52 Cool Facts About Social Media
As social media continues to gain acceptance as a bona-fide communications platform, I thought it might be fun to have a cool fact about it for every week of the year.
So, here are ten facts about the five most well-known social media outlets – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and blogging – with two more bonus facts thrown in just for fun. (And to get to the figure of a fact a week for a year).
Enjoy!
Facebook
1. The average Facebook user has 130 friends.
2. More than 25 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photo albums, etc.) is shared each month.
3. Over 300,000 users helped translate the site through the translations application.
4. More than 150 million people engage with Facebook on external websites every month.
5. Two-thirds of comScore’s U.S. Top 100 websites and half of comScore’s Global Top 100 websites have integrated with Facebook.
6. There are more than 100 million active users currently accessing Facebook through their mobile devices.
7. People that access Facebook via mobile are twice as active than non-mobile users (think about that when designing your Facebook page).
8. The average Facebook user is connected to 60 pages, groups and events.
9. People spend over 500 billion minutes per month on Facebook.
10. There are more than 1 million entrepreneurs and developers from 180 countries on Facebook.
Statistics from Facebook press office.
Twitter
11. Twitter’s web platform only accounts for a quarter of its users – 75% use third-party apps.
12. Twitter gets more than 300,000 new users every day.
13. There are currently 110 million users of Twitter’s services.
14. Twitter receives 180 million unique visits each month.
15. There are more than 600 million searches on Twitter every day.
16. Twitter started as a simple SMS-text service.
17. Over 60% of Twitter use is outside the U.S.
18. There are more than 50,000 third-party apps for Twitter.
19. Twitter has donated access to all of its tweets to the Library of Congress for research and preservation.
20. More than a third of users access Twitter via their mobile phone.
Statistics from Twitter and the Chirp Conference.
LinkedIn
21. LinkedIn is the oldest of the four sites in this post, having been created on May 5 2003.
22. There are more than 70 million users worldwide.
23. Members of LinkedIn come from more than 200 countries from every continent.
24. LinkedIn is available in six native languages – English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish.
25. Oracle’s Chief Financial Officer, Jeff Epstein, was headhunted for the position via his LinkedIn profile.
26. 80% of companies use LinkedIn as a recruitment tool.
27. A new member joins LinkedIn every second.
28. LinkedIn receives almost 12 million unique visitors per day.
29. Executives from all Fortune 500 companies are on LinkedIn.
30. Recruiters account for 1-in-20 LinkedIn profiles.
Statistics from LinkedIn press centre and SysComm International.
YouTube
31. The very first video uploaded was called “Me at the Zoo”, on 23rd April 2005.
32. By June 2006, more than 65,000 videos were being uploaded every day.
33. YouTube receives more than 2 billion viewers per day.
34. Every minute, 24 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube.
35. The U.S. accounts for 70% of YouTube users.
36. Over half of YouTube’s users are under 20 years old.
37. You would need to live for around 1,000 years to watch all the videos currently on YouTube.
38. YouTube is available in 19 countries and 12 languages.
39. Music videos account for 20% of uploads.
40. YouTube uses the same amount of bandwidth as the entire Internet used in 2000.
Statistics from YouTube press centre.
Blogging
41. 77% of Internet users read blogs.
42. There are currently 133 million blogs listed on leading blog directory Technorati.
43. 60% of bloggers are between the ages 18-44.
44. One in five bloggers update their blogs daily.
45. Two thirds of bloggers are male.
46. Corporate blogging accounts for 14% of blogs.
47. 15% of bloggers spend 10 hours a week blogging.
48. More than half of all bloggers are married and/or parents.
49. More than 50% of bloggers have more than one blog.
50. Bloggers use an average of five different social sites to drive traffic to their blog.
Statistics from Technorati’s State of the Blogosphere 2009.
Bonus Facts
51. 90% of Internet users know at least one social network.
52. The average social user has 195 friends.
Statistics from Online Media Gazette.
