Guest Column by Dean Swanson

I have written a lot lately about social media as it applies to small business. But, I was reminded by a reader of this column that I haven’t really discussed a big picture look about social media and how it has developed over the last couple of years. So, I will devote some ink to giving small business CEOs some updates about this ever-growing media in an attempt to allow them to gain a perspective to help them as they consider its use or potential use for their business.   

Again, as I write on various topics I try to search out folks that are in the know and ask them for some ideas and expertise. Today I chose Josh Wardini. His title is community manager at www.Skilled.co, but he is a world traveler, automation geek, entrepreneur and aspiring rock climber as well. 

Social media statistics 2016: It has only been about 10 years since social media really became a big thing. Yes, it was around for a while before then in one way or another, but it just wasn’t on the same scale as we see today. Now in 2016, almost one third of the world population is on social media — 31 percent to be exact. The highest usage comes from North and South America, at 59 percent and 50 percent of the populations respectively.

The regions with the lowest usage of social media and therefore the biggest areas for potential growth for social media demographics in the years to come, are in Central and South Asia and Africa. In these regions, only around 10 percent or less of the population say that they do not use any kind of social media. Wardini told me that “this is predicted to change fairly rapidly as access to internet and smartphones increases.”

One of the best social media facts of 2016 to look at to gain a better understanding of which social media platform is currently the most popular, is the percentage of users who login/view their page daily. Facebook is winning this particular battle right now with 70 percent of its users coming back every day. Instagram is also doing very well, with over half (59 percent) of its users returning on a daily basis. Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest make up the rest of the top five for this metric with 38 percent, 27 percent and 22 percent respectively.

Facebook statistics: Wardini said in his company’s research, they “had to give Facebook statistics its own section here, because they are simply dominating the social media industry at the moment.” Skilled.co made an infographic to describe these facts and it shows Facebook is winning when it comes down to how many of its users are returning to the site every day, but there is a lot more to know.

At the time of making this infographic, Facebook had around 1.6 billion active users from all around the world. This number only includes users who have been active within the past month and therefore does not include the millions of people who no longer use the service.

That source points out that due to the fact that Facebook has so many users on a truly global scale, it has made the company responsible for almost a quarter (22 percent) of mobile internet advertising revenue. With all other aspects considered, this makes the company worth over 300 billion dollars. This is about 20 times more than the platform in second place for revenue, LinkedIn, and about 100 times more than Instagram.

Social media facts for business: The ways in which people talk about and interact with your business through social media can make or break you. One mistake, one awkward or ill-timed post could change your image from fan favorite one day to the target of endless jokes the next day. You could have a million followers who love you or you could have a lonely little page with a few dozen people who just stumbled across it.

So, when it comes down to marketing and creating a social media strategy for your business where should you be concentrating your efforts? Wardine says “Well, Facebook for a start. Everyone who is attempting to sell a product or otherwise increase brand awareness in 2016 needs to be on Facebook. It is not only the biggest platform with the most active users on a daily basis, but it is also the leader when it comes to influencing purchase decisions.”

Facebook is the winner from a pure sales perspective with 37 percent of people reporting that this platform influenced their decision to purchase. Twitter came in second at 32 percent, and Pinterest was third at 19 percent.

Dean Swanson is the past chairman of Southeast Minnesota SCORE.