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“Tell us why we shouldn’t cut your budget.”

That might be the single most intimidating sentence any employee can be asked.

But given the increased relevance of social media in business and advertising, it doesn’t have to be. A survey of CMOs found that while only 12% of their marketing budgets were spent on social media, this percentage is expected to rise by 20% over the next five years.

The facts are plain: 88% of all adults aged 18 to 29 use social media. Many millennials turn to social media before making purchasing decisions. New tools like Instagram stories are seeing triple-digit increases in ad spend year-over-year.

But if you’re a social media manager who finds him or herself in the position of having to defend a budget, it still doesn’t hurt to have a few social media statistics on your side.

That’s why we’ve assembled a list of recent social media statistics as we head into 2019. Consider this guide your pre-flight checklist for a healthier social media marketing budget for the coming year.

In this guide, we’ll break social media statistics down into four sections:

Ready? Let’s learn what’s happening in social media as we head into 2019.

Social Media Statistics for Instagram

Instagram isn’t just intriguing because it’s growing. It’s also growing in the right ways.

Yes, Instagram is a popular social media tool for a wide variety of non-commercial users. But as Instagram grows, the platform is also improving its monetization, recently adding product tagging.

Managing your Instagram presence is easy with the right tool and can lead to better user engagement, as Instagram users are happy to participate. As you’ll see below, Instagram boasts some of the best statistics when it comes to brands interacting with their followers.

Instagram Use and Engagement

  • According to TechCrunch, Instagram continues to grow at a fast clip, with user count increasing about 5% every quarter.
  • You’re not alone: As of June, there are over one billion active users on Instagram. Of those users, Instagram’s 2017 data shows over two million monthly total advertisers on the site.
  • People stick around on Instagram. The time users spend watching Instagram video went up 80% over the numbers in 2017. (Source).
  • Video is becoming more and more popular: according to Instagram’s social media statistics, the number of videos produced on their platform has increased by 4 times since last year.
  • A report by Mention.com points out that Instagram videos are the most likely to result in comments and likes, while Instagram carousels almost reached similar totals with likes. Instagram videos had higher overall average engagement rates on Instagram, demonstrating the importance of video posts.
  • On Instagram, images still rule the day – their use was by far the most common post type at a rate of about 85%. (Source)
  • The most popular hashtags on Instagram included #love, #instagood, and #fashion. The top B2B hashtags included #quotes, #video, #picture, and #work – while one-third of all posts examined at Mention.com contained no hashtags at all.
  • While 63% of Instagram users have fewer than 1,000 followers, the heavy-hitters of the medium influenced the overall average. Mention saw an average number of likes of 1,261 in the posts they examined.
  • Instagram Live is growing in popularity, with 100 million people now watching or sharing something on it every single day.

Instagram Marketing Effectiveness and Spend

  • The Instagram app tends to outperform Facebook when it comes to ad impressions: on Instagram, there are 20% as many ad impressions and 9% more clicks.
  • According to Instagram’s own statistics, 80% of their users already follow a business of some sort on the platform.
  • Influencers particularly like Instagram. A 2018 survey found that they listed Instagram as their favorite medium at a rate of 78%.
  • Instagram should generate about $5.5 billion in ad revenue in the U.S. in 2018, which is enough to count for 5% of the total U.S. ad market. It’s even more powerful on mobile, with about 7%of the market share.
  • Recent numbers show Instagram ad spend has increased by 177%, year-over-year.
  • Today’s Instagram users are on Instagram more than ever. TechCrunch reports that the average Instagram user in the U.S. has increased their daily Instagram use by almost 2X, up to 55 minutes daily.

Instagram Demographics

  • Pew Research shows that Instagram sees high engagement from women, who use it at a rate of 39% compared to 30% for men.
  • According to Business Insider, Instagram only trails Snapchat when it comes to popularity with American teens. Snapchat sees high teen engagement with 72% of them using it every single day, while Instagram enjoys a high rate of 63%.
  • As of 2017, data showed that Millennials love to use Instagram, with regular use at about 34% – more than Snapchat.

Social Media Statistics for Facebook

Facebook’s advertising platform remains one of the most-used in social media. But that’s not the whole story of what makes Facebook engaging for social media managers.

Facebook use is still tremendous, with billions of active users every day – a fact that still dominates today’s social media statistics. It’s hard to find any platform that can rival Facebook for raw volume and overall engagement. And with consumers reporting that their purchases are influenced by what they see on Facebook, it’s clear that the platform remains one of the most powerful ways to reach consumers.

Facebook Use and Engagement

  • According to Pew Research, over two-thirds (68%) of all U.S. adults now admit they use Facebook. 51% of Facebook’s active users don’t just visit it once per day, but multiple times.
  • Facebook’s information lists 80 million total Facebook business pages as of 2018.
  • With 1.49 billion daily active users and 2.27 billion active users (measured monthly) – and assuming a world population of about 7.5 billion, about 30% of the entire world’s population uses Facebook to some extent. (Source: Facebook).
  • Facebook users view their “Watch” videos an average of only 23 seconds. Newsfeed videos see far less engagement, with 16.7 seconds on average, according to Business Insider.

