With the census debacle last week and facts and figures on our mind – let’s take this opportunity to look at the current stats and trends happening across the digital and social media landscape in our Social Media Census report.
Digital and Social Media Census
Worldwide
As of June 2016, the world population sat at 7.43 billion, with 46% current users of the internet. That’s a total of 3.42 billion people online.
Internet users and social media are complementary with 75% of all internet users, also a social media user. That’s 2.56 billion social media users worldwide, with 2.26 billion accessing social media from their smart phones.
On the stats of platform popularity, Facebook still wins gold as the most used platform, followed not so closely by Whatsapp and FB Messenger, (both messenger apps)
Australia
With our current population of 24.1 million, 88% of us use the internet on a daily basis.
15 million Australian’s are users of social media (up 3% from last year) and 13 million access sites from their mobiles (up 8% from January 2015)
Facebook is still our preferred platform, with 15 million users, followed my Instagram at 5 million, Tumblr at 4.4 million, Twitter 2.8 million and Snapchat 2 million.
The fastest growing group of Facebook users is men in their 40s. This is great news if your product or service falls within this demographic. With sponsored posts, targeted advertising and retargeting – there are ample opportunities to increase brand awareness and sales to this slice of the market.
At the younger end of the market, the 20-29 year old demographic, we see the highest proportion of Facebook users from this group. Yet we are seeing a trend in many young adults swapping Facebook for more ‘private’ messenger apps like Snapchat. If your ideal client fits within this demographics, Snapchat, Facebook and Instagram are your three focus social media channels.
That’s some social media census stats to consider!
Websites Census
What device is your website viewed on?
The biggest change in this space, is the decline of laptops and desktops to view websites. And the increase in use of mobile and smart phones. Mobile traffic this time last year accounted for only 11% of total views, while it now makes up 28%. That’s an increase of 255% in 1 year.
Is your website, mobile friendly?
We still prefer to use a laptop or desktop when purchasing online, with 57% of online purchases via desktop or laptop and 19% of all online purchases are via a mobile device. As a result we may browse on our smart phone but the majority prefer to jump on the computer for that final stage of the check out process.
In the past 30 days, 62% of the population have purchased a product or service online. Your website is your purchasing tool. And your social media presence is the leaflet or flyer for your business. Combined, they put your business in strong stead to remain front and centre of your client base.
Business size with web and social media presence
At the big end of town, large businesses with 200 or more employees are more likely to have a both a web and social media presence. Small business operations, with 0-4 person, only 40% have a website and only 25% are active on social media.
Hmmmmm… If 21.2 million of the Australian population are users of the internet, we wonder how small businesses are being found? Word of mouth, referral systems? Online marketing is out.
While websites cost a little to setup up – social media is FREE to setup and manage yourself!
Step out from the crowd, setup a Facebook page, find your target and start interacting with them. I’m sure you will find your ideal market segment because after all there are 15 million Australians on Facebook.
I hope this gives you something to consider and encourages you to get your message in front of the eyes of your customers. If you would like to have a chat about digital and social media census stats please do contact us.
Stats thanks to Australian Bureau of Statistics, SocialMediaNews and We Are Social.
