2012 is officially here, and what better way to kick off the New Year than with some data porn? In its recent US Digital Media Usage report, eMarketer estimates how digital media usage will grow in 2012 in terms of the internet, mobile, social, video, and ecommerce.
So whether you need to justify your inbound marketing-centric strategies to your boss or convince yourself that inbound is the right way to approach your marketing program in 2012, check out these 25 eye-popping marketing stats that highlight the probable growth of digital media in 2012 and emphasize why you'll definitely need inbound marketing this year.
The Internet in 2012
1) In 2012, the audience of internet users in the U.S. will expand by 3.1% to 239 million, representing 75.6% of the total population. Tweet This!
In other words...
2) More than 3/4 of the total population will be online in 2012. Tweet This!
Mobile in 2012
3) Mobile internet users will reach 113.9 million in 2012, up 17.1% from 97.3 million in 2011. Tweet This!
4) Smartphone users will reach 106.7 million in 2012, up 18.4% from 2011. Tweet This!
5) In 2012, 94% of smartphones users will be mobile internet users. Tweet This!
6) All mobile phone users will reach 242.6 million in 2012, up 2.3% from 2011. Tweet This!
7) Mobile shoppers will reach 72.8 million in 2012. Tweet This!
8) Mobile buyers will reach 37.5 million in 2012. Tweet This!
9) Smartphone shoppers will reach 68.6 million in 2012. Tweet This!
10) Smartphone buyers will reach 36.4 million in 2012. Tweet This!
11) Tablet users will reach 54.8 million in 2012, up 62.8% from 33.7 million in 2011. Tweet This!
12) iPad users will reach 41.9 million in 2012. Tweet This!
13) In 2012, 76.4% of tablet users will be iPad users. Tweet This!
14) Adult-aged eReader users will reach 45.6 million in 2012, up from 33.3 million in 2011. Tweet This!
Social Media in 2012
15) Facebook will reach 143.4 million US users in 2012, up 8.2% from 132.5 million in 2011. Tweet This!
16) About 2/3 of web users will use social networks in 2012. Tweet This!
17) More than 90% of social network users will be on Facebook in 2012. Tweet This!
Online Video in 2012
18) Online video viewers will reach 169.3 million in 2012. Tweet This!
19) 53.5% of the population and 70.8% of internet users (up 7.1% from 2011) will watch online video in 2012. Tweet This!
20) Mobile video viewers will reach 54.6 million in 2012. Tweet This!
21) Smartphone video viewers will reach 51.2 million in 2012. Tweet This!
Ecommerce in 2012
22) 88.1% of US internet users ages 14+ will browse or research products online in 2012. Tweet This!
23) 83.9% of internet researchers will make at least one purchase via the web during 2012. Tweet This!
24) Online shoppers will reach 184.3 million in 2012, up 3.3% from 2011. Tweet This!
25) Online buyers will reach 154.6 million in 2012, up 4.4% from 2011. Tweet This!
Did any of these 2012 premonitions surprise you? Are you motivated to get moving on a more inbound-focused marketing strategy this year?
Image Credit: Victor Bezrukov
Inbound Marketing Blog Feed
Carsten Rachfahl 9:39 AM on January 05, 2012
Nice article. I have one question: are the numbers world wide or only us?
Regards Carsten Rachfahl
Pamela Vaughan 9:51 AM on January 05, 2012
Hi Carsten. The numbers are just indicative of behavior in the United States. Glad you enjoyed the article!
Jay Thompson 10:27 AM on January 05, 2012
Very interesting stats Pamela. But I found the extensive use of the "Tweet This!" link extremely distracting. They dominate the page, disrupt the flow and are quite annoying. I get the want/need to be retweeted, but asking 25 times in one article seems... excessive and a little to "in your face".
Pamela Vaughan 10:35 AM on January 05, 2012
Sorry you feel that way, Jay, but I respect your feedback. The tweet links aren't really there to encourage retweeting. To be honest, we just think a post full of valuable stats would be great fuel for readers' own Twitter streams, so we thought we'd make it easy for them to share each one. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
Miranda Opiela 10:59 AM on January 05, 2012
Where/how did you obtain your stats?
