Posted on March 9, 2018 by admin
Big Five: A Glance at Top Social Media Platforms in 2018
When Gary Vaynerchuk, CEO of Vayner Media said, “Market like the year you are in,” he certainly found the social media element missing from the digital marketing landscape. However, things have changed in these years, and now, almost every business believes in the power of social media. Businesses are claiming their social media presence with unprecedented fervor. Whether it is the new addition to the fleet of your local car rental service or just launched summer collection from your favorite clothing brand, you will see glimpses of these in your Instagram stories or Facebook newsfeed almost every day.
Social media users grew into a 3 billion community last year with no signs of slowing down. But, not all of them are available at all social media forums. Looking into the individual users of social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, etc., there are significant demographic and audience differences that can make or break your social media strategy.
The part of the problem that still persists is that social media is often thrown off as a collective term with a little emphasis on its individual platforms. While it is important to be on social media, it is undoubtedly more important to be on the right social media platforms.
So, are you wondering what it is like to market in the year 2018? What platforms matter the most? Where should your focus be? Find out the answers.
Team SMM at ESP Inspire is here to explain the social media marketing landscape with insights to big five platforms.
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Facebook – The Jack of All Trade
There cannot be a discussion of social media without mentioning Facebook, the largest of any social media platform. Facebook is the first and only platform yet to cross the 2 billion user milestone, and there are more than one billion monthly active users as of January 2018. The active mobile users on Facebook are above 1.5 billion. Not to forget that Facebook Messenger, a chat app is closely behind the Facebook with 1.3 billion active users.
The sheer numbers indicate that Facebook is too big to ignore in 2018 and coming years.
Facebook is playing an incredible role in connecting businesses with customers, and it is the hub of social conversations. From customer feedback to paid marketing, Facebook is a promising marketing tool to meet the business goal.
Looking at the demographic distribution of the Facebook users, almost 29% of Facebook users are 25-34 years old while another 18% are between 35-44 years old. The number of active users below 24 years is 17%. What does it mean for small businesses? It means that if your target audience is between 25-44, it is time to gear up your Facebook game. But, if your key demographics are in their teens or early twenties, your major followers are somewhere else.
So, if you haven’t already, it is time to claim your Facebook space and pour it with good quality content and fun posts. Use latest trends to create exploding conversations and do not forget to experiment with chatbot features of the messenger. And mind you, what happens on Facebook stays on Google!
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YouTube- The Ace of Video Content
As a digital marketer, you would have heard the buzz about video marketing and how it is quickly becoming the single most important influencer. According to a research in 2017, 31% of respondents rated video as their favorite type of content, making it the top choice among respondents.
Well, if you know about video marketing and video content, there is hardly any chance that you have not experimented with YouTube marketing.
As of 2018, YouTube’s has officially reached to 1.5 billion users, making it the second most popular platform after Facebook and Facebook Messenger. The whopping figure also indicates that almost half of the internet users are already on YouTube. Furthermore, more than half of the YouTube views come from the mobile devices, and it is the more popular than any other Cable TV channel among 18-34 and 18-49 years old.
Not just a video content platform, it is time to consider YouTube as a full package. It is a search engine as well as a social media platform. Thousands of search queries are entered directly on YouTube every day and another million utilize Google’s video search feature to land on YouTube.
So, if you are in the year 2018 with powerful branding ideas and want to target teenage to middle age consumers, it is time to take the reins of your YouTube channel in your hands and build a failproof YouTube marketing strategy.
Instagram- The Picture Perfect of Social Media
Launched in 2010, Instagram has risen to the hallmarks of popularity quickly in less than a decade. Rising to the occasion, it has become the third biggest platform for social media marketing and a hub of activity in the marketing world.
As of 2018, the Instagram has 800 million monthly active users with more than 500 million daily active users. Instagram’s ‘stories’ feature has 300 million daily active users.
Back in 2016, Instagram reported that its users share more than 95 million posts every day, gathering up to 4.2 billion ‘like reaction’ every day which reflects the powerful engagement of this platform.