So there you have it – a fact for every week of the year, just in case you need it for your next presentation or tweet-up, and want to let folks know why social media isn’t so dorky after all. And as an added bonus, here are some ways you can use these stats for your business’s strategy.
Cheers!
210 Responses to “52 Cool Facts About Social Media”
Have to admit, I thought mobile use of Twitter would be higher as well, especially when looking at how many use phones to access Facebook.
Perhaps with the iPad now out, and Droid continuing to grow as a platform, we might see that increase soon. As long as Twitter sorts its API out…
Nice facts
That really helps put social media in perspective….one of my favorite videos about that same subject… Is social media a Fad?
DJ Morris recently posted…. The Key to Successfully Selling Abacoa Homes for Sale
Still a great video (I actually prefer the original to the recent update, not sure why – just sits better, I think).
Some interesting wee facts there Danny. Im watching this with great interest at the moment in a lot of these numbers and how they relate to Google and its “domination” of the internet. Social Media is not only being integrated, it seems to be taking over and Google are struggling to cope with that it seems!
Justin Parks recently posted…. Home Loans Spain Testimonial for Justin ParksAgreed, Justin. I think if you look at how Google is implementing social search, and looking at ways to be more of a network (think Google.me), then they are clearly taking the various networks and social media seriously. Should be an interesting 12-18 months ahead.
Hey, i wonder from where are those facts and how reliable are they? Any respected sources ?
Hi Paul,
If you look at the end of each section, it shares the references used. But generally they’ll be a mix of comScore, Compete, Quantcast and other leading analytics firms.
Just shows how much social media is expanding all the time. Every time someone reveals figures I’m amazed at the reach social media has – and still some people question its potential!
Thanks for sharing this Danny, I have no doubt I will get a lot of use out of this post.
Cheers Sam – I’m looking to do a follow-up post on the other main networks soon, to see how they compare to the Big 5.
simply i live it
Thanks for this interesting Post. Nice Numbers! Best wishes!
LinkedIn is kind of forgotten, but there are great marketing opportunities there and the platform expands regularly.
I think LinkedIn is seeing a resurgence, Cody. They certainly seem to be doing a lot of things right (and definitely better than they used to), and the figures from them show they’re moving in the right direction again.
Perhaps it’s because social is seeing wider acceptance, more businesses (and individuals) are realizing that more information and resources are being found online as opposed to traditional networking/recruitment?
Now they just need to build on that.
You make a great point here Danny. It seems that LinkedIn was built ahead of its time With social being widely accepted now.
In some ways LinkedIn is one of the most personal social sites because it is based upon connecting with people according to your personal information. Without sharing your information, you will find it hard to make meaningful connections.
Facebook allows people to connect without sharing personal details and the same can be said for Twitter.
JayTurn recently posted…. Moving beyond the hype of business social marketingJay,
I totally agree about how LI works with relevant information on your profile. I am amazed that if if I do the smallest tweak to my LI landing page, it affects everything from how jobs are displayed to the “randomness” of my profile showing up in other pages.
Also, I will never look for a job any other way because of that. The recruiters can really focus in on a candidate base on keywords, geography, etc and come up with better relevancy.
I know this. I was on vacation last week and got 3 unsolicited interviews. One I excluded, but the other 2 are major, and completely came from good recruiters who knew how to work LinkedIn.
My network is also very manageable because I’ve allowed it to be that way. Nobody from my high-school needs to be here!
Good point, Jay – it’s one of the reasons I’m very picky with who I connect with on LinkedIn.
I see it as a VERY different platform from the other networks, and as such make sure that the person I want to connect with is someone worth connecting to.
Like you say, the information on LinkedIn is much more valuable for helping me make this decision, and for that it’s a much stronger tool than most of the other platforms.
Cheers!
Where did you get those infos mate, cool stuff
Web Design Nottingham recently posted…. WordPress SEO AdvantagesWhat’s your record as far as RTs? This one might beat it. People like posts with lists and posts about stats.
Sue Anne Reed recently posted…. The importance of blog design – blogchat recap 06-13-10You know, I’m not sure, Sue. Funny thing is, the RT system used on this blog is Tweetmeme.
