All The Social Stats And Fun Facts From 2017

In 1985 Marty McFly took us back to the future in 2015. Creepily, many predictions in the movie are our current reality. 3D movies are in cinemas. iPads, paywave and fingerprint tech are a thing. I’m thinking someone did travel back to the future, or their psychic abilities are on fleek. Either way, hook a sister up with some future lotto numbers there, fam!

In 2017, some pretty cool stuff became our norm. Chances are you’ve been talking to a robot online instead of a human without knowing. Apps are computer-generating images to our environment in real-time. We’re live streaming everything, because, video or it didn’t happen. And social media means we are connected in ways previously unimaginable.

How Much Has Social Media Impacted Our Lives?

From the Classmates days to Facebook dominating the world, the social media channels have revolutionised our lives. When these networks were in the concept stage, it’s unlikely the creators could have predicted the impact and magnitude social media would have on everything we do today.

Social media plays a massive part of who we are and what we do. We use it to connect with friends and family. We communicate with brands. We look to it before making purchase decisions. You can’t ignore it. It’s not going anywhere. And businesses that embrace it are in a better position in 2017 than those still lagging behind.

In Australia, we are some of the highest users of social media in the world. In fact, The 2017 Sensis Social Media Report highlights how much we use it. What we do when we are on it, and how it impacts our daily lives. These are the main takeaways from the report, what it means for businesses and how brands can use this information for their marketing strategies in 2018.

All The Social Stats and Fun Facts From 2017

In Australia, 84% of us use the internet every single day. 56% of that access the internet over 5 times a day! Holy McWorld Wide Web!! That’s a lot of Aussies getting online from all different locations, age groups and walks of life.

The frequency of who’s doing what on the interwebs does change. The 18-29 age group are the most addicted batch of users. They use it several times a day #internetaddictsanonymous.  The older you get, the less interested it seems you are. The amount of active users drops off from the 40 and up age group.

The use of social networking sites has increased to 79% OF INTERNET USERS THIS YEAR (Yes, I was yelling because I’m totally extra, and also that’s so many!). That’s every man and his dog, plus the neighbour’s ginger cat Ed Sheeran. Compared to 30% in 2011, that’s a ridic increase!

Why do we use it? The main reason is to keep in touch with our friends and family and, just quietly, to stalk our exes. Sometimes we meet new people on them. Using them to play games increased last year. We share our photos and videos and updates of our lives with our digital connections. And in 2017, people became particularly active in following celebrities, social media personalities and bloggers.

Females are smashing the social scene. 89% of females use the channels daily and frequently. Hardly a surprise if you’ve witnessed a female find that one girl in the background of her ex’s Snapchat story from a year ago. She now knows where she lives. What she eats. Where she shops. And her deepest darkest secrets.

Who’s Doing What On What Channels?

In terms of channels, Facebook is leaving the rest to eat its dust. 94% of us use it. In fact, 90% of Australians across different age groups, genders and location segments maintain a Facebook profile. We spend 23% of our day, stalking the crap out of people, I mean, doing non-stalky type stuff. The closest contenders are Youtube at 51% and Instagram at 46%.

However, in general, we spend more time on Snapchat than we do on Facebook. The average is 32 minutes a day. Perhaps it’s the authenticity of seeing what others are doing in real-time?

The visual platforms like Instagram and Snapchat killed it in 2017! Instagram and Snapchat usage surged dramatically compared to last year, rising above 20%. A lot of that is directly correlated to the age of users who regularly use them which is the 18-29 group.

Google+, Pinterest and Tumblr remained steady in 2017 with each again attracting about 1 in 10 social media users. Twitter and Linkedin are slowing the truck down, massively, dropping to only 24% of users. And it seems LinkedIn and Google+ just aren’t doing it for people in the under 30s age group.

In 2017, messaging services became pretty popular. Surprise, surprise Facebook is winning the messaging game with a share of 81% of the marketplace. They are followed by Viber at 34% and Whatsapp at 18%. Females are more likely to use Facey messenger, whereas males are more likely to use Viber.

How we access our socials has definitely changed. 88% access our social channels from our smartphones now. Other options are apple watches, fitbits, iPads, desktop and laptops. None of these are particularly popular though. 30% or less use them to get on our accounts.

7 pm onwards is our most active time on social. I don’t know about you guys, but I assumed it would be during our morning or arvo commute to work. Especially if you’ve done the thing on public transport where you risk making eye contact with another human, and look up from your own phone for a split second. Luckily, most people aren’t cray cray enough to do the same.

Video video video. Video content became uber popular this year. One in four people used Facebook Live to watch live streamed video content. And five percent have published their own video using Facebook Live. Video content is predicted to implode in 2018.

What Does It All Mean?

Why does this matter to business? Social media is becoming an essential part of the buyer’s journey. Basically, we are starting to turn to our social channels before we purchase stuff. 28% percent of us use them to research products and services before we buy.

More importantly, being able to trust a brand is a key factor in our decision. 64% percent of us are more likely to if they interact positively with customers on social media. Even the amount of followers a brand has on social media is influential on who we trust.

If we can learn anything from all the social stats and fun facts from 2017, it’s that social media isn’t going anywhere. Year on year usage is increasing and we’re turning to it more and more in our decision making processes. Considering nearly every single Aussie uses the internet and checks their profiles several times a day, brands need to consider social as a priority in all marketing strategies.

We may not be able to predict what’s going to happen in another 30 years like the time-travelling writers of “Back To The Future”, but I can guarantee this. Whether we are holidaying on Mars, getting our pizzas delivered via drone or have a live-in robot companion, we’ll still yearn to connect with