Social media statistics are a marketer’s best friend. They tell you how people are using each network and highlight new tactics, technologies, and trends to consider.
The problem is, social media is always changing. From year to year, the popularities of various platforms rise and fall, and what was relevant in 2015 may no longer be so.
That’s why we put together this list of key social media stats for 2018. Use it to inform your strategy, fuel campaigns, and trounce the competition.
General social media statistics
Take a quick look at how people (and how many) are using social media in general.
- There are now 3.196 billion people using social media, which is up 13% from last year.
- The total number of mobile phone users is 5.14 billion, up 4% from last year. This means more people have access to social media on the go.
- 11 new people start using social media every second, which is about 1 million people every day.
- The fastest growing markets for social media use are Central and Southern Asia, where use is up 90% and 33%, respectively.
- The average American spends just over two hours per day on social media.
- More than 3 billion people around the world use social media at least once a month.
- 51% of 18- to 24-year-olds say it would be hard to give up social media, compared with 40% of 25- to 29-year-olds and 43% of 30- to 49-year-olds.
- By 2019, social media marketing spending in the United States alone will increase to $17.34 billion.
Social media advertising statistics
Social media advertising grows more popular as organic reach declines. These are the latest stats you need to know related to paid social.
- Social media advertising budgets have doubled worldwide from 2014 to 2016.
- Social media ad spend in 2017 exceeded $35 billion worldwide, accounting for 16% of all digital ads.
- Only 50% of B2B marketers consider social media to be a low-cost ad option.
- 45% of Americans use an ad blocker to prevent the display of advertising content. Other countries’ range between 18% (Japan) and 54% (China).
- The average price of Facebook ads is rising around 35%, with ad impressions increasing only 10%.
- The cheapest days to place ads (at least on Facebook) are Sunday and Monday. The most expensive day for social media ads is Friday.
- Instagram brought in more than $2.81 billion in mobile ad revenue in 2017.
- The average click-through rate for Facebook ads varies depending on your industry, but averages about 0.9%. The average conversion rate across all industries is 9.21%.
- Over the past 2 years, the number of small-to-medium-size businesses using YouTube ads has doubled.
Instagram statistics
The following figures prove just how powerful a platform Instagram is for brands and businesses.
- The total number of global Instagram users increased by a third over the past year.
- Instagram age demographics skew younger, with roughly 30% falling between the ages 18 and 24, and another 30% falling between 25 and 34.
- The most popular Instagram hashtags are, in order, #love, #instagood, #fashion, #photooftheday, and #beautiful.
- The most popular Instagram emojis are laugh-crying emoji, heart emoji, and hearts-for-eyes emoji.
- Users under the age of 25 spend 32 minutes a day on the platform, while those over 25 spend 24 minutes a day on it.
- The number of daily videos produced daily on Instagram has quadrupling over the past five years.
- About 60% of top brands use the same filter for every post, creating a consistent brand “feel” on the platform.
- 60% of Instagram users claim they’ve discovered at least one new product on the platform.
- Instagram has a follower interaction rate of 2.2%, higher than any other social network.
- Instagram posts with hashtags tend to get 12.6% more engagement than those without.
Facebook statistics
Here are the Facebook statistics you need to know about its operations, its users, and its near future.
- The total number of Facebook users has grown 15% year-over-year, with more than 2.17 billion users at the beginning of 2018.
- On Facebook, the number of users aged 65 and up has increased by 20% over the course of the past year.
- Though the number of teenagers using Facebook is growing, it’s growing at a slower rate than other demographics, at just 5%.
- Facebook-owned apps WhatsApp and Messenger both grew more than twice as fast as their parent company, with users up 30% year-over-year.
- Facebook is the second-most popular site in the world, behind only Google, and boasts an average time per visit of 13:41.
- The majority age ranges for Facebook users are…
