36 Essential social media marketing statistics to know for 2021

When setting or reexamining your social media marketing strategy, statistics are one of the first things that marketers look at. They’re often used to benchmark your own performance within your industry or to research a new network.

The year 2020 was a significant one in social media. The pandemic pushed more people to spend time online and find more ways to engage with each other. Social media engagement and best times to post were adjusted to the new normal of work-from-home schedules.

In combination with the most recent social media demographic statistics, marketers can use the below as a guide for setting expectations and strategies.

Social media usage stats

It’s no secret that social media continues to grow in popularity. We spend a lot of time on social media because it helps us keep track of friends, family and brands. Creating a social media marketing strategy is a must for reaching the audiences doing just that

1. Globally, over 3.6 billion people use social media and the number is only projected to increase to 4.41 billion in 2025.
2. The top social media networks ranked by the number of active users are Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger.

3. Internet users spend an average of 144 minutes on social media per day.

Facebook stats

The oldest of all the social media networks, Facebook saw a lot of change in 2020. New features like live broadcasting from a Page, Creator Studio updates and the integration of Messenger into the Page Inbox made having an effective Facebook marketing strategy still important to brands.

4. Facebook still reigns as the most used social network in the world. In Q3 2020, the network reported over 2.7 billion monthly active users (MAUs).

5. The all-industry median benchmark for Facebook engagement rate per post is 0.09%. This number is mainly unchanged from 2019.

6. Advertising is how Facebook makes most of its money. The network boasts nine million active advertisers in Q2 2020 and claims that mobile accounted for 92% of its total revenue.
7. Links were the most commonly used content type for brands on the network at 44.2% of all brand posts.

Instagram stats

Instagram introduced many new features in 2020. To help brands sell better and consumers shop easier, Shops was introduced along with shopping tags on Live videos. Reels was added to the suite of Instagram videos, furthering the network’s desire to work closely with creators.

8. Instagram has 1 billion monthly active users and 500 million of them use Instagram Stories.
9. The largest demographic on the network is women aged 18–24 years old.
10. The all-industry median benchmark for Instagram engagement rate per post is 1.22%. This median has decreased by 23% from 1.60% in 2019.

11. 90% of US marketers name Instagram as the most important social media platform for influencer marketing.
12. The top two most effective content types for influencer marketing are posts (78%) Stories (73%).

Twitter stats

Similar to Facebook, Twitter introduced new features for fact checking in direct response to the US presidential election and conversation control to help create more valuable and positive discussions. News from around the world dominated on the platform, moving at a breakneck speed.

13. In Q3 2020, Twitter reported an average of 187 million monetizable daily active users (mDAUs), up 29% year over year.
14. The all-industry median benchmark for Twitter engagement rate per Tweet is 0.045%. This has been a consistent number for three years in a row.

15. Tweeting frequency decreased by 10% in 2020. The current median across all industries is 0.77 Tweets per day. Focusing on specific industries, the media (9.54 Tweets per day) and sports industries (7.24 Tweets per day) combined posted more than all the other industries.

Pinterest stats

A network for social bookmarking and idea saving, Pinterest helped house-bound Pinners focus in on their newest projects in 2020. The company released a report on their 2021 predictions based on the trends they saw in the year.

16. According to the company’s 2020 Q3 report, the global MAU count grew 37% year over year to 442 million Pinners.
17. Demographic growth is substantial on Pinterest. Women make up more than 60% of the global Pinner community and male Pinners are up almost 50% year over year. In terms of generations, Gen Z Pinners are up 50% year over year while millennial Pinners are up 35% year over year.
18. When they want to start a new project, 85% of Pinners choose Pinterest as the place to start from.
19. An overwhelming 98% of Pinners say they have tried new things that they found on Pinterest.
20. When looking for purchase inspiration, 89% of Pinners use the network.

LinkedIn stats

The world’s largest professional networking site, LinkedIn is all about connections and business influencers. LinkedIn marketing for brands helps in recruitment efforts and customer acquisition.

21. Globally, LinkedIn has more than 722 million users in more than 200 countries and territories.
22. 96% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn for organic content distribution and 83% for paid social, making it the top most-used platform in both content distribution types.
23. Long-form posts perform well on the network. In fact, posts with 1900–2000 words performed the best in terms of views and engagement.

24. There are 14 million open jobs listed and 3 people are hired every minute on the platform.
25. Four out of five LinkedIn members drive business decisions.

Social media advertising stats

It’s tough to stand out from the crowd as a brand. Having a social media advertising strategy in your pocket helps you control your expectations and ad spend.

26. In Q2 2020, the average CPM cost on social media was $4.33.
27. The average CTR for social media ads in Q2 2020 was 1.3%. This number is slightly up from 1.2% in 2019.
28. When examining B2B advertising, social media advertising was used by 83% of marketers and ranked second in success (29%) behind search engine marketing (33%).

Consumer behavior stats

Consumer behavior changed significantly in 2020 and social media marketers need to adjust their expectations in response to these new statistics. The Sprout Social Index reported that 50% of consumers increased their social media usage in the last six months.

29. 57% of consumers will follow a brand to learn about new products or services while 47% will follow to stay up to date on company news.
30. After following a brand on social media, consumers continue to engage in various ways. Ninety-one percent visit the brand’s website or app, 89% will buy from the brand and 85% will recommend the brand to a family or friend.
31. The top four reasons consumers will unfollow a brand on social media are poor quality of product or support (49%), poor customer service (49%), irrelevant content (45%) and too many ads (45%).

32. When asked what type of content they like to engage with, 68% of consumers preferred images, 50% preferred videos and 30% enjoyed text-based posts.

Social marketer stats

Social media marketing would be nothing without the people who run them. Social marketers juggle strategy and challenges in the face of an ever-changing landscape.

33. The top three challenges that social marketers say they face include identifying and reaching their target audience, measuring ROI and supporting overall business goals.
34. The most successful B2B content marketers reported that the top two contributing factors were the value their content provides (83%) and website changes (60%).

35. Content creation can be tough and outsourcing is often a good solution for companies who require a lot of content. In 2020, 86% of B2B organizations outsourced content creation and 30% outsourced content distribution.
36. 81% of organizations use social media publishing/analytics tools. Content creation/collaboration/workflow tools increased from 48% in 2019 to 58% in 2020.

Takeaway

Being familiar with the most current social media marketing statistics can help brands in reviewing their strategy and setting new goals. Are your engagement rates drastically different from the median and are you keeping up with your own industry? These statistics operate as a benchmark but it’s always a good idea to research even further for more specific data about your own brand’s performance.

As people are more online than ever, brands are learning that using a customer marketing playbook with social listening can only help them understand consumers more and identify trends as they arise.

This post 36 Essential social media marketing statistics to know for 2021 originally appeared on Sprout Social.

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