Did you know that each Social Media outlet has a different demographic it attracts? If you’re using social media as part of your marketing outreach, you should know who you are attracting and how to best attract them. The way that you use Twitter is vastly different from how you would use LinkedIn.
This is the first article in a five article series discussing the various Social Media resources and understanding how their users effectively market their business by utilizing the various forms of Social Media.
Let’s first break it down to usage. We will be taking a look at the Pew Research Center’s Social Media Use and Trends for the 2013 year. This is where researchers compare Social Media Trends and Use from 2012 to 2013.
The following percentages are of adults who use Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter, and Instagram:
Facebook had an increase of 4% use from 2012 at 67% to 2013 at 71%.
LinkedIn had an increase of 2% use from 2012 at 20% to 2013 at 22%
Pinterest had an increase of 6% use from 2012 at 15% to 2013 at 21%
Twitter had an increase of 2% use from 2012 at 16% to 2013 at 18%
Instagram had an increase of 5% use from 2012 at 13% to 2013 at 17%
Obviously Social Media is on the rise; many of those currently using Social Media don’t limit themselves to just one site but use two or more. Of online adults, 36% use only one site, 23% use two sites, 12% use three sites, 5% use four sites, and 2% use five sites.
The first Social Media Outlet we’re going to discuss is Facebook:
Some of the main things that attract users to Facebook include being able to curate their life story and being able to have a digital archive of events and photos that they could look back on. Facebook has such a broad social reach because it allows friends and family to be able to connect not only over short distances, but across the globe as well. Keeping in touch has never been easier.
Among the online adults who use Facebook, 76% are women and 66% are men. Of those users, 63% check their feeds daily, 22% check their feeds weekly, and 14% check their feeds less often.
At least 68% of Facebook’s users have a college degree, 75% of its users have some college exposure and 68% of its users are high school grads.
The ethnicity breakdown for Facebook users is pretty evenly disbursed as 71% White, Non-Hispanics, 71% Black, Non-Hispanic, and 73% Hispanic. 75% of Facebook’s users live in Urban regions, 69% live in Suburban areas and 71% live in rural areas.
Here are some more interesting facts about Facebook’s users:
Based off of this information you can determine that Facebook is one of the most diverse Social Media outlets. It attracts users from all walks of life, races, geographic regions as well as all education levels and levels of income. It is one of the easier Social Media outlets to utilize in your marketing strategy and will have the broadest reach.
Report: http://www.pewinternet.org/files/old-media//Files/Reports/2013/Social%20Networking%202013_PDF.pdf