2017 Social Media Wrap-Up
In 2017 social media marketing, not just any content reigned king. It was all about video, AI chatbots, one-on-one messaging, and targeting. And just in case you’re curious, it will continue to be in 2018.
Americans now spend up to 5 hours per day on their mobile devices. This is where we work, connect, and seek entertainment more than ever before. Time spent in mobile apps has increased 69% in the past year, and social media networks play a big role in this usage.
Here’s what you, as a professional, need to know about social media now:
Top Social Media Networks & Messaging Apps in 2017:
- Facebook – 2.06 billion active users
- YouTube – 1.5 billion active users
- WhatsApp – 1.3 billion active users
- Facebook Messenger – 1.3 billion acive users
- Instagram – 700 million active users
- Tumblr – 368 million active users
- Twitter – 328 million active users
- Snapchat – 255 million active users
- Pinterest – 200 million active users
- LinkedIn – 106 million active users
(Data from Statistica, September 2017)
What else do you need to know about social media when you’re considering your 2018 social media marketing strategy? The following review will get you started:
Facebook
- Facebook was the first social network to surpass 1 billion registered accounts and currently sits at 2.06 billion monthly active users (Statistica, 2017).
- An average of 1.37 billion people log onto Facebook daily, a 16 % increase from 2016 (Facebook, 2017).
- Facebook is used by audiences writing in more than 70 languages (Facebook, 2017).
- Users access Facebook an average of 8 times per day (SmartInsights, 2017).
- 32% of Facebook users engage with brands regularly (Social Fire Media, 2017).
Top Facebook News Stories of 2017:
- Facebook busts up international spam operation
- A Facebook AI Unexpectedly Created Its Own Unique Language
- Facebook ‘Find Wi-Fi’ Goes Global
- Facebook Is Changing Its News Feed Algorithm Again
- Facebook Live gets its first Emmy nod for an ACLU telethon
- Facebook Expands Fight Against Fake News With Automatic, Related Articles
- Facebook opens up its Craigslist-like section to retailers
- Facebook has mapped the entire human population of earth as it prepares to build an internet in space
- Facebook reportedly tests facial recognition to recover your account
- Facebook’s Workplace chat app brings screen sharing to the desktop
- Facebook’s ‘Order Food’ feature officially launches across the US
- Facebook’s ad targeting tools could be a valuable supplement to census data
- Facebook launches Marketplace for cars with dealers and Blue Book pricing
- Facebook relaunches Events app as Facebook Local, adds bars and food
- Facebook Live Is the New QVC
- Facebook expands feature letting businesses build Messenger into their websites
YouTube
- YouTube now has over 5 billion monthly active users – second only to Facebook (YouTube, 2017).
- YouTube on mobile alone reaches more 18-34 and 18-49 year-olds than any cable network in the US (YouTube, 2017).
- More than half of YouTube views come from mobile devices (YouTube, 2017).
- YouTube is available in 88 countries in 76 languages (YouTube, 2017).
- Roughly 20% of the people who start a video will leave after the first 10 seconds (Fortune Lords, 2017).
YouTube News Highlights
- YouTube tightens rules around videos with external links
- YouTube Tools improve video SEO
- YouTube’s mobile app will soon better display all video formats, add messaging
- YouTube Starts Redirecting Searches for Terrorist Content to Anti-Hate Videos
- YouTube recommendations inadvertently serve up illegal livestreams
- YouTube hopes to patch things up with the music industry
- YouTube won’t put ads on videos from channels with fewer than 10K views
- YouTube jumped to the top of the App Store following news of mobile live-streaming expansions
- YouTube taps creators, celebrities for new original shows on ad-supported site
Instagram
- Instagram now has 800 million monthly and 500 million daily active users (TechCrunch, 2017).
- 90% of Instagram users are under the age of 35 (Social Fire Media, 2017).
- 75% take action, such as visiting a website, after seeing a post from a brand (Social Fire Media, 2017).
- Time spent by users viewing video on Instagram is up over 80 percent between 2016 and 2017 (TechCrunch, 2017).
- People access Instagram an average 6 times per day (Smart Insights, 2017).
- There are 15 million registered businesses using Instagram business profiles (Instagram, 2017).
2017 Instagram News Highlights:
- Instagram Launches Weather-Inspired Face Filters And Stories On The Mobile Web
- Instagram Expands Access to Branded Content Tools
- Instagram rolls out shoppable posts for more merchants
- Instagram experiments with letting you follow hashtags
- Instagram direct messages now support web links and different photo orientations
- Instagram Will Add ‘Paid Partnership’ Tag to Sponsored Posts, After FTC’s Warnings to Celebrity Users
- Instagram Starts Using Artificial Intelligence to Moderate Comments. Is Facebook Up Next?