But if you used the Topsy one, the (current) RT’s are 409 – http://topsy.com/dannybrown.me/2010/07/03/cool-facts-about-social-media/
So who knows?
Hey Danny, great job on this post. I must say that I am not shocked at the YouTube numbers, but I was surprised at the percents of Twitter usage outside of the U.S.
Thanks for sharing this informative post Danny!
-James
James Hampton recently posted…. Home Business Owners – How To Find Your Target MarketIt makes me wonder if it’s because Twitter’s short-form text is so similar to SMS, which has a higher uptake in Europe and Asia than it does in the U.S.? Perhaps users from these continents feel more comfortable using the platform as an extended SMS over their American cousins?
A question about the age-structure of youtube: Did the press center just looks at the age of their users?
It would be interesting, how many users are between 18 and 22. I think many kids fake their age to get to view the “explicit” videos. Maybe other people fake it too, because of their google-fear.
Hi Jonas,
Only YouTube would be able to offer that info. Although if you check out Quantcast, the demographics do seem to match up:
Danny, you are gorgeous! My task tonight was to look for some of these factoids and thanks to you I didn’t have to look too far! Cheers!
Good stuff Danny! Wow, Twitter has 300,000 new users every day! Some of these stats are incredible. If you are a Twitter junkie like me, follow me and I’ll follow back. I would like to share social media knowledge.
Brilliant list of statistics Danny. It doesn’t surprise me that 75% of people use third party apps instead of the platform. It is pretty clunky and I personally couldn’t see the benefits of Twitter until I started using TweetDeck.
The youthful age of more than 50% of YouTube users is quite surprising to me. At first I thought maybe the market for advertising there was not as great as first thought, however when you look at the 2 billion people using YouTube, I am pretty sure most companies are happy to advertise to 1 billion adults (If adults are their target market).
JayTurn recently posted…. Moving beyond the hype of business social marketingTwitter definitely doesn’t do itself any favours with its native platform, that’s for sure. I’m surprised they haven’t hooked up with one of the app makers – you could just see Loic from Seesmic being the perfect fit for them.
Great Post! Thank you for the facts! I am supprised by the huge amout of video material that’s been uploaded to youtube every minute!
Social Media rocks! Cheers,
Jan
Jan recently posted…. Ölablassschraube – VW Golf IVgreat info here Danny!
The only thing I would argue (and only because I put together a report on it) is that two thirds of bloggers are male. In a study I did for Sysomos we found that the ratio of male to female bloggers was almost even, and if anything there were more females with 50.9%. You can see the report (in case you hadn’t already at http://www.sysomos.com/reports/bloggers/Cheers,
Sheldon, community manager for Sysomos
Hey there Sheldon,
Cheers for the link, fella, interesting info. The stat here was from the 2009 State of the Blogosphere report (and for blogs registered with Technorati), so it would make sense to have different stats and demos for non-Technorati blogs.
Be interesting to see if their 2010 report correlates with your info.
Cheers!
This would make such a lovely infographic!
Now that may be just a little beyond my artistic skills, Carolynn. But by all means, if you’re artistic, design away – would love to see it.
Hi Danny,
I have been reading your blogs from China and just returned to the States. I think I have read about 5 months worth of blogs you have posted and although I may not be as savvy as yourself, you have motivated me to get more involved. I just started my wordpress blog and have started posting. One step at a time, but I was really motivated by some of your more recent fear blogs and this list of how many people are involved make me feel like I better get involved just to stay connected to global conversations happening all the time. Thanks for the inspiration!!!
Jeremie Brecheisen recently posted…. Good Chinese Translation WebsitesHey there Jeremie,
Thank you so much – always gratifying to hear words like yours, so sincerely, thanks again. Look forward to seeing how you get on.
And (in answer to your comment below), yes, the community here is awesome and makes the blog so much better than I could have ever hoped it to be.
Cheers!
I should say thanks to your community as well. They add quite a bit to your blog!