Now, let’s have a look at the Instagram’s key demographics. 68% of Instagram users are female, and almost 31% of American women use Instagram as compared to 32% of the total male Instagram users and 24% of American men. The major population of Instagram users is between 18 to 29 years old, making up a large chunk of 59% and another 33% are between 30 to 49 years old. One of the most important thing that digital marketers must carve on their mind in 2018 is that Teens love Instagram and find it the most important social network.
The numbers do not just stop here! Almost 71% of US businesses have their presence on Instagram among the total 8 million business profiles. 7 out of 10 Hashtags on Instagram are branded, and a post with Hashtag gets 12.8% more engagement. While 200 million users visit at least one business profile every week, the top brands choose to stay highly active on Instagram by posting 4.9 times a week. Instagram also has the highest interaction rate of 22.3 per thousand followers as compared to 5.99 on Facebook and 0.83 on Twitter.
In the age of the video and picture, Instagram is a perfect opportunity to spread visual content among a highly engaging audience.
What does all this mean for your business in 2018?
Only one thing that there is no way around the Instagram. If you have not yet, it is time to sign up and start telling your visual story to the young audience, but do not forget the hashtag.
Twitter- The Buzz Creator
As a digital marketer of 2018, you cannot ignore twitter. Twitter is where the hashtags begin, and stories evolve. It is where the well-educated, knowledgeable and affluent millennial sit together to generate conversations powerful enough to send ripples across other platforms. But, as a social media marketer, data is your best friend. So, what does twitter’s landscape look like in 2018?
The twitter’s official numbers of active users have reached to 330 million in 2018 with 100 million daily active users. Almost one-fourth of all internet population uses Twitter, and 67% of America population has twitter accounts. 80% of Twitter users are also mobile users. Twitter reported 500 million daily tweets three years back and has only announced hundreds of thousands of tweets ever since.
Twitter’s demographics show that the platform is specifically popular among affluent millennial. It is also a gender-balanced channel with 24% of all internet male users on the twitter and 21% of all female internet users using Twitter. 37% of the users are between 18-29 and 25% are from 30 to 49 years old, making it a popular platform among millennial.
Exploring the business marketing on Twitter, an average Twitter user follows five businesses and 77% of Twitter users feel positive about a brand with twitter presence. The twitter is a popular social media networking platform among SMBs and US businesses with 65% of US companies with 100+ employees using twitter marketing, and 92% of companies tweet more than once a day. The twitter engagement also looks promising as 80% of Twitter users have mentioned business in their tweet. Twitter’s distinct influencing power with almost 81% of world’s leader on Twitter is not just limited to politics, but businesses too.
So, if you believe in content marketing and want to utilize the power of conversations, it is time to talk the tweet and retweet.
LinkedIn- The Professional Leader
So, what platform makes it to the last position of the ESP Inspire’ Big Five list? Not so surprisingly, it is LinkedIn.
LinkedIn is increasingly getting popular among digital marketers for its reach and effectiveness among digital marketers. As the twenty-fifth most popular website on Alexa, LinkedIn has 500 million profiles with 260 million monthly active users. A startling fact is that more than 133 million users of LinkedIn are from America.
Coming to the demographics, 31% of men and 27% of women internet users use LinkedIn which means that 56% of LinkedIn users are male while another 44% are females. The age group is evenly split among 18 to 49 with 34% of people between 18-29 and 33% of people between 30-49. 35% of people on LinkedIn are employed, and almost 70% are withdrawing an annual income above $50,000.
A major population of LinkedIn users is in the decision-making roles in their organizations, making LinkedIn extremely beneficial for B2B marketers.
So, mark 2018 to be the year of your LinkedIn marketing integration. Build up your connections and utilize group feature to develop awareness and recognition in the circles relevant to your industry.
Take Home?
So, digital marketers, are you prepared to steam up your digital marketing strategy with these latest statistics for 2018?
The social media landscape in 2018 is full of opportunities for digital marketers with roughly 3 billion huge engaging audiences. There is no one formula fits for all when it comes to social media strategy and channels. The best approach is to claim your presence on all top five platforms and start building your fan base with individual yet integrated strategy. Use latest demographics to tweak your content and update your profile to create lasting impressions and continuing relationship with your customers.