Beginning your foray into social media marketing and don’t think your knowledge on the subject is up to snuff? You’re not alone – many individuals and businesses may understand the basics of social media, but names such as “Vine” and “Pinterest” may ring hollow for most. In fact, the social media landscape is becoming more cluttered as exhibited by this very simplified diagram below (only the most popular sites were included – many other sites are missing):

However, whether you’re a novice or a social media ninja, everyone loves statistics (except for college students). Below are some interesting social media statistics and facts that will you learn more about the most popular sites and how to integrate them within your strategic online marketing initiatives.

Facebook: 

• Facebook has over one billion monthly active users, and 669 million are active on a daily basis. (Source: Facebook Investor)
• Facebook’s advertising platform is powerful on mobile devices and is expected to account for an estimated 13% of global mobile advertising revenue in 2013. (Source: L2 Think Tank)
• Over 2.5 billion pieces of content are shared by Facebook users every day. (Source: Nielsen)
• Now this is the big one: over 70% of B2C marketing professionals have successfully acquired a new customer from Facebook marketing. (source: Hubspot)

Twitter:

• There are over 500 million users registered on Twitter, 200 million of which are active on a monthly basis. (Source: Business Insider)
• Twitter has proven to be a valuable customer service channel, as 25% of users who complain about products through Twitter typically expect to have their issue resolved within an hour. (Source: American Express OPEN Forum)
• Twitter is becoming more popular in online marketing strategies: 69% of B2C professionals leverage the micro-blogging site, whereas 80% of B2B businesses incorporate it into their marketing initiatives. (Source: Brafton)
• It is estimated that one in every two technology companies acquire a customer from marketing on Twitter. (Source: Hubspot)

LinkedIn:

• There are currently 238 million registered members on LinkedIn. (Source: LinkedIn)
• An estimated 60% of users have clicked on a LinkedIn display ad. (Source: Lab42)
• A recent survey indicates that 43% of marketing professionals in the United States have acquired a new customer from LinkedIn. (Source: A Sales Guy Consulting)
• LinkedIn has proven to be a valuable B2B resource, with 83% of B2B marketers using the professional social networking site in their marketing strategies. (Source: Brafton)

Google+:

• Google+ is officially the second largest social media site behind Facebook with over 359 million active users. (Source: Business Insider)
• Google+ is slowly picking up steam among marketing professionals, with the site being incorporated in an average of 41% of B2C campaigns and 29% of B2B campaigns. (Source: Brafton)
• An estimated 70% of the world’s major brands have established a presence on the social network and built company pages (Source: Simply Measured)

Pinterest:

• Pinterest reached 70 million registered users in June 2013, 20 million of which are active monthly users. (Source: Read Write)
• Pinterest is a significant source of referral traffic, beating out Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+ in September 2013 and being responsible for 3.68% of all referral traffic to publishers. (Source: Shareaholic)
• Pinterest is heavily skewed towards females, with women accounting for 70% of its user base. (Source: Social Media Today)

Instagram:

• Instagram currently has over 150 million active users, making it one of the fastest growing social networks today. (Source: Mashable)
• Over 40 million photos are uploaded to Instagram every day, and there are over 8,500 likes per second. (Source: Nielsen)
• 59% of the world’s major brands are active on the popular social networking site. (Source: Nielsen)

YouTube:

• YouTube has become the world’s largest video sharing site, capturing more than 1 billion unique visits every month. (Source: YouTube)
• 100 hours of video is uploaded to the site every single minute. (Source: Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers)
• YouTube has become the world’s second largest search engine, beating out both Bing and Yahoo!. (Source: YouTube)

Vine:

• The 6-second video uploading social media app has amassed 40 million registered users. (Source: The Verge)
• Back in April 2013, Vine was the most downloaded mobile app in the Apple Store. (Source: Digital Buzz Blog)
• Vine is utilized by major brands such as GE, Virgin Mobile, Microsoft, and McDonalds, and has become popular in industries such as fashion, sports, automotive, and technology. (Source: The Verge)

Foursquare:

• Foursquare is a popular check-in application with over 40 million registered users. (Source: Expanded Rambling)
• Over 1.3 million businesses have created fully branded profiles. (Source: Expanded Rambling)
• 100,000 business have collaborated with American Express to run AmEx specials. (Source: American Express)

These social media statistics and facts only cover a small portion of the entire social marketing landscape. However, these sites, along with blogging platforms, represent viable marketing tools available to advertising professionals and companies for increasing brand awareness, building community engagement, and driving leads and sales.