Facebook Demographics

  • Facebook has the highest engagement rate among college graduates – 77%.
  • Although Facebook advertising dollars tend to come from the U.S. and Canada (see below), 85% of Facebook’s users come from outside these countries. Facebook is particularly popular with the populations of India, Brazil, and Indonesia.
  • According to social media statistics at Statista, young Facebook users trend male, especially amongst millennials ages 25-34. In that segment, male users comprise 19% of total Facebook users, with female users representing only 12% of total users.

Facebook Advertising

  • The overwhelmingly largest portion of ad revenue on Facebook comes from the U.S. and Canada, which (when added together) outweigh all ad revenue from Europe and Asia. (Source). Facebook’s average revenue per user hit $6.09 in the third quarter of 2018.
  • 44% of consumers surveyed – not just Facebook users – admit that their shopping behavior will be influenced by Facebook.
  • 26% of Facebook users who click on ads have made a purchase at some point.
  • Because videos are automatically muted, captioned video ads see video view times increase 12% on average, according to Facebook.

Social Media Statistics for Pinterest

The key to success on Pinterest: guiding consumer decisions.

“There isn’t one thing I don’t use Pinterest for,” Natalie Lopez told Pinterest. “I usually use it for inspirational ideas for decorating my house, or food, or cocktails. I choose to use Pinterest instead of any other website or search.”

That means Pinterest users are not only highly engaged with the platform, but they use the platform to help inform their buying decisions. The result is a social media platform that helps drive purchases and provides real ROI for businesses.

As you’ll see, the social media statistics bear that out.

Pinterest Use and Engagement

  • As of 2017, half of millennials use Pinterest every single month, according to a report by Pinterest.
  • According to statistics, there are now over three billion total boards on Pinterest. According to those same statistics, two million Pinterest users save Shopping “Pins” on their boards daily.
  • Over 250 million people use Pinterest each month, according to Pinterest.
  • There is significant movement in a variety of categories on Pinterest, according to social media statistics. DIY projects increased 35%, art increased 50%, style ideas 38%, and “products they love” went up 115%.

Pinterest Demographics

  • Pinterest’s passion is international, with over 80% of new signups to their user base coming from outside the United States.
  • 40% of Pinners have a high household income over 100,000 per year or higher, according to Pinterest’s own audience stats.
  • Of the 50% of millennials who admit to using Pinterest at least once per month, 86^ of them use Pinterest to plan “life moments” such as weddings, and 50% have an annual household income of $75,000 or higher.
  • At the end of 2017, 43% of these millennial Pinners said that Pinterest helped them to find ingredients, and 54% admitted that Pinterest inspired them to find extra products for home decor. (Source).
  • The trends for Pinterest demographics, however, suggest that Generation Z is less enthusiastic. 22% of users 12 to 17 thought Pinterest was for “old people” as of late 2017.

Pinterest Engagement and Influence on Consumers

  • According to a Nielsen study, 98% of Pinners try to go find ideas after they first found them on Pinterest – that’s far higher than the usual social media platform average of about 71%.
  • Two-thirds of today’s pins are either from brands or are discernible products. Art, Hobbies, and Art supplies tend to generate the most interest in these products.

Social Media Statistics for Twitter

Twitter rates highly amongst social media websites for its large demographics and highly active user base – including about one-third of its active users using the platform daily. But the most important news for businesses is that Twitter is seeing year-over-year improvements in ad engagement.

Twitter is also especially popular with small to medium-sized businesses that use the platform to help customers with their problems. The result is an engaging interaction between businesses and their customers.

Twitter Use and Engagement

Twitter Demographics

  • According to Pew Research, Twitter is balanced between men and women. 23% of U.S. male adults use Twitter, compared to 24% of all female adults.
  • 21% of all American adults use Twitter in some capacity, according to the same research into social media statistics. Of these, Twitter users tend to be highly educated, with 32% having college graduate degrees, compared to 18% with high school educations or less.
  • Twitter use is higher amongst millennials, as 18-29-year-olds use it at a rate of 36%. Only 8% of adults aged 65 and up use Twitter. (Pew Research).

Twitter and Business

  • Ad engagement on Twitter is increasing: the total ad engagements on Twitter went up 91% over the previous year.

Making Social Media Statistics Work for You

These statistics do more than demonstrate the popularity of social media: they show the distinct advantages of different platforms.

Social media managers don’t only have a responsibility to point out the effectiveness of their social media marketing efforts, but to use the latest social statistics and trends to help guide their strategy. Now’s the time to put this knowledge to work and use each platform for optimal success.