- 5 Ways Businesses Can Stand Out on Instagram
Twitter
- Twitter has roughly 330 million monthly active users (Statistica, 2017).
- Link clicks account for 92% of all user interaction with tweets (Hubspot, 2017).
- Users access Twitter an average of 5 times per day (Smart Insights, 2017).
- Twitter has become increasingly prominent during live events, acting as a “second screen” during live broadcasted events (Statistica, 2017).
- 83% of world leaders have a Twitter account (TalkWalker, 2017).
2017 Twitter News Highlights
- Twitter Adds Teams to its Mobile App to Facilitate Business Profile Management on the Go
- Why Twitter’s double-sized tweets will be a really big deal
- Twitter Will Face Big Hurdles In Effort To Fight Fake News
- How Twitter Is Stepping Up Its War Against Online Abuse
- Twitter tests $99 subscription for auto-promoted tweets
LinkedIn
- LinkedIn is currently available in 24 languages (LinkedIn, 2017).
- 40% of users use LinkedIn Daily (LinkedIn, 2017).
- 44% of Linked users earn more than $75,000 in a year (LinkedIn, 2017).
- An average user spends 17 minutes monthly on LinkedIn (LinkedIn, 2017).
- LinkedIn is the only major social media platform for which usage rates are higher among 30- to 49-year-olds than among 18- to 29-year-olds (Hubspot, 2017).
- Between 2015-2016, content consumption on LinkedIn increased 21% (Hubspot, 2017).
2017 LinkedIn News Highlights
- LinkedIn Smart Replies Automate Small Talk
- How LinkedIn Will Help You Combat Your Quarter-Life Crisis
- LinkedIn Lets Your Boss Keep Tabs on What You’re Posting Online With New Feature
- LinkedIn and Microsoft team up for a resume building assistant in Word
- How LinkedIn just made B2B lead generation a real-time experience
Pinterest
- 70 million of Pinterest’s 150 million users are from the US (Pinterest, 2017).
- 2 million Pinterest users save shopping pins on boards daily (Statista, 2017).
- Pinterest also has a strong mobile presence, reaching 23 percent of U.S. mobile audiences in 2017 (Statista, 2017).
- According to a Millward Brown Study, 87 percent of Pinners have purchased something they’ve seen on Pinterest, while 93 percent plan to do so (Hootsuite, 2017).
- Interestingly, the platform is popular across multiple generational brackets—with millennial, Gen Xers, and Boomers all regularly pinning. But it’s the millennials that favor Pinterest the most with 36 percent of Pinterest users falling between the ages of 18 and 29. In a close second, Gen Xers make-up 34 percent of Pinterest’s audience. Boomers round out the group, accounting for some 18 percent of users (Pew Research Group, 2016).
2017 Pinterest News Highlights:
- Pinterest’s take on QR codes will unlock curated boards
- Pinterest’s visual search technology is coming to its ads
- Pinterest now lets you create sections within your boards to further tidy up ideas
- Pinterest sharpens visual search focus with scannable codes, personalized style suggestions
- Pinterest launches colorful Pincodes that link to fashion and food boards
Snapchat
- Less than 10% of 50+ year olds use auto-delete apps like Snapchat (Sprout Social, 2017).
- The average SnapChat user spends 30+ minutes on the platform daily. (Snapchat, 2017).
- Active Snapchatters open the app 25+ times every day (Snapchat, 2017).
- The average daily user of Snapchat creates more than 20 messages, or “snaps,” per day (OmnicoreAgency, 2017).
Snapchat News Highlights
- Snapchat’s New Filters Recognize What Is in Your Photo
- In a Twist, Snapchat Rolls Out a New Feature Similar to One Already on Facebook
- You Can Now Link to Websites on Snapchat, Which Is Good News for Brands and Publishers
- How Snapchat Is Trying Hard to Keep Facebook From Killing Its Ad Business
- Snapchat is finally cozying up to internet celebrities and giving them special perks
- How Stories Search makes Snapchat a real-time YouTube
A conversation about 2017 social media networks, tools, and trends could easily be endless, but this is an at-a-glance snapshot of where we are.
We’ve been doing annual social media reviews for a few years now (see our 2016, 2015, and 2014 posts), and these networks continues to be essential to a complete marketing strategy.
Are you planning to embrace video in 2018? Or are you integrating chatbots into your accounts or your website Whatever your plan for the future, being on top of social media trends can take you further.
And, of course, if you have any questions, Midlothian Web Solutions is here to help. Contact us today!
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