Social media in the beginning was viewed as something teenagers did. After school they rushed to their rooms started up the computer and logged into Myspace. Remember that social network?
Facebook changed the game and the college students became the social media demographic sweet spot. Twitter then showed up and most people didn’t know what to do with it.
Questions bubbled up in many minds.
What do I do with 140 characters? Do I tell people what I am doing and where I am going? What is this bit.ly URL link shortening thing? Do I follow everyone back? What is this hashtag doing on my screen?
The list goes on.
Social media is a work in progress
We were all trying to work out the social media rules of engagement, the etiquette and the manners. That is still a work in progress.
Some marketers, bloggers and business dived in early while others dipped their toes at the edges. Everyone knew something was happening but weren’t quite sure if it was a passing fad or a generation changing trend.
That was 2008. It seems a social media lifetime ago.
In 2013 Facebook connects 1 in 2 people on the social web, has paid $1 billion for Instagram and become a public company. Twitter is going public and Pinterest has moved the pinboard from the kitchen wall to the web.
Social media marketing is moving from a free and wild west frontier to a “pay to play” model if you want to reach your audience in significant numbers. Facebook pushes us to pay to promote to obtain any meaningful attention and Twitter evolves it’s self service advertising interface and features.
We sort of knew that the freebies would start to end.
Quick glance social media facts
Here is a top 10 snack size bite of some social media facts and statistics if you haven’t the time for consuming the full infographic below.
- There are over 10 million Facebook “apps”
- Twitter’s fastest growing demographic is 55-64 year olds
- 60% of Twitter users access it from their mobile
- There are over 343 million active users on Google+
- The +1 button is served 5 billion times per day
- 67% of Google+ users are male
- There are over 3 million Linkedin company pages
- More than 16 billion photos have been uploaded to Instagram
- Food is the top category discussed on Pinterest at 57%
- There are over 1 billion unique monthly visitors on YouTube
For more social media facts view the infographic below.
What surprises you?
What numbers were eye opening for you? Is it the numbers on Google+ or is it Instagram?
Look forward to your questions, feedback and insights in the comments below.
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