Jeremie Brecheisen recently posted…. Good Chinese Translation WebsitesDanny, I enjoyed this blog very much! It is exactly the basis upon which the next generation Social Media Network was developed. I sent you a private message on it. I would appreciate your feedback and would be honored to have you consider joining us. My website has more info.
Best regards, Keith
Awesome stats! Its here to stay and interesting to see the new players that come into the equation in due course
Agreed, Abi. When you think of the power players of the past – MySpace, Friendster, etc – and where they are (or aren’t) now, I wonder where Twitter, Facebook, etc, will be in 2-3 years time? It’s a fast moving space, all right.
I think sites like Elance are going to explode in popularity in the next couple years and definitely surpass LinkedIn, if not other social sites.
Great Job !
Very useful & helpful information
Thanks a million
Here in the Philippines, I did a survey of around 1,000 facebook users between the ages of 20 – 35, and we found out that the average facebook user in the Philippines has 438 friends! Twitter hasn’t caught on so much yet, but I think it’s getting there.
That’s awesome, Windi. Was there any particular reason that Facebook is so much more popular than Twitter? And how about these friend numbers – workers as well as friends and family, or just a more open approach from Filipinos?
It’s a combination of both things. Filipinos generally won’t add up total strangers on Facebook, but they WILL add all their aunts, uncles, cousins, 2nd cousins, 3rd cousins, classmates from grade school, high school, college, graduate school, colleagues from past and present jobs, people they meet during their travels, etc. It all adds up in the end. We are naturally a very friendly people, and we like keeping in touch with people we’ve met. With regards to twitter, I think it’s because twitter is more impersonal than facebook. Filipinos love taking photos and sharing photos and that’s a bit harder to do on Twitter. Could also be the 160 character limit
What a great quick read! I am going to pass it along to many! Thank you
Danny, that’s fascinating, thank you for the list!
Great info! Do you happen to know the average number of followers for Twitter accounts? That was the info I was really hoping to see included.
It’s hard to quantify average follower numbers on Twitter because of the celebrities with the millions of followers throwing balance off a bit.
But according to a report earlier this year, the number is 27:
http://themetricsystem.rjmetrics.com/2010/01/26/new-data-on-twitters-users-and-engagement/
Seems kind of low to me, but what do I know?
Thanks! That link was extremely helpful.
Danny,
It is wild to think that over just the last few years, all of our lives have been drastically changed by social media. Whether you are in the PR field or some other professional area, social media and networking have left an everlasting footprint on the way we live our lives. I read once that if Facebook was a country it would be the third largest in the world, WOW!
Most people once had house phones, then cell phones, now its smart phones and what some consider hand-held computers. I continually hear the question of, “What did we do without cell phones?” Now I hear, “I don’t know what I would do without my Blackberry and E-mail.”
Nearly 90% percent of people are a part of some social networking site; talk about a growing trend.Definitely a case of don’t stop to smell the roses, Ashley.
Danny: great write-up and list of statistics! Definitely handy for future presentations…
Ricardo Bueno recently posted…. How To Be InfluentialFacebook is big. Even large businesses rely on Facebook as an effective marketing platform. I wonder in which direction it will evolve in the future.
Good to know!
So this is how you write a retweetable post – noted!
Sam Schuurman recently posted…. All The Resource You Need To Start A Pimping Business Facebook PageGiggling every time I see such statistics, I notice the slant in numbers and influence. People join these sites, people visit these sites, fine. How many members close their accounts every month? How many IP addresses don’t return to a site even if the account remains open? How many people visit the site but aren’t counted as repeat visitors? What percentage of people who have an account on one social network are there as the result of someone they admire asking them to create an account?
And so on.
Your numbers don’t say that, because the official press centers won’t release it, maybe because they don’t know it or more likely they are afraid to lose influence themselves.
Ari Herzog recently posted…. Naive Yet Inspiring StatementWondered when you’d be over to dismiss the stats, Ari…
You could also ask how many new members replace the ones that close their accounts. You could also ask how many IP’s don’t return because they’re using a smartphone, or visiting from home more as opposed to work (or vice versa).
