Dipti Parmar 12 April 2016

Categories Research, Social Media

67 Things You Didn’t Know About Your Favorite Social Media Platforms

This post is our yet another attempt to build the big daddy of all listicles. If you have ever felt social media is funny or weird, and a lot of your social marketing results (or efforts) don’t make sense, this fact-filled post is a must-read for you.

Disclaimer: While a majority of these facts concern social media marketing, some of them have found their way into the list because they were too cool to be left out.

If you don’t want to know facts about all of these social networks, you can directly jump to your favorite one using the links below.

• Facebook – The 10th point is quite interesting
• Twitter – The 9th and 10th points will make you go from ‘duh’ to ‘aah’
• Instagram – There seem to be a bunch of unknown things about Instagram ads floating around
• Snapchat – These slyly double as reasons to join Snapchat
• YouTube – A few gems for video marketing in here
• Linkedin – Every content marketer must read these
• Google+ – These are a bit sad
• Pinterest – These facts suggest the way forward with Pinterest
• Bonus – Exciting things to know about other networks and social media overall

Facebook

1. It takes longer for food to pass through your stomach and small intestine than it takes for your Facebook posts to disappear from your audience’ feed. This means you don’t have much time to work your magic!

Source: 75% of the engagement on a post happens in first 5 hours

2. Media companies like Huffington Post, Tastemade, TMZ, E!, and others have wasted no time streaming their features live on mobile with Facebook Live. Apparently this is the best way to reach Facebook’s 1.6 billion users, so you better start getting the hang of it.

Source: Facebook’s Live Video Effort Entices Media Companies

3. Facebook’s new Instant Articles ad policies are more publisher-friendly. With the latest move to allow ads (text and video) at the bottom of content and pre-roll ads (for video content), generating revenue will become easier for marketers.

Source: Facebook will allow more advertising in every Instant Article

4. Facebook changed its Friends icon. The new icon is symbolic towards gender equality and fairness. While this is not related to marketing, marketers can glean a lesson from this fact and ensure their posts are thoughtful, sensitive and morally justified.

Source: How We Changed the Facebook Friends Icon

5. Facebook Reactions like Sad and Angry don’t mean Facebook will infer that your audience doesn’t want to see your posts. So you are free to post all types of content without worrying about negative reactions. Case in point, the angry reaction here is for Trump, not The Huffington Post.

Source: What the Reactions Launch means for Newsfeed, Facebook Newsroom

6. Reserve your best posts for Friday because posts posted on Friday get most impressions and engagement. Also the rate of video plays is higher on this day. Businesses and social media publishers now have a whole new reason to say TGIF!

Source: Social Intelligence Report

7. This one is for businesses who believe quantity trumps quality; your followers will unlike your page if your posts are uninteresting.

Source: Most common reason to unlike a Facebook page is uninteresting posts

8. You don’t have to guess wildly any more on what the interaction rates should be for your Facebook page. Just note down the number of fans and refer the table below:

Source: Finding the Right Interactions for Your Facebook Page

9. The Fashion, Airlines and Electronics industries get the highest number of likes, whereas Finance and Alcohol get the most shares!

Source: Finding the Right Interactions for Your Facebook Page

10. 42 percent Facebook users applied filters to their profile pictures in response to the terrorist attacks in Paris while only 4% did so in response to LGBT rights. Such comparisons could be a great way to understand the issues that are close to your fans’ hearts.

Source: Changing a social media profile picture is one way to express support or solidarity

Twitter

11. Twitter is evolving as a customer support platform. 22% people between the ages of 26 and 36 prefer to use Twitter for customer service support more than any other platform. If you are not providing customer support on Twitter, you might soon alienate a major portion of your customers.

Source: The State of Social Support 2016

12. Etsy has 2682415 followers, 400k followers more than retail giant Amazon. So if you are wondering where to set up shop for your handmade goods, this might be the answer.

Source: Twitter Brand statistics – E-shop

13. 23 percent of Twitter advertisers plan to decrease spending, while 32 percent plan to increase spending. That are some mixed signals for a marketer right there.

Source: More advertisers plan to spend less on Twitter: Mahaney

14. Twitter’s Periscope app has over 10 million active users and 100 million broadcasts. A new feature allows Twitter users to watch Periscope streams directly within their feed, as opposed to clicking a link that redirects to the Periscope app. This can work wonders for your visibility if you get it right – your audience doesn’t even have Periscope accounts.

