34 Stats to Help You Plan Your Social Media Strategy on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram & More

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Ilya Pestov
Ilya Pestov

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Back in October, I wrote a piece on Medium that covered the numbers behind some of today's top social media networks. 

From usage numbers to engagement statistics, it was incredible to see just how impactful networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram have become. For example, not only is Facebook home to 1.23 billion daily active users on average, but those users come from all over the world -- with 85.2% residing outside of the U.S. and Canada. That's a crazy level of connectivity.

As I put together the post, it became obvious just how fast these networks were growing -- and I thought a lot about how hard is it to keep up with all of these changes, especially for marketers. To make things a little easier to wrap your head around, I put together a simplified list of some standout statistics for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instragram, and Pinterest. Check them out below if you're looking for some guidance for your social media strategy this year. 

34 Stats to Help You Plan Your Social Media Strategy on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram & More

Facebook

Twitter

  • Tweets with images receive 18% more clickthroughs, 89% more Likes, and 150% more retweets.
  • 60% of consumers expect brands to respond to their query within the hour, but the average is 1 hour 24 minutes.
  • Ideal tweet length: 100 characters.
  • Clickthrough rate is highest on Wednesdays.
  • A tweet that doesn’t include a # or @ mention will generate 23% more clicks. When the tweet is focused on driving an app install, forgoing a # or @ mention increases clicks by 11%. But according to Quicksprout, tweets with hashtags get 2X more engagement -- clicks, retweets, favorites, and replies.    

LinkedIn

Instagram

  • On average, people miss 70% of their feeds.
  • 1.1% average engagement rate of all posts (4.2% in 2014; 2.2% in 2015).
  • Images with a single dominant color generate 17% more Likes than images with multiple dominant colors. Images with a high amount of negative space generate 29% more Likes than those with minimal negative space. Images featuring blue as the dominant color generate 24% more Likes than images that are predominantly red.
  • Photos showing faces get 38% more Likes than photos not showing faces.
  • Photos see more engagement than videos on Instagram.
  • The red heart is the most frequently shared emoji on Instagram, which is shared 79% more than the next most popular symbol, a smiling face with heart eyes.
  • 50% of captions and comments on Instagram contain at least one emoji.
  • The most common posting frequency for brands on Instagram is 11–20 times per month.
  • Instagram audiences are more engaged on Mondays and Thursdays at 2 a.m., 8–9 a.m., and 5 p.m.

Pinterest

What networks are you most interested in investing in this year? Share your thoughts in the comments.

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