As of July 2024, there are 5.17 billion social media users worldwide, or 63.7% of the global population. In the past year, user numbers grew by 282 million, a 5.8% increase, or about 8.9 new users every second.
Nearly 95% of internet users engage with social media monthly, though this may include duplicate accounts. Social media use is generally restricted to those aged 13 and older, potentially underestimating its reach.
For adults, over 86% are active social media users, engaging with about 6.7 platforms monthly and spending an average of 2 hours and 20 minutes daily. This totals over 12 billion hours of global usage each day—more than 1.38 million years collectively.
Dominant social media platforms
The latest data from data.ai highlights the most popular social media platforms:
1. YouTube tops the list with the highest number of active users, setting the benchmark at 100.
2. WhatsApp and Facebook follow in second and third place, with WhatsApp surpassing Facebook in user base.
3. Instagram is in fourth place, with its user base approximately 70% of YouTube’s. You should definitely do maximum posting on Instagram if you are a B2C brand. Use the best time to post on Instagram given by Sprinklr in their latest research.
4. Facebook Messenger is fifth, with active users reaching over half of YouTube’s audience.
5. TikTok ranks sixth, with a user base about 44.7% of YouTube’s size.
Other platforms lag significantly behind, with fewer than one-third the active user count of YouTube.
The importance of social media for businesses
1. Leverage social advertising
Social media advertising is rapidly growing. Facebook Ads, for instance, reached $9.16B in Q1 2017. Social ads are here to stay due to their lower costs, targeted reach, and real-time performance tracking. They offer a more cost-effective, targeted approach compared to traditional methods and provide instant feedback for adjustments.
2. Boost brand awareness
Social media is a powerful tool for brand awareness. Businesses neglecting it risk losing ground to competitors. To increase brand visibility, identify your audience, use eye-catching visuals, foster conversations, and measure your efforts. Tools like SocialPilot can help you schedule posts ahead of time, manage multiple accounts from a single dashboard, and analyze performance across platforms. Building authority through valuable content also helps.
3. Increase inbound traffic
Social media enhances inbound marketing by connecting you with a larger audience. Sharing quality content increases your reach and brings targeted traffic to your site. Platforms like LinkedIn and Instagram can attract different customer segments, driving high-converting traffic.
4. Improve SEO
Social media and SEO are connected. While social shares don’t directly affect rankings, social profiles rank well and can drive traffic. Optimizing your social profiles and content can enhance your web presence and attract new followers through social searches.
5. Increase conversion rates
Social media helps capture and convert leads. Use social proof and user-generated content to build trust and encourage conversions. Engage with your audience creatively to drive higher sales. To enhance credibility and showcase real customer experiences, integrate a Facebook widget on your website, allowing visitors to see authentic reviews and interactions, further boosting trust and engagement.
6. Satisfy your customers
Social media enhances customer satisfaction through personalized, accessible service. Monitor conversations, address issues promptly, and build relationships with key customers to improve satisfaction and retention.
Social media marketing tips for business
1. Understand your audience: Analyze their demographics and interests to customize content and increase engagement.
2. Foster relationships: Connect with followers to build loyalty. Offer valuable content and respond quickly to comments.
3. Select the right platforms: Choose social media channels that match your audience’s preferences for optimal reach.
4. Explore sales opportunities: Leverage social selling and keep up with new features to boost sales and broaden your marketing impact.
5. Plan with a content calendar: Create a social media content calendar to organize and schedule posts in advance to ensure consistent content and efficient use of resources.
6. Leverage the right tools: Use tools for metrics, scheduling, and visual creation that fit your business goals.
7. Use effective hashtags: Research and incorporate relevant hashtags to enhance post visibility and audience connection. Additionally, consider showcasing these posts on a social media wall, where live updates from platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook can be displayed, further amplifying engagement and creating a dynamic connection with your audience.
8. Cross-post content: Share content across multiple platforms to reach a wider audience and streamline creation.
9. Create compelling visuals: Design engaging images and videos to capture attention. Tools like Canva can help.
10. Monitor and improve performance: Track performance to refine strategies, focusing on what works and adjusting what doesn’t.
Conclusion
The rapid growth of social media, with 5.17 billion users worldwide as of July 2024, underscores its significant influence on global communication and commerce. As of July 2024, this makes it one of the most impactful platforms in the global communication and business, which is used by 17 billion users. Growing participation of active users and their activity across various social media sites underlines the fact that businesses can tap social media really well.
To businesses, social media is not just an added promotional platform but the foundation of today’s plans. what it provides is the highest level of turnout brand recognition and customer interaction, and perhaps most importantly, leads. Social media ad, increase in the visibility of the brand, increase in the number of visitors, and the improvement in the website’s ranking are considered vital for competitiveness. Moreover, good practices like knowing who is out there, building relationship, and using relevant tools will help to take these advantages to another level.
It only appears glaring, that as the phenomena of social media unfolds, strategies need to progress in such a way that businesses can continue to stay in pace, relevant and linked with their targeted audiences as the World becomes more wired.