Source: Twitter

15. A Michigan woman traded her Twitter handle (@DietDrPepper) for $5,000 (41,000 bottles of its Dejà Blue water brand) to help assuage water crisis in Flint. Lesson for marketers here – your Twitter account handle is your identity and asset, treat it that way!

Source: Detroit Free Press

16. One of the most important aspects for succeeding on Twitter is average response time. Railways have the best average response time of 1 hour 26 minutes, airlines come in at 3 hours 12 minutes, whereas car rental companies fare the worst at 22 hours and 32 minutes. What’s your average response time?

Source: Twitter’s Winners and Losers

17. YouTube has the largest number of followers of all the social network official accounts, even more than Twitter itself.

Source: Essential statistics for Twitter

18. Twitter is more popular amongst young adults — 22.2 percent of U.S. Twitter users are between 25 and 34 years old. The second largest user group were 35 to 44 year olds at 20 percent. The time to tweak your audience profile is now.

Source: Statista

19. A study found that tweets sent by women were big on emotional words like sad, love, glad, sick, proud, happy, scared, annoyed and excited whereas tweets sent by men were mostly about sports, technology and – wait for it – numbers! So gender-specific norms are true even for Twitter.

Source: Gender Identity and Lexical Variation in Social Media

20. Twee-q, a Swedish tool that measures male vs female retweet ratio, found that women were retweeted 1,926,738 times whereas men were retweeted 3,469,196 times. Here are some interesting results featuring E2M digital marketers.

Source: Twee-Q.com

Instagram

21. Instagram posts get 308% more engagement than Facebook and 1,313% more than Twitter. That’s after engagement rates started their decline.

Source: Is Instagram Becoming Saturated?

22. Your Instagram feed was not always searchable on the web. The latest brand-friendly algorithm change ensures all Instagram posts have greater visibility.

Source: Instagram Brings Search to the Web

23. Another algorithmic change makes Instagram more like Facebook. The switch from the chronological timeline to quality-optimized content is (supposedly) beneficial for users, who miss 70% of their feeds anyway, but brands are not happy with the change as it stifles organic reach.

Source: See the Moments You Care About First

24. The overlay for the action-driving ads displays the Facebook Page name as well as the destination website URL when you tap on an image. The same goes for mobile app install ads. Advertisers pay on the basis of action (click on the link) and not the tap.

Source: Understanding the Ad Overlay

25. Instagram faced a lot of backlash for its Search Followers/Following test feature. But it might be a good idea for brands to understand their audience by seeing who their fans followed. The Following search is a handy tool to find popular Instagram influencers.

Source: New Instagram search bar takes stalking to the next level

26. Within a year, the number of companies that use Instagram for marketing will be more than those that use Twitter.

Source: Number of Companies Using Instagram to Nearly Double Next Year

27. Instagram will surpass Google and Twitter in net mobile display ad revenues in 2017.

Source: Instagram Mobile Ad Revenues to Reach $2.81 Billion Worldwide in 2017

28. The top three hashtags on Instagram include #fashion (284,157,962 photos), followed by #likeforlike and #friends. In addition, #TBT (throwback Thursday) and #WCW (woman crush Wednesday) are also quite popular. If you have a fashion brand, you know where you have to be.

Source: Top-Hashtags

29. The best time to get more engagement on your posts is between 6 a.m. and 12 p.m. because posting volume is low then. The early bird gets the engagement worm.

Source: Why Your Brand Should Consider Morning Posts

30. One of the best time-saving features introduced by Instagram is multiple accounts. You can add up to 5 Instagram accounts on your app and switch between them. A lot of marketers are still unaware of this feature.

Source: Instagram Help Center

Snapchat

31. Snapchat has around 100 million users who spend between 25 and 30 minutes on the service every day. It gets more than 8 billion video views a day, which is roughly in the same neighborhood as Facebook. Is your brand on Snapchat?

Source: Snapchat’s Spiegel to Investors: We Have 8 Billion Video Views a Day

32. Although Snapchat tries to keep it hush-hush, it is rumored to make a Google-glass like eyewear. This could mean even more Snapchat users in future. Is your brand on Snapchat yet?

