Social Media

Social Media for authors

Social media is a huge part of an effective author platform. It is the place where you do outreach and try to entice people back to the hub of your platform (usually a site or a blog).

According to The London School of Economics and Political Science, as of June 2017, the world’s population stands at 7.5 billion with 3.8 billion people using the internet. Active Social Media users account for 2.89 billion people, (about 39%). Active mobile social users stand at 2.69 billion.

According to one report, product discovery on social media is a huge driver of online purchases.

Product discovery and purchase via social media (source)

Social media use by age

Using available information I have tried to break down social media use by generation and age. If you want to find more information on the approximate ages of each generation, see the rough guide to demographics in the marketing section.

Recent changes at Twitter may mean that these figures need updating.

Social media use by adults according to sproutsocial.com:

68% of adults use Facebook
35% of adults use Instagram
24% of adults use Twitter
25% of adults use LinkedIn
29% of adults use Pinterest
27% of adults use Snapchat

Social media usage highlights

Across all of Europe, the average time spent on social media per day is just shy of two hours.
While that time is still growing year on year, the rate of growth seems to have slowed.
From 2015 to 2018 use of social media to find and research products increased 30%.
Generation Z spends the most time on social media closely followed by Millennials.
From 2015 to 2018 use of social media to follow celebrities increased 27%.