Miranda Opiela 11:00 AM on January 05, 2012
NVM! I see you mentioned eMarketer at the beginning!
Jeremy Blanton 11:20 AM on January 05, 2012
Pamela, I agree w/Jay on this one. In moderation is one thing. In excess is another. To me it gives the appearance that all this article is designed for is to drive more people to your site. It's like you are prostituting your post to just get more viewers.
To me if the post was designed to bring more value it would be to a link giving either an explanation of the stat or more details on how that stat came to be.
James 11:41 AM on January 05, 2012
Don't forget to tweet this out guys, Twitter needs more of the same information over and over again. In fact, I just RT HubSpot and Mashable all day, MY FOLLOWERS LOVE IT! (NOT)
On a serious note, I was at a SXSW talk where Dan Zarrella said "Don't be afraid to ask for the retweet." - but this is taking it a bit far.
Tina Behnke 12:03 PM on January 05, 2012
Easy now.... Pamela, I love the easy tweet capability! Makes it super easy to share a knowledge nugget or two without just sharing a link that forces the reader to search thru an entire post. How can I incorporate that capability in my blog posts?
Pamela Vaughan 12:06 PM on January 05, 2012
Glad you like it, Tina! 'Sharing a nugget of knowledge or two,' as you put it, was our exact intention. You can easily create those tweet links with this free tool: http://clicktotweet.com/ Simple!
Kamilla Wyatt 2:34 PM on January 05, 2012
These are great stats for 2012!
(Of course I tweeted the ones regarding video as those are closest to my heart:)
Thanks Pamela!
Sandra McLeod Humphrey 3:25 PM on January 05, 2012
I found the comments as interesting as the article and I'm glad I stopped by!
John McConnell 6:14 PM on January 05, 2012
Pamela, I agree with Tina. Its nice just to re tweet certain stats.
Josh 6:22 PM on January 05, 2012
great stats!
Generate web traffic at
Boost-your-net.com
Greg 7:49 PM on January 05, 2012
I agree the "Tweet This" links are both annoying and useful. Perhaps you can strike a balance by making the retweet links regular instead of bold, black or gray instead of orange do they don't overpower the content being delivered.
The stats that surprised me the most were increase in iPad users and increase in mobile browsing. I need to get our site comparable with mobile browsers! Thanks!
Cheap SEO India 12:10 AM on January 06, 2012
I like your article very much!!
Sid 1:03 AM on January 06, 2012
Thank you for the useful article
Ose 4:05 AM on January 06, 2012
Wow! One can see that technologies is
taking over the affairs of men and women in the world. Ideas are what we
need to impact value on the human
race.
Thank you.
email blast campaign 6:28 AM on January 06, 2012
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Rene 10:33 AM on January 06, 2012
Whilst I don't agree in asking for RTs (the content should speak for itself unless its charitable), let's not let the 'please RT' this get in the way of some useful stats that could be resused in your presentations, proposals and teaching.
Tuncay Aydemir 11:35 AM on January 06, 2012
influential article:)
John McElhenney 6:29 PM on January 06, 2012
Pamela,
How does your statement "The tweet links aren't really there to encourage retweeting." make any sense at all. I too found the Tweet This links distracting. It's not too late to take them out. (grin)
JMac
Diana 5:19 AM on January 07, 2012
To say a great big thank you for all of this information.
Mo 12:09 PM on January 09, 2012
Not sure I follow the mobile math. If there are 106.7mm smartphone users, 94% of whom are mobile internet users, and 54.8mm tablet users + 45.6mm eReader users, how are there only 113.9mm mobile internet users?
Balboa Capital 7:13 PM on January 11, 2012
Wow, fantastic assortment of data, thank you for sharing.
@eurikaweb 4:37 AM on January 19, 2012
Internet marketing really need reliable dashboard for decision making. I'm just little bit worried about the quality of this forecasts.
Smartphone Friendly 11:25 AM on January 21, 2012
Thankyou! I've been looking for some up to date statistics on Mobile and most of what I found was from March of 2011...
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