Keeping track of all the most effective social media techniques can be dizzying. There’s no golden rule or master trick that works across all platforms. Even if there were, it would probably be outdated in a month.
Why? Because effectively using social media requires Rubik’s Cube-like logic. There are so many different platforms to keep track of, and a shift on one network could impact how you approach others.
With that in mind, here are seven social media stats we’ve compiled from around the web that should help you start to crack that cube.
- Social referrals lead to the shortest engaged time of all sources, at 57 seconds
Clicks are still the universal barometer of publishing success, but that doesn’t mean they’re always good. Clicks can be bought on social networks for cheap these days. And if someone spends less than a minute reading your article before bouncing, how much is that click actually worth?
- Mothers with children under the age of 5 are the most active demographic on social media
You might assume that teens and tweens would be most active on social. They’re the ones walking into oncoming traffic with their eyes glued down to their screens, right? It turns out mothers of young kids are spending more time scrolling through feeds. It would be tough to speculate why without generalizing, but it might be time to change the demographic you target with social ads.
- 69% of all global sharing activity occurs via dark social (through emails, apps, and forums – outside of what analytics programs can track)
Social shares are useful when thinking about engagement, but they don’t tell the whole story. The way content spreads has gotten so complex, and we need the software to be able to track that complexity. As strategies evolve, marketers would be wise to think about dark social when building a content operation. It’s easy to get caught up in likes and retweets, but as this stat from RadiumOne suggests, so much sharing happens beyond our purview.
- 1 hour and 43 minutes is the average daily use of social media on any device among people in the U.S.
The average American spends about 10 hours in front of screens every day. That’s either awfully incredible or incredibly awful, depending on how you see it. Almost 20 percent of that time is spent on social media, meaning there is ample opportunity to get content in front of your audience. But with so much consumption, there’s also a risk that your content will blur together with everything else as users hop from network to network.
- By late 2015, 47% of Facebook’s 1.59 billion monthly active users were mobile only, meaning they’ve never used Facebook on a desktop computer
Most marketers understand the still-growing value of mobile by now. But if you still needed motivation to optimize your site for mobile usage, this stat from eMarketer is it. Also, when it comes to targeting your Facebook ads, make sure you prioritize mobile users.
- Snapchat videos receive more than 7 billion daily video views in January 2016. In September 2015, that number was 4 billion
Remember when Snapchat was a punchline? Some sort of cult platform for Millennials? It still may be those things, but it’s also become incredibly important to brands and publishers. Everyone likes to talk about how video is the future of content. As engagement continues to skyrocket, Snapchat may be showing us why.
- 71% of consumers who receive a quick response from a brand on social media are likely to recommend that brand to others
If you’re a brand, it’s easy to post on Facebook and create a story on Snapchat. But it requires a bit more effort to get consumers to trust you. Social media isn’t just a one-way street for pushing your content in front of consumers. If people seek out brands with a question or problem, they want prompt replies. And the companies that do this well will seem like more than just faceless corporations—they’ll become valuable resources.
Written by Yardain Amron
Originally posted on contently.com