Twitter Facebook LinkedIn Flipboard 1 Social Media Knowledge is Power We all know that social media is an easy, cost-efficient way to build your brand, make connections with prospects and add a human element to your company’s relationship with customers. It’s also constantly evolving, bringing new challenges and trends with each passing year. Now that we’re halfway through 2015, it’s useful to check out some of the most important statistics and facts regarding social media for the rest of the year. From things we know about the most popular platforms to trends regarding each platform’s users, here are some fascinating stats to keep in mind. 1. “80% of Marketers Indicate That Their Social Media Have Efforts Increased Traffic” According to HubSpot, social media as a tool for businesses is more than just a passing trend. As of studies completed at the end of 2014, a full 80% of them had seen an increase in traffic as a direct result of their efforts on various social media platforms. If you aren’t on social media, you’re missing out on tons of opportunity to connect, engage, and acquire brand ambassadors. 2. “Instagram’s Per-Follower Brand Engagement Rate is 4.21%, Higher Than Any Other Social Network” Forrester recently released a study of more than 3 million social-media user interactions. They found that for every 1 million followers a brand has on Facebook, only about 700 active engagements occurred (i.e., “liking” pictures, commenting on threads, etc.). Twitter’s active engagement rate was about 300 for every 1 million followers. After all the math was done, the average follower to brand engagement rate for top social media platforms was about 0.1%. The exception to this dismal numbers game was Instagram, which recorded a full 58 times more engagement more involvement per follower than Facebook and 120 times more engagement per follower than Twitter. If you’ve been overlooking Instagram as a valuable tool for acquiring brand ambassadors, it might be time to re-consider. 3. “1 in Every 3 Professionals in the World Has a LinkedIn” Don’t discount the value of LinkedIn for recruiting, industry networking and honing your thought leadership skills. 33% of all professional people are on the network, making it a gold mine for professional acquisition, recruiting and industry networking. 4. “Tweets with Images Receive 150% more Re-Tweets” If your company is trying to get into the Twitter game, it’s important to know which content gets the most engagement. Because the Twitter platform limits posts to 140 characters, communicating efficiently with your audience can be difficult. Visual, eye-catching posts get significantly more re-Tweets and engagement than written posts do; keep this in mind as you work to build your company’s Twitter presence. 5. “53% of Americans Who Follow Brands in Social Are More Loyal to Those Brands” If you’re still doubting the effect that a strong social media presence can have on your brand’s success, consult this statistic, reported in a study done by Convince and Convert. Developing a strong social media presence could signify a wealth of loyal brand fans and help you gain recognition across wider channels in the future. It is important to keep in mind, however, that brand loyalty on social media fades with age. The same Convince and Convert report showed that while 66% of 18- to 24-year-old Americans are more loyal to the brands they follow on social media, the same was true of only 39% of Americans aged 55 and older. It seems that brand enthusiasm, as reflected by social media engagement, dulls progressively in older generations. 6. “37% of Twitter Users Are Under the Age of 30” One of the most important aspects of building an effective social media presence is to know your audience. Nearly 40% percent of all Twitter users are under the age of 30, making your Twitter audience younger, on average, than your Facebook audience. Stats like these can help you understand how to appeal to your followers on each social media platform; they can also help you determine which social media networks are most relevant to your brand, based on your ideal prospects and where they spend their time. 7. “Tweets with Around 110 Characters Get 17% More Engagement” If you’re looking for re-tweets on Twitter, statistics show that Tweets with around 110 characters (instead of the Twitter limit of 140) get a significantly higher number of re-tweets. There are a few reasons for this, including that re-tweets are easier with shorter posts; your followers won’t have to edit your tweet in order to re-tweet and add their own caveat. 8. “Google+ Has Over 300 Million Active Monthly Users” Google+ often gets overlooked by marketers and companies looking to build their brands on social media. But recent statistics have shown that the social network has a significant number of active monthly followers, a number that warrants consideration in the universe of social media for business. 9. “87% of a Facebook Page’s Engagement Happens on Photo Posts” Although Facebook’s per-follower engagement rates are dismal, you can slightly increase your brand’s odds of getting engagement by posting visual content. 10. “Brand Engagement on Twitter Decreases If Your Brand is Tweeting More Than 3 X a Day” If you like to post frequently on Twitter, you might want to re-consider; a recent study by SocialBakers has shown that brands that post more than 3 X a day experience diminished engagement with their Tweets. Posting too much on any social media network can lead to your followers feeling overwhelmed or even annoyed by the constant presence of your brand. Monitor your brand’s metrics to find out the sweet spot of posts-per-day with your followers. This will allow you to maximize engagement while giving your followers enough room to breathe. What are some of your brand’s social media tactics? Have you experienced significant engagement on any one of the major social media platforms? Let us know in the comments. Twitter Tweet Facebook Share Email This article originally appeared on Inbound Marketing Blog and has been republished with permission.Find out how to syndicate your content with B2C Author: Brittney ErvinBrittney Ervin is a content marketing manager located in Nashville, Tennessee. She has four years of experience in marketing, content creation, research and strategy. She specializes in topics related to marketing, content strategy and production, the psychology of human decision-making and copywriting.… View full profile ›More by this author:5 Tips for Better Copywriting on Social MediaThe Four “P’s” of Marketing: How Do They Apply in the Digital Age?8 Tips For Bringing Your Best Old Blogs Back From The Dead