Social media isn’t a fad...... It’s a revolution!
Social Media tools including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Blogs and YouTube are taking the world by storm. Information is truly at our fingertips and can be spread faster than ever before.
Here are some statistics and information showing the extent to which Social Media has grown.
- 80% of the Australian population use the Internet (17 million people).
- 74% of the world Internet population have now visited a social networking/blogging site.
- Internet users are spending an average of almost 6 hours per month on social media sites. Australia has the highest global average with 7 hours per month.
- Facebook has more than 600 million users.
- If Facebook were a country it would be 3rd largest in the world behind: China and India.
- Facebook has more than 9 million users in Australia, which means a penetration rate of 45%.
- Facebook gained 80 million new accounts in the first quarter of 2011.
- The fastest growing segment on Facebook is 55-65 year old females
- 475 million Facebook users are between 18 and 44 years old.
- Roughly 1 billion pieces of content are shared on Facebook – DAILY
- Twitter has 175 million members.
- Twitter’s unique visitors increasing from under 200 000 in May 2009 to 10 million in May 2010.
- LinkedIn has seen one of the fastest growth trends amongst social media sites in Australia, with unique audience numbers increasing by 99% from July 2009 to May 2010.
- 80% of companies are using LinkedIn as their primary tool to find employees
- There are 161 million blogs on internet.
- 1 out of 8 couples who married last year in the US met via social media
- 78% of consumers trust peer recommendations, only 14% trust advertisements
The most phenomenal part is the speed at which Social Media is taking hold. Below are some further figures regarding adoption of various technologies over the years.
Years to reach 59 million users:
- Radio – 38 years
- TV – 13 years
- Internet – 4 years
- iPod – 3 years
- Facebook had 100 million users in less than 9 months
- iPod application downloads hit 1 billion in 9 months
‘Social media is not a fad, it is a fundamental shift in the way that we communicate’ - YouTube
We hope you found this information interesting and that it motivates you to investigate Social Media opportunities for your business.
