15+ Social Media Marketing Stats To Kickstart Your SM Presence in 2023

Quickly!

Name the first three social media platforms that you can think of.

Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram instantly came to mind, didn’t they? Maybe also Pintеrest, LinkedIn, and even YouTube?

See, even if you’re not an active social media user, you’ve likely heard of all of those. You probably also know a thing or two about them. Everybody has heard of social media.

Why is this relevant to you? Well, if you have a business, you need to be on social media.

Here are some social media marketing stats to support this claim:

Awesome Social Media Marketing Stats

• 50% of consumers use social media to research new products and services.
• 71% of consumers recommend a brand after a positive social media experience.
• 75% of small businesses use social media to promote their products and services.
• 50 million small businesses communicate with their clients via Facebook.
• 50% of Instagram users follow at least one brand.
• Visual content is shared 40 times more than any other type.
• 80% of time spent on social media comes from mobile phones.

Face it. If you want to sell, you need people to recognize you. Social media is giving you exactly that - exposure. It helps you bring awareness to your brand and engage with your customers. It’s the best way to bring any B2C strategy to life.

We have social media stats to illustrate that clearly.

1. Users spend around 145 minutes daily on social media.

(Source: Statista)

According to social media marketing stats, people spent about two hours and 42 minutes on social networks. That was a 45-minute increase compared to 2012’s data. 

A perfect opportunity for brands! 

Social media marketing statistics reveal other intriguing aspects of buyers' behavior.

2. Over 50% of potential buyers do their investigations about products and services on social networks.

(Source: Search Engine Watch)

People don’t just buy.

They first do their homework pretty well on social media.

Social media marketing statistics show that over half of prospects will check out your business pages and groups to see what people say about you and what you sell. Note that deleting negative comments on your pages doesn’t help, as they could still crop up in other groups where you have no control.

The good news is that if you have one or two haters, reviews from happy and loyal clients will redeem your reputation. 

That’s not all:

Always be polite when responding to negative comments. In addition, invest in high-quality photos, videos, and top-notch written content. 

And speaking of recommendations, check the one below.

3. 71% of users would recommend your brand if they’ve had a positive social media experience with it.

(Source: LYFE)

We all know how important customer service is. Social media gives you a brilliant opportunity to appeal to your future clients and show off your amazing customer service.

But take it from me, among all social media marketing facts, there is one universal truth about human beings that is key here - they hate to be ignored. So you need to make sure you respond to all comments, questions, and mentions you receive. Like as many of them as possible. People like feeling validated and showing that your brand cares about them will have a positive impact on the way they perceive you.

They also like to share their happiness. If you leave a good impression, users will talk about you. As Cam Newton said, word of mouth travels faster than anything else. Recommendations from friends and family usually carry more value than any other kind of online review.

Having a positive relationship with your customers on social media is vital. That's why the next fact makes so much sense.

4. As of Q1 2022, over 200 million businesses are using Facebook.

(Source: Hubspot)

How many businesses are on Facebook?

As of 2022 – over 200 million.

Facebook provides tons of marketing opportunities. With its intuitive tools, brands can share their location and contact details, making it easy for potential buyers to reach them. They can also add customer reviews, product and service descriptions and run effective ads.

5. Over 90% of Insta subscribers follow at least one business in 2022.

(Source: Instagram)

Due to its constant growth, Instagram is an excellent platform for amplifying a brand’s presence. Social media marketing stats show that as of Q1 2022, almost every IG user follows at least one brand. The platform’s interface and business management tools make it super easy to interact with customers, run ads, and achieve effective brand awareness.

6. Over 70% of people visit Pinterest for inspiration before buying.

(Source: Pinterest)

Oh, those gorgeous images and videos on Pinterest!

According to social media stats, nearly ¾ of users go to Pinterest for purchase inspiration. Most people will naturally gravitate to anything visually attractive.

So, if you’ve been considering signing up, it’s time to do so. You might just inspire lots of visitors to buy your stuff. 

7. Visual content is 40 times more likely to be shared than any other type.

(Source: HubSpot)

Users have become lazy. We don’t like reading long texts or listening to long lectures. We like shortly-summarized information, preferably with pictures or a video to go with it.

Irony aside, humans process visual information faster than anything else. So if you want to grab someone’s attention, you need to present the information in an engaging way (read infographics, videos, data visualization, images). Articles and posts with visual content are more likely to get shared and go viral.

Also, if you pair information and images, people remember 65% of the information served for three whole days. This is a huge percentage and when you think about all the people using social media, you can realize how you can make it work in your favor.

Good marketers know it too and implement visuals in their marketing strategies.

Videos managed to surpass blogging in content social media strategies. 63% of marketers rely on it, rather than on long texts.

Now let’s talk about LinkedIn for a while. But wait.

Why are we talking about LinkedIn, when it’s just the more uptight, professional version of Facebook? People don’t really sell there, do they?

