Who would have guessed at the beginning of the year that nearly half of Facebook’s ad revenue would come from mobile, just months after the social network introduced mobile advertising? That was just one of the surprising and interesting developments in social media this year. With the year winding to a close, here’s a look at the 10 most interesting social media stats of 2013.
Top 10 Interesting Social Media Stats of 2013
10. Facebook Mobile Advertising Soars
During the third quarter of 2013, the world’s largest social network got 49 percent of its ad revenue from mobile. That’s amazing considering just two years ago the company did not have any sort of mobile ad strategy in place.
9. Facebook Is a Huge Time Suck
A stunning one out of every eight minutes online is spent on Facebook. That’s a whole lot of “liking.”
8. Twitter’s Fastest-Growing Demographic
Apparently all the hip young people are already on Twitter, because it’s those of ages 55-64 who are joining the social network at the fastest rate these days. The number of tweeters in this demo has soared 79 percent since 2012.
7. Young People Trust Social Media for Health Information
Never mind the doctor, why not check your symptoms on Facebook? An astonishing 90 percent of adults 18-24 say they trust health information that others have shared on social networks.
6. Social Media Drives Few Black Friday Purchases
Considering how important social media is to most companies’ marketing strategy, this is a sobering find: only 1 percent of online Black Friday purchases were generated by social media, flat to last year.
5. Social Media Drives Ideas
Even if people aren’t buying directly based on social media links, they are using these sites to get gift ideas. Sixty-five percent of consumers say they have employed social media to find “the perfect gift.”
4. Social Media Users Have a Very Short Attention Span
Shorter posts on social media sites will win you more engagement. One study found that Facebook posts with fewer than 80 characters draw 66 percent more engagement than longer ones.
3. People Tweet a Lot
The latest stat puts the number of tweets per day at 500 million, up from 27 million three years ago. That translates to 5,700 tweets per second and 20.8 million tweets per hour.
2. Instagram Has Blossomed
There are now more than 150 million Instagram users, up from 30 million a year and a half ago when it was acquired by Facebook for $1 billion. In fact, on Thanksgiving, Instagram had its single-biggest day for traffic in history, with so many people posting that the site went down for a bit on Black Friday as it recovered from the holiday rush.
1. Email Must Include Social Sharing Buttons
Email continues to be an important marketing tool, even if it’s lost some of its shine since the explosion in social media. Still, make sure you include social media information on your email blasts. Email that includes social sharing buttons drives up click-through rates by 158 percent.
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See also: 9 Social Media Stats About the World Cup That Will Astound You
