If you don’t know… Now you know.

Our friends at Skilled.co recently released this infographic that is packed with social media statistics to help make sense of all the social interaction that’s taking place on a global scale.

From platform usage breakdowns to millennial behavior, this social media infographic covers the breadth of the industry – and has proven to be helpful for even the most knowledgeable marketers and social-savvy businesses (we sure learnt a thing or two).

Here’s the infographic is all its glory. Keep scrolling after you’ve taken in the infographic – we’ll share our thoughts and takeaways with you.

115 social media facts infographic

Our Takeaways & Thoughts

Here are some of our takeaways that we think are highly relevant for you (and help to answer a lot of the questions that we receive)…

Users & Active Users

A quick glance at the number of users per platform, as well as the number of Daily Active Users should give you a clear indication of each platform’s level of influence (reach & engagement).

Registered Users

• Facebook – 1.59 billion
• Instagram – 600 million
• Twitter – 300 million
• LinkedIn – 467 million
• Pinterest – 176 million

Percentage of Daily Active Users

• Facebook – 70%
• Instagram – 59%
• Twitter – 38%
• LinkedIn – 27%
• Pinterest – 22%

However, when picking which platforms to focus your efforts on – you should let your audiences and engagement data inform your decisions. Just because a social media platform might be flaunting big numbers, it doesn’t immediately mean that it’s the right fit for your marketing efforts.

Point of interest: Don’t forget that there are other social media platforms out there that you should be testing on (and learning from) too. Snapchat, Musical.ly and Anchor to name a few. While Snapchat’s “total registered user” numbers are usually murky, they are definitely a platform to be reckoned with especially considering how highly engaged their audiences are.

Social Media Marketing Spend On The Rise

2016 saw the USA spend $11.72 billion on social marketing – a number that is predicted to rise by an average of 15% year on year. And it makes total sense for the following reasons:

1. The reach and engagement of social media is remarkable, to put it lightly
2. Unlike trying to compete for Page Rank, where the rules are ever evolving – social media helps build an audience and grow a following
3. Social media levels the playing field, allowing smaller players to compete with the bigger end of town, without the need for huge budgets
4. The level of targeting and data-capture that some platforms provide is amazing

Facebook Is Still Winning At Driving Sales

It is no surprise that Facebook is numero uno for driving sales – they have an amazing advertising platform, their advertising costs very user-friendly (reminds us of early Google AdWords) and anyone can use Facebook as their main social media platform to grow an organic audience by putting out content.

A Final (And Quick) Note on The HUGE Arbitrage of Video

Video advertising is right now the highest converting, most engaging and most cost-effective way to reach an audience… and the big platforms are competing for your business!

Zucks said it himself: Facebook places a huge emphasis on video, and as such, the platform is favoring video content immensely, both within their News Feed algorithms as well as for their Facebook advertising costs – literally pennies on the dollar.

Meanwhile, YouTube’s TrueView model means that brands and businesses that run pre-roll ads will not be charged if audiences click the “Skip Ad” button, or watch less than 30 seconds of a video.

What this means is that the window is open right now, where these is a massive arbitrage for businesses and brands that embrace video in their marketing. We just want to make sure that you’re one of them.

Over To You

What were some of your takeaways from this infographic? Did you find anything that was useful and actionable for you?