For visits, there’s always Compete and similar to track unique versus repeat. And don’t most folks check out a network because their friends are on it? Not sure the point to that question.
The point is, numbers and analytics are only as good as the source. Yet with so many sources agreeing that the figures mentioned here are similar across the board, you can take them as a good resource.
Of course press centres are going to be biased. That’s why you use external sources too.
J’ai aimé cet article. Informatif.
Wow! These facts are fascinating! I really find it odd to see all of my addictions to Facebook and Twitter and other media networks made to seem normal. I’m happy I have more friends than the average FB user, surprised that people spend 500 billion minutes per month on facebook, and find it interesting how many sites have integrated with facebook. Twitter I am relatively newly introduced to. I guess I am part of the 75% that use third party apps, TweetDeck. It is amazing to me that it started as a SMS-text service and that 60% of users are outside of the United States. I adore YouTube, and am happy to learn new things about it. I am not surprised that the U.S. is the majority of users. As for blogging, I am new at that and started it with my PR class and I never read or blog or thought about it until my class. Well, thank you so much for all of the random awesome facts!
like..this…twitter still number one..:)
rifky recently posted…. Hello world!What an interesting list of facts! I had no idea that LinkedIn has been around for so long. Also, it’s great that 14% of blogs are from companies – I wonder how quickly that number is growing as more companies adopt social media and specifically blogging.
Good point, Andrea – it’ll be interesting to compare these stats in either 6 months or a year’s time. I’m pretty sure there’ll be a big difference again
Well, there must be a new definition of the word ‘friend’, I missed ’til now.
Nevertheless, quite interesting stuff.
Cheers,
TAq.Danny,
I love you coz you actually made it easy for me to spill out the statistics in my presentation…i left startled expressions on many faces…hehehe…thankssssss
This is a great post! Thanks for sharing! I would love to share on my blog!
We absolutely love this blog post. We’ve tweeted different facts from your list several times. Thanks so much for this post and all the hard work that went into.
I had no idea that LinkedIn was the oldest, and I was also most intrigued by their stats. 80% of companies use LinkedIn as a recruiting tool? A new member joins every second? GOOD STUFF as always, @DannyBrown !
cool!!im actually just now hearing about linkedin. cant wait to try it!
You’re awesome Danny! Great read.
I’m currently using Facebook and Twitter, but never gave the others a thought. Once I feel like I’m utilizing the first 2 to the best of my ability I’ll need to think about expanding.
And that’s the great thing about each network, Craig – you don’t need to be on each. Make the choice based on where you need to be the most (personally or professionally) and then build from there.
I probably use 4-5 at the most – blogging, Twitter, Facebook, Slideshare and LinkedIn – and the rest kinda fall around that, based on either my needs or client needs at the time.
Cheers, mate!
Hey Danny, it was a good read, guess i was an year late!
. However, these figures must have changed for the better but i am wondering how much pie can social media can have out of real marketing budgets for the Companies out there? and Excatly how can they utilise socail media to make real differnece in the longer run.
Thanks Danny. I’m trying to get into social media and am glad for the tips.
Hi Danny,
Thanks for sharing. Looking back a year after making this post, if you could change one fact under each category what would they be?
Hi Sebastian,
It’s funny, I’ve been thinking of running an updated 2011 version, and include some more platforms. Think I may just have to do that.
Danny recently posted…. The Art of Being an AsshatUhm yeah…would love to help contribute if you ever wanted to collaborate. Social media has transformed with the sprouting of new social media platforms like Klout and the increase in popularity with geolocation platforms. Keep me posted.
Everyone knows social media continuing to get fame & get more traffic…
Peter Zmijewski recently posted…. Feedback of Google Analytics (GA) Latest Version
Interesting that only more than 1/3 of Twitter users access it through a mobile phone/device. I would think it would be higher, but that is still a decent number.
The 75% using third-party apps I believe, as many of them are more appealing visually than the basic Twitter interface.
Nice facts and cool post.