Social media is changing every day, and with many different channels to post on, how do you know that your efforts are going to be fruitful?
Think about who you would like to target, and who your current client base is. Where do they live? How old are they? What are their interests? What is important to them? Are they male or female? Answering these questions will help you decide which demographic you should be targeting for maximum return.
During my social media workshops and presentations, I like to share statistics about the most popular social media channels (as I know them right this second, haha). Although it’s best to have a presence on each of the main social media channels (LinkedIn, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Google+), you don’t have to post on all of them, all the time. Once you’ve decided on your intended demographic, use these stats to target the appropriate audience. Remember to use analytics to track your page’s specific engagement, as “rules” vary by industry and demographic:
- Daily reach of over 1 billion subscribers (Source: Facebook)
- Nearly 30% of users are aged 25-34 (Source: Emarketer)
- You should be able to reach nearly equal numbers of males and females (Source: Brandwatch)
- The most traffic is between 1 and 3 pm daily (Source: bit.ly)
- Thursdays and Friday have higher engagement than other days of the week, especially of you post in the evenings (Source: bit.ly and Forbes)
- Half of 18-24 year olds pop on Facebook right when they wake up (Source: The Social Skinny)
- Daily reach is 300 million subscribers (Source: Omnicore)
- 20% of all internet users use Instagram (Source: Omnicore)
- 68% of Instagram users are female (Source: Omnicore)
- Over half of 18-29 year olds are on Instagram (Source: louisem.com)
- Evening and late night posts get the most engagement, although each day varies (Source: louisem.com)
- In terms of annual salary, 30% of Instagram users make between $50K and $75K (Source: louisem.com)
- There are 467 million active LinkedIn users (Source: Omnicore)
- 40% of subscribers use LinkedIn every day (Source: Omnicore)
- 57% of LinkedIn users are male (Source: Omnicore)
- Posting an average of 20 times each month is best (Source: LinkedIn)
- 79% of LinkedIn users are over 35 (Source: pingdom)
- More than 40% of LinkedIn users make over $100K/year (Source: Business Insider)
- There are 150 million active Pinterest users (Source: statista.com)
- Over 70% of Pinterest users are female (Source: sproutsocial)
- Images without faces are more likely to be repinned (Source: sproutsocial)
- The age of users on Pinterest is between 25-44 (Source: Ignite Social Media)
- There are 300 million active Google+ users (Source: expandedramblings.com)
- Almost 70% of Google+ users are male (Source: CodeFuel)
- The average Google+ user is age 28 (Source: jeffbullas.com)
- Google+ is a great B2B channel (bettiblue.com)
- There are over 300 million active Twitter users (Source: statista.com)
- 64% of Twitter users are over 35 years old (Source: pingdom)
- 16% of online users are on Twitter (Source: Entrepreneur)
- 62% of users are women (Source: Entrepreneur)
Using a combination of these stats to find your ideal demographic, and following up with analytics, will help you to reach the most people possible to expand your brand. Happy posting!
