Facebook is, for marketers of all types, the social network that can’t be ignored. Unlike sites that appeal primarily to specific demographic groups (Pinterest, Snapchat), career path (Vimeo, LinkedIn) or country (VK, WeChat), Facebook use cuts across all social, economic, demographic, and geographic boundaries.
Image credit: www.vpnsrus.com
From the business side, long gone are the days when Facebook was looked at as only suitable for brands, bands, and bars. B2B companies of all types, including IT and medtech firms, have embraced Facebook. Even defense contractor Lockheed Martin has a Facebook page.
Business executives and marketers no longer ask about if their company should have a Facebook presence, but rather how to best utilize the platform. They want to know how to increase their reach, impact, engagement, and ultimately their results. They want to know how their metrics compare to competitors.
Here are 17 Facebook facts and statistics from recent research, in four categories, along with four key takeaways to help marketers get more out of their efforts on the world’s largest social network.
Facebook Demographics
1. As of March 2017, Facebook had 1.94 billion monthly active users (MAU). That’s equivalent to roughly 26% of the global population. It would be the world’s most populated country if it was one (China is at 1.3 billion). (DrumUp Blog)
2. In 2017, Facebook acquired on average about eight new users per second. That’s 7,246 people every 15 minutes. (DrumUp Blog)
3. 68% of all U.S. adults are on Facebook. (Statistica)
4. 75% of all men and 83% of all women who use the internet can be reached via Facebook, as can 88% of 18-29 year olds, 84% of 30-49 year olds and 62% of 65+ year olds. (Pew Research Center)
5. Facebook has 1.23 billion active daily users on average. (HubSpot)
6. 65 million businesses now have Facebook pages. (Facebook for Business)
How to Increase Post Engagement
7. Want to write an engaging headline for a Facebook post? According to research, the single best three-word phrase to include (by far) is will make you” (as in “This Data Will Make You Think Again About Headlines”). The next-best phrases are “this is why” and “can we guess.” Emotional phrases like “tears of joy,” “make you cry,” and “give you goosebumps” also work well. Among the worst phrases are “simple way to,” “that actually work,” and “don’t forget to.” If you are going to use a number in your headline, the best number is 10; 5, 15, and 7 are also good. Finally, don’t be afraid to go long: the most engaging headlines contain 12 to 18 words and between 80 and 95 characters. (BuzzSumo)
8. Facebook posts with images see 2.3X more engagement than those without images. Facebook Page videos generate 16% more engagement per post than images. (HubSpot)
9. On Facebook, video gets three times as much engagement as any other kind of content. (Buffer Social)
10. The majority (54%) of Facebook traffic now comes from mobile-only users. (Skyword)
Facebook Video Stats and Facts
11. 100 million hours of video are watched on Facebook daily. (HubSpot)
12. Facebook video has now grown to an average of 8 billion video views per day. (Skyword)
13. Over 500 million (that’s half a BILLION) people are watching video on Facebook every day. (Forbes)
14. Square video is predicted to grow in popularity. Square videos take up 78% more space in the Facebook News Feed, and get more engagement, than horizontal videos. (Forbes)
Random Facebook Facts and Stats
15. Facebook is available in 101 languages including Maltese which is spoken by just 400,000 people. (USA Today)
16. Each minute of server downtime costs Facebook more than $24,000. But keeping the world’s largest social network running and secure isn’t easy: globally, there are 600,000 hacker attacks made on Facebook accounts every day. (DrumUp Blog)
17. Facebook now accounts for more than 90% of all social media shares. (Contently)
Based on the findings above, here are four key takeaways for B2B marketing professionals:
- You have to be there. Chances are if you’re sophisticated enough to be reading this blog, your business has been active on Facebook for years. But on the off-chance your company for some reason does not yet have a Facebook presence (roughly half of all businesses globally still don’t; estimates of the total number of businesses worldwide range from 115 to 190 million)
- Run Facebook ads. If you not already using Facebook advertising or paid promotion, 2018 is the year to experiment. According to Digiday, only about 2% of a brand’s followers will see its posts, on average, and with Facebook’s most recent newsfeed changes, that share will shrink even further.
- Use Facebook tools. A growing ecosystem of Facebook marketing tools can help you build custom Facebook apps; create quizzes, games, and contents; optimize your ad spending; monitor and analyze results, develop AI-powered chatbots; and perform other functions.
- Try adding video. As quantified above, Facebook video is huge, growing, and engaging. To maximize interaction with your page updates, make your feed a mix of text, image, and video updates.
This was the 11th post of the Spectacular Springtime of (Digital Marketing) Stats series on Webbiquity and elsewhere.
#1: A Spectacular Springtime of Stats, Facts and Insights About Digital Marketing
#2: Email Marketing Turns 40 This Year (and 10 Other Fascinating Facts)
#3: Nine Social Media Marketing Stats You Can Use
#4: Marketing Technology Growth and Challenges – 12 Enlightening Statistics
#5: Mobile Marketing: Four Fascinating Findings from 14 Fantastic Facts
#6: The State of Search: 17 Illuminating SEO and SEM Statistics
#7: 12 Solid Stats Surrounding Social Networking (Plus Four Timely Tips)
#8: Five Big Questions About Online Video Answered by 24 Statistics
#9: Content Marketing Strategy: Five Essential Elements Based on 24 Stats
#10: Enterprise vs. SMB Marketing Trends for 2018: 22 Revealing Facts