Friday Facts: Interesting Statistics

I really should thank +Donna Prior for posting this article on Facebook as it gave me fodder for another blog post.   And while I try not to direct people to other sites from my own, I sometimes see the necessity for it.  This is one of those cases.

Donna linked to the Social, Digital & Mobile Around the World (January 2014) on slideshare.net which provides 183 slides pertaining to internet access and social media  penetration of countries in the world today.

The numbers may actually surprise you - especially when you look at third world countries and countries struggling with civil unrest.  A surprising number of those countries have a high penetration of internet access and use of social media.

For example, did you know, these were the active user accounts for the following social media platforms world wide?

• 1,184 million users on Facebook
• 300 million users on Google+
• 259 million users on LinkedIn
• 232 million users on Twitter
• 230 million users on Tumbler

Admittedly, a large percentage of users are probably on each network as well.  I know I have an account on the first four platforms mentioned here - I haven't succumbed to Tumbler yet, but it's bound to happen.

When you look at those numbers, especially if you keep looking through the slides to break down the statistics by country, it becomes easier to understand why marketing via social media has become an important tool that is slowly becoming a part of every company and emerging artist's game plan.

I encourage you to check out the slideshare.net slides on this topic and learn a bit more about just how widespread social media really is.  Article can be found here: http://www.slideshare.net/wearesocialsg/social-digital-mobile-around-the-world-january-2014