Social Media Monthly Active Users for 2016 [Infographic]

The days when social media was considered a waste of time is long gone.

Of course, it depends on what you are doing within your social media profile.

Simply put social media is a big business; companies are vying to get the user attention and they are willing to pay top dollars for it too.

With the evolution of the digital world there are new trending terms like social media managers and #SocialMediaMarketing.

Social Media is big – its user volume is bigger than some of the most populated countries in the world. Facebook has 1.55 Billion Monthly Active Users. If FB was a country it will outrank China, India and will be the most populated country in the world.

Here is an infographic that shows in numbers how big the evolution of social media is (with a fun take on their global population rank if they were all countries):

As of September 2014:

71% of online adults use Facebook
23% of online adults use Twitter
26% use Instagram
28% use Pinterest
28% use LinkedIn
Source

The Top 8 Social Media Sites and Monthly Active Users

Facebook – 1.55 Billion

Facebook is the most popular social media site and has the highest user base. Facebook is considered by some as the “social media” with likes dominating how popular you are in your friend circle.

Most brands have a Facebook fan page where followers can exchange ideas, comment on products and provide direct feedback to the business. If you are unhappy with a brands customer service or their refund policy the best place to create a roar will be the brands Facebook page.

YouTube – 1 Billion

YouTube means videos. If YouTube was a country it would be the 3^rd most populated country behind China, India and ahead of the US.

YouTube is also considered as the 2^nd biggest search engine only behind Google. 1/3 of all online inhabitants use YouTube. 6 Billion hours of video is watched monthly on YouTube. Some big names that have conquered YouTube: Justin Bieber, Rihanna, Taylor Swift and Katy Perry; they all feature among the top 10 YouTube channels.

Google + 540 Million

4^th Most populated behind YouTube and ahead of the US which has 322 Million people.

Google+ is a combination of the best of Twitter and Facebook, backed by the largest search engine on the web. Tagging followers into different circles is a neat feature of Google+.

Instagram – 400 Million

5^th Most populated behind Google+ and still ahead of the US.

The quickest and most convenient way to connect your smart phone pictures to the world is via Instagram. Instagram allows you to post pictures to Facebook and Twitter; it also allows users to quickly customize the photo with inbuilt filters for fun and creativity.

Twitter – 320 Million

7^th most populated in the World behind the US.

Twitter is the short and sharp social site that provides bite sized wisdom or abuse (just kidding) in short bursts. Twitter is often used to reach digital marketing influencers using “FEAT @influencer”. The typical Twitter user is a young female with average number of twitter followers of 208 and uses her mobile to tweet often. There is an estimated 20 Million fake twitter accounts.

Quick Tip: Use images and #hash tags in your tweets to get more engagement.

Vine – 200 Million

10^th most populated behind Indonesia, Brazil and followed by Pakistan.

Twitter’s video platform that is popular for short clips. Vine is focussed on entertainment and meme clips. Short clips that are easy to share and consume is Vine’s speciality.

LinkedIn – 100 Million

Joint 18^th most populated behind Mexico and Philippines.

LinkedIn is considered the professional social network where recommendations are slowly replacing referees on a resume. LinkedIn is widely used to search and hire talent. Soon LinkedIn mails might even replace handshakes.

Pinterest – 100 Million

Joint 18^th most populated ahead of Ethiopia and Vietnam.

Pinterest is a social site dedicated visual content. Pinterest is the 2^nd largest social media traffic driver to websites. The beauty of Pinterest – it has the potential to deliver traffic all year long unlike FB and Twitter.

Note – A user can have more than one social profile on the same network and hence the view of population is just for fun.

Wrapping up

The best part of social media – it has the potential to crash any website by bringing in viral traffic.

Savvy digital marketers are using Social media to bring in new leads and customers. Use social media wisely and look for opportunities and relationships. Hopefully, we can build a better social web in order to leverage, spread awesome content and build great brands. Remember, the number of users on a social media site is not a big deciding factor when choosing a medium.

Read more: Gary V: Most Hated or Most Loved Person in Social Media?