Well, they do. As a matter of fact, social media sales statistics point that B2B buyers prefer it.

8. 50% of B2B buyers use LinkedIn for research and purchasing decisions.

(Source: Small Business Trends)

LinkedIn is all about making professional connections. Showcasing your skills and professional milestones there can do wonders for you and your business. It’s a wonderful way to build work connections and get recommendations.

Also, as it was mentioned several times before, people like to do their research. Most of us like to check future colleagues' and employees’ resumes and recommendations on LinkedIn. Business pages are also regularly visited, so keeping yours updated is of utmost importance.

It’s not only research that people prioritize. Educational content gets its share of attention as well.

9. 61% of marketers prefer educational social media posts.

(Source: SproutSocial)

Explainer videos are a hit these days. If you show people how to benefit from your product or service, they are more likely to become clients. You might think it’s obvious, but most people lack imagination.

Now that we’ve mentioned video, we have another jaw-dropping fact for you.

10. 79% of users would rather watch a video than read about a product or service.

(Source: OptinMonster)

Our attention span is getting shorter and people rely on videos heavily these days. That’s why there’s such a huge variety of video types you can use on social media. You can:

• Collaborate with influencers for vlogs
• Create behind-the-scenes content through Instagram’s or Facebook’s live stream option
• Create explainer videos, as we already mentioned

As a bonus tip - reviews and testimonials from other clients can also be used for video content.

But beware.

11. As little as 15% of users play Facebook videos with the sound on.

(Source: LYFE)

Don’t let that discourage you! There are ways around it.

Subtitles are your friend. Besides, with subtitles, you also make your videos accessible to more people. In other words, you guarantee everyone will get the message, sound or no sound.

Another approach is to make your videos easy to comprehend without sound. Most videos on Facebook manage to get their point across without the help of sound.

In addition to videos, users enjoy emoticons as well.

12. Emojis raise engagement by 33%.

(Source: LYFE)

Emojis seem to be everyone’s favorite. More and more brands are including them in their posts or photo captions.

Just don’t go overboard. The line between adorable and annoying is a thin one.

Do you know what else is effective?

Questions.

13. Questions lead to 50% more engagement.

(Source: Small Business Trends)

Questions are engaging. They invite users to share their opinions.

And who doesn’t like having their voice heard?

Questions also improve your fans’ social media experience with your brand. Having your audience feel like their contribution is important and your brand cares about them is how you generate loyalty.

With more and more social media platforms popping up and an ever-wider user base signing up, the benefits of standing out are well worth the effort.

To sum up all those social media marketing stats, the time has come for businesses to accept social media as their new ruler.

Just kidding, it’s a free country.

Still, the importance of social media is undeniable and the benefits those platforms hold for businesses are staggering. There are 7 billion people on Earth and most of them are on or will be on social media soon enough. It’s a huge pool of potential buyers and clients, and you need to make the most of it.

14. Social commerce buyers in the US will grow to $101.1 million by 2023.

(Source: Business Insider)

Due to the pandemic, the time users spend on social networks increased from 56.23 minutes in 2019 to about 65 minutes in 2020, according to social media statistics. The more people spend time on social networks, the more they come across excellent products and services and share the information with their friends, acquaintances, and family. Industry players predict that buyers in this sector will be over 100 million come 2023. 

15. Facebook has added new tools that help Group admins manage their communities better.

(Source: Hootsuite)

In March 2022, Facebook introduced QR codes that community users can scan and be directed to a brand’s About section. This helps increase brand awareness and manage misinformation.

Other novelties include the Suspend feature and email group invites.

16. Using Facebook vs Instagram vs Twitter For Businesses

Here's an interesting comparisson for social media marketing accross Facebook, Instragram, and Twitter:

(Sources: Oberlo, RivalIQ, Influencer Marketing Hub, Biteable, Socialbuddy, Business Insider, SocialPilot, Weidert)

To loosen up a bit after all those social media statistics, we’ve prepared some digital marketing jokes for you to enjoy.

1. A SEO copywriter walks into a bar, bars, tavern, pub, pubs, public house, Irish, bartender, drinks, beer, wine, liquor…

This is a true, real, veracious, factual story, narrative, account, tale.

2. What do you call a cow with a blog post stamped on its skin? Branded content!

Cow jokes can still be someone’s IP.

3. What’s a personality trait of a bad marketer? Anti-social.

Do you get it? Cuz social media are so big? Amirite? Amirite?

I will see myself out.

4.  Where’s the best place to hide a body? Page 2 of Google.

Realistically, if you are not on page 1 of the SERP, you are largely invisible on Google.

5. Why did the girl dump her marketer boyfriend? Lack of engagement.

Yeah, that’s right. Engagement and lead generation are the toughest challenges in digital marketing, which would make it hard for the marketer to find a new girlfriend.

Hopefully, you laughed at least one of those. More importantly, we hope those social media marketing stats managed to show you how important social media is for businesses in the 21st century. Till next time!