Source: SnapGlass? HoloChat? Snapchat is secretly hiring wearable technology experts

33. Under UK copyright law, it would be unlawful for a Snapchat user to take a screenshot of an image and make it available to the public without the consent of the image owner. Does that mean brands can sue people too? At least we know they won’t suffer as much backlash as they do when they goof up on Twitter or Facebook. Another reason for brands to be on Snapchat.

Source: UK Parliament

34. Snapchat ‘Chat 2.0’ update allows video and audio chatting and typing with text or stickers. Now where have we heard of this feature before? Oh yes, Facebook’s WhatsApp! Do you see what Snapchat is trying to do here? From its selfie-sharing app days it is moving fast towards total social media dominion. Yet another reason for brands to be on Snapchat.

Source: Snapchat blog

35. Imitation is the best form of flattery. Snapchat must be doing something right if Facebook, the social media giant tries to copy its main feature i.e. self-destructing posts.

Source: Facebook takes on Snapchat

36. In the early days, a large portion of the Snapchat population comprised of male millennials but now the app is now attracting a lot of female millennials. Part of this reason is popular fashion bloggers and celebrities who are using Snapchat to capture their busy days, trendy clothes and fancy lifestyles.

Source: Female Millennials’ Use of Snapchat Surges Ahead of Men

37. Snapchat has deals with companies like Nielsen and Millward Brown for measuring advertising impact and reach. It is also rumored to integrate with comScore to woo advertisers and publishers. This integration will help publishers to measure audiences and give advertisers a better understanding of their audience.

Source: Snapchat Discover publishers could get comScore numbers

YouTube

38. After Periscope and Facebook, YouTube will be rolling out its livestreaming app, called YouTube Connect soon. Marketers will be spoilt for choices!

Source: VentureBurn

39. The most popular ecommerce brands on YouTube are Vat19, Rainbow Loom Bands and Amazon.

Source: Brands YouTube statistics

40. YouTube has over 1 billion users who watch over 6 billion hours of video every month. 80% of these are outside the US.

Source: YouTube

41. If you thought Snapchat and Periscope will replace the old video Goliath, consider this: T-Mobile users can watch YouTube videos for hours without adding up their data charges. T-Mobile allows users and services to stream at native resolution, all the way up to 4K.

Source: YouTube agrees to participate in T-Mobile’s free video program

42. YouTube is testing a Related Cards feature which shows related videos for vague or obscure search terms.

Source: YouTube Is Experimenting with Related Cards at the Top of Searches

43. YouTube Accelerator allows users in Philippines at various Wi-Fi hotspots to stream 100,000 cached videos without buffering. These videos will be the most viewed YouTube videos in that particular country. Marketers can start praying to get this feature in their countries soon.

Source: YouTube Accelerator

44. In a survey of 350 B2B companies, 96% of respondents said that they were actively engaged in video marketing whereas 73% of respondents believed that video marketing is good for their ROI.

Source: 73% of B2B Marketers Say Video Positively Impacts Marketing ROI

45. If you think you can get away without having YouTube influencers disclose that they are getting paid for the reviews, think again. You might get in trouble with the Federal Trade Commission.

Source: FTC press release

46. YouTube’s brand page is the third most liked page on Facebook with over 81.32 million Facebook fans.

Source: Product brands with the most Facebook fans as of January 2016

Pinterest

47. An overwhelming majority of users say Pinterest is the best source to find inspiration, plan, and try something new. Time to listen to that new intern for your Pinterest campaign.

Source: Ipsos

48. Pinterest announced the launch of a new type of Rich Pin called How-To Pins. This pin is indeed a rich edition to the Rich Pin family which consists of App, Movie, Recipe, Article, Product and Place pins.

Source: Pinterest blog

49. Pinterest monitors price drops and alerts users who have pinned buyable pins in the form of form of in-app notifications and emails. This feature not only keeps users happy but also fuels conversions.

Source: Pinterest Launches A New Way To Track Price Drops On Buyable Pins

50. L’Oréal found that Cinematic Pins (scroll-activated ads on Pinterest) increased purchase intent by 37.2 percent and boosted brand awareness by 30.7 percent. Au contraire, static promoted pins increased purchase intent by 30.9 percent and boosted product awareness by 21.3 percent.

Source: Adweek

51. Pinterest developed a tool with ElasticSearch to understand what topics Pinners are interested in, when that interest usually happens and how they are engaging with these topics. This tool is used to find Pinner insights and popular content over time over time to more easily identify seasonality or trends of topics. This is the reason why you see so many Valentine themed pins in February and Spring Cleaning tips in March.

Source: Pinterest Engineering

LinkedIn

52. B2B accounts on LinkedIn have 109,000 followers on an average. Facebook and Twitter don’t even come close with 34,000 and 18,000 followers respectively.

Source: B2B Social Media Strategy: How Best-in-Class Brands Do It

53. There are 414m users of which a fourth are from the US. 41% of these US users have an income of more than $75,000.

Source: Statistics and facts about LinkedIn

54. LinkedIn still remains a good source for word-of-mouth publicity. A study showed that employees CTR on content shared by employees was double compared to company shares of the same content.

Source: LinkedIn Marketing Solutions Blog

55. Every week over 130,000 posts are published on LinkedIn. Almost half of the readers belong to the corporate upper echelon including CEOs, VPs and managers. On an average, posts reach people working in 21 different industries and living in 9 countries.

Source: Daniel Roth, LinkedIn

56. The top 5 influencers on LinkedIn are Richard Branson, Bill Gates, Jack Welch, Deepak Chopra, and Arianna Huffington. Follow them to understand what kind of content strategy works on LinkedIn.

Source: LinkedIn Pulse

57. Titles with the words “You,” “Who,” “What,” “When,” Where,” “Why” or “How” work the best on LinkedIn.

Source: What We Found When We Analyzed the Top 1,000 Posts on LinkedIn

58. The failure of LinkedIn’s ad network and its decision to focus only on sponsored posts mean small business marketers face even more competition from industry biggies.

Source: LinkedIn Shuts Down Its Ad Network 12 Months After It Opened

59. LinkedIn is the social media network of choice for hardcore news seekers. 67 percent of LinkedIn users – more than on any other social media network – consider themselves “news junkies.”

Source: U.S. News Consumption in the Age of Convenience

60. The answer to the age old SEO question – Will re-posting articles on LinkedIn Pulse affect your rankings? – is a firm and resounding “No.”

Source: Is Duplicate Content on Medium and LinkedIn Bad for SEO? SEJ

Google+

61. There are about 2.2 billion G+ profiles. However, most of the activity on G+ comprises of comments on YouTube videos and profile photo changes.

Source: Estimating G+ User Activity: 4-6 million active posters in January 2015 to date

62. Over 90% Google+ users have posted no public content.

Source: Hard Numbers for Public Posting Activity on Google Plus

63. 64% of B2B content marketers in North America said they will use Google+ for distributing content. The corresponding numbers for Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are 84%, 88% and 94%. Nevertheless, diehard Google+ users can take heart as the figure has increased 9% from last year, which the biggest jump compared to other social networks. As they say, slow and steady wins the race.

Source: 2015 B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends for North America

Bonus Facts

64. Kik, a mobile chat app, has more than 275 million registered users, 70 percent of whom are between 13 and 24 years old. 40 percent of these are teens. This app might just disrupt social media industry and overtake Snapchat.

Source: Chat App Kik Claims Higher Engagement Than Snapchat 

65. Within a week of launching, Periscope hit 1 million users. By month 4, they’d gone past 10 million. People spend considerable time watching live broadcasts; 40 years of video is watched per day.

Source: Periscope, by the Numbers, Medium

66. 71% of Vine users are millennials. Other popular apps amongst millennials are YikYak, Venmo, Instasize, Buzzfeed, Tinder and Snapchat.

Source: The 2015 U.S. Mobile App Report, comScore

67. Buzzfeed Tasty and Justin Bieber are the most watched video creators in the world across all social media platforms. This fact very plainly sums up the current (sorry?) state of social media.

Source: Most Watched Overall Creators in January 2016

Coda

From trivia to statistics to interesting facts, there is a lot of information that can help you decide the way forward with your social media management and content strategy. While some statistics may be true today and not tomorrow, the lessons gleaned here can potentially help you for years to come.

Do you know of any useful or unknown social media stats? Care to share them in the comments?