brand channel, watch more by the brand, or share the brand video.