The Website Marketing Group recently released an infographic summarizing the biggest trends in social media marketing for the year 2013. One of the most notable numbers is that 93 percent of marketers are using social media for business outreach, branding, and customer relationship-building purposes. Even more significant, in the past 2 years, the number of people who are accessing the Internet and social media via their mobile phones has increased 60.3 percent, up to 818.4 million. Here’s a summary of some of the other key statistics and insights into the social media and mobile marketing arena for 2013.

In terms of traffic, social media forums such as Facebook and Instagram have grown exponentially, making them particularly powerful sites in which to focus your marketing efforts. For instance, Facebook has reached 665 million active users who go on the site on a daily basis. Likewise, Instagram has millions of daily visitors, with 45 million photos being uploaded to the site every day. Notably, LinkedIn continues to be a top forum for business networking, with 2 new people joining the site every second and over 2.6 million companies boosting established company pages.

For Google+, recent stats show that Internet users between the ages of 45 and 54 are currently the fastest growing segment using this social media forum, posting a 46 percent growth rate. In addition, between June 2012 and March 2013, the Google+ user base grew 33 percent overall, establishing it as the second largest social network in the world at this time.

Even more notable is Twitter, which currently owns the distinction of being the fastest growing social network in the world, with 44 percent growth from June 2012 to March 2013. In addition, Twitter is attracting an older audience (which is key for certain industries), with the fastest growing age demographic of 55 to 64 years of age. Overall, 21 percent of Internet users are using Twitter on an monthly basis, with Twitter serving as an increasingly important means of communication between businesses and their customers (83 percent of Twitter users expect a same day customer service response according to this survey).

Pinterest has emerged as the latest leader in e-commerce sharing, beating out Facebook by 4 percent. In addition, Pinterest users have increased by 20 million since February of 2013 (growing to 70 million total). Another hugely popular site that is often overlooked for marketing purposes is YouTube. According to the study, currently YouTube reaches more adults in the United States between the ages of 18 and 34 than any cable network, with 100 hours of video being uploaded to the site every minute.

References

Doyle, Michael. “Social Media Stats of 2013 (Infographic).” The Website Marketing Group. 9/5/13.