Why is it important to know statistics about social media? These statistics can help you and your brand drive social media engagement and growth. Knowing the social media user statistics will help you define and target your social media strategy to best reach your followers and drive growth. Social media engagements statistics are a good way to measure your brand reach and can help you figure out which platforms work best for you. The following social media statistics for business will help your brand market your content successfully.

Social media usage statistics are important for planning your strategy to reach the most users possible. However, most popular social media sites have varying levels of usage across different countries and demographics. When you’re examining social media use statistics, it’s best to review active account usage rather than the number of accounts. In 2016, Facebook still has the most active users with over 1,590 million users. Instagram is next with 400 million users, followed by Twitter with 320 million.

Looking at social media growth statistics, Facebook dominates in terms of growth and engagement -- especially among millennials--but Instagram is the winner when it comes to average interactions with over 70 average interactions per 1,000 followers.

It’s also important to know the statistics of social media demographics when looking at the statistics on social media use.

• There were 2.307 billion active social media users as of January 2016
• Online adults aged 18-34 are most likely follow a brand via social networking (95%)
• Over 75% of all Internet users use social media.
• 71% of consumers who have had a good social media service experience with a brand are likely to recommend it to others.
• 96% of the people that discuss brands online do not follow those brands’ profiles
• Visual content is over 40 times more likely to be shared on social media

Facebook:Facebook ranks #1 globally in terms of traffic, with 26.90 billion total visits. Whether or not your brand is active on Facebook, the statistics on social media usage for the site should affect your social media strategy. The United States has the most traffic on Facebook, with 18.19% followed by Brazil with 7.28%Since Facebook is one of the most-used social media sites, knowing the social media user statistics and demographics will help focus your strategy to successfully reach your audience.

• 29.7% of all users are between ages 25 and 34, at 29.7%
• Facebook has seen an 80% growth in ages 55 that use the platform
• Facebook users are 76% female (out of 100% of all females) and 66% male (out of 100% of all males).
• The highest traffic occurs mid-week between 1 and 3 pm and on Thursdays and Fridays, engagement is 18% higher

Twitter:

‍Twitter is host to more than 320 million active users per month and is the second-most used social media platform. Social media advertising statistics show that more companies are using Twitter as a customer services tool (2.5 times higher in the last two years) with success, since 77% of Twitter users feel more positive about a brand that replies to their tweet. Most Twitter users are located outside the US and the majority of users access the platform from their mobile devices.

• 37% of 18–29 years old use Twitter, followed by 25 percent of adults 30–49
• More men (24%) use Twitter than women (21%)
• 92% of companies with Twitter accounts tweet more than once a day
• The average Twitter user follows 5 brands and 54% of users have take action after seeing a brand mentioned.

According to social media addiction statistics, nearly 80% of teens check social media accounts on their phones on an hourly basis and 72% feel the need to respond to texts or social networking messages. Most social media users access sites like Twitter and Instagram from their mobile devices.

‍Instagram:

‍Younger users see Twitter and Facebook as “old” and gravitate more towards Instagram, which now has 400 million active users, 75% of whom are located outside the US. Of the 400 million, 60% login to Instagram daily, making it the second most engaged network following Facebook. But it’s not just Millennials -- 45% of Fortune 500 companies have an active Instagram account rather than a public-facing blog and 8 of the top 10 fortune 500 companies are active users.

• Out of the top 100 brands in the world, 90% have an Instagram account
• Engagement with brand on Instagram is 84 times higher than Twitter, 54 times higher than Pinterest, and 10 times higher than Facebook.
• 50% of Instagram users follow brands -- more than any other social media network.
• Posts with at least one hashtag gain 12.6% more engagement and posts with a location receive 79% more engagement

It’s important to know the social media marketing statistics on the platforms that your brand uses so that you can tailor your social media strategy accordingly. Knowing the content that appeals most to users of a particular platform and the best times to post will help your content receive more engagement. The statistics on social media, such as user demographics, the best time to post, and what content performs best are important for marketers and advertisers. Using social media business statistics helps your brand make the best use of social media in order to increase engagement with your brand across social media platforms.