Having found Huffington Post’s blog of ‘100 Fascinating Social Media Statistics and Figures from 2012’, it is amazing to see how the ways in which we think and act have changed, how much we rely on social media and also how little people actually know about it. We’ve picked out the stats that we’ve found most interesting and the implications of each of these.
It’s fascinating to see how social media enables us to live through and share moments together across the globe. This was shown from the recent US elections when Barack Obama’s victory Facebook post had more than 4 million likes and is the most “liked” image ever on the site. His victory also broke a Twitter record as his post claimed the most retweets ever with over 800,000 – a global phenomenon.
In terms of business Facebook can be a very useful tool. It has been recorded that 77% of B2C companies and 43% of B2B companies have actually acquired customers through Facebook. Studies have also shown that 56% of customer tweets to companies are being ignored. We hope none of these are complaints as they should never go ignored due to risk of damaging an organisation’s reputation! We also understand that larger companies will find it difficult to reply to every tweet, but acknowledgement of the nice tweets, not just the complaints, also shouldn’t go amiss!
As far as the future of social media goes, we should not be ignoring the power of Instagram and Pinterest. Instagram receives 575 likes and 81 comments each second, showing that it is a very interactive application and one that should be embraced by organisations which are visually orientated. The same goes for Pinterest. Consumers referred from Pinterest to online stores spend 70% more than visitors who are referred by non-social channels. It goes to show that time and effort put into online media actually pays off. Pinterest has an increase of 2702% of total unique visitors since May 2011, whilst in just 6 months Instagram’s daily mobile visitors increased by 724%.
These facts and figures are all relevant to us as PR and marketers, indicating how we should be integrating social media as a vital aspect of communication with the relevant audience, working to encourage interactions through these channels.
We know that it’s not a ‘one size fits all’ and that not every social media channel works for everyone, but you need to research your target audience and how they interact online, to ensure you’re picking the right ones. If you’re a very visual organisation, Pinterest and Instagram will work amazingly, but if you’re trying to send out a message, try Twitter.
Social media is a phenomenon that is only continuing to grow. We must understand it’s complexity for ourselves and for our clients in order to generate interest and ultimately to increase revenue.
To see more of these stats, click here.