By Matt Mansfield

We’ve collected these social media marketing statistics for small businesses from a variety of sources.

GENERAL SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING STATISTICS:

• 77.6 percent of small businesses report using social media to promote their businesses and among them, Facebook is far and away the top platform used:

• 44 percent of local businesses said they depend on social media to generate brand awareness, and 41 percent depend on it to drive revenue.
• Almost 90 percent of marketers say their social marketing efforts have increased exposure for their business, and 75 percent say they’ve increased traffic.
• More than 50 percent of marketers who have been implementing social media marketing tactics for two years have reported improved sales.
• More than 1 in 3 Internet users say they go to social networks when looking for more information about a brand or product. The likelihood of doing this is linked very strongly to age:

FACEBOOK SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING STATISTICS:

• 8 percent of social media marketers worldwide said Facebook produced the best ROI.
• Images are responsible for 75 to 90 percent of an ad’s performance on Facebook.
• Since so many Facebook users watch video without the sound on, captioned video ads can increase video view time by an average of 12 percent.
• The most effective length for an ad title on Facebook is four words, and 15 words for a link description.
• 32 percent of influencers say that Facebook is the best social media platform for influencer marketing.
• 9 percent of online consumers turn to Facebook for holiday shopping ideas.

TWITTER SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING STATISTICS:

The statistics below reveal that marketing on Twitter is a short and sweet way to convert customers:

• 53 percent of users say they bought a product they first saw on Twitter.
• 81 percent of users say that Twitter impacts their purchasing decisions more than TV.
• 70 percent of small business followers re-tweet content.
• Promoted tweets boost offline sales by 29 percent.
• 72 percent of brand followers are likely to buy in the future.

LINKEDIN SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING STATISTICS:

• 7 out of 10 professionals describe LinkedIn as a trustworthy source of professional content.
• 50 percent of B2B buyers use LinkedIn when making purchasing decisions.
• Marketers that flesh out their Products and Services page have 2x as many company followers.
• Posts that include a link receive 200 percent more engagement.
• Posts that end with a question receive 50 percent more engagement.

PINTEREST SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING STATISTICS:

The numbers show that Pinterest is a very effective network for ecommerce conversions:

• Almost 3/4 (73 percent) of active pinners—and 89 percent of daily pinners—have bought something new they discovered on Pinterest.
• 5 percent of Pinners make a Pinterest-inspired purchase at least once a month.
• 60 percent of active pinners are likely to search and browse on Pinterest than browse catalogs.
• About half of the active pinners who have noticed promoted pins on Pinterest have clicked on them to get more information. More than 40 percent have made a purchase, suggesting promoted pins inspire future action.
• The effect of business categories on promoted pins:

INSTAGRAM SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING STATISTICS:

• 68 percent of Instagram users engage with brands regularly.
• Instagram has 58 times more engagement per follower than Facebook.
• 50 percent of Instagrammers follow a business.
• 60 percent of Instagrammers say that they learn about a product or service on the platform.
• 75 percent of Instagrammers take action after being inspired by a post, like visiting a website, searching, shopping or telling a friend.

Bottom Line

As the number of social media users continues to increase, these platforms have become more critical to marketing success. After all, one of the tenets of marketing is to draw attention from the right people at the right time and social media provides the perfect place to do just that.

Social Media Photo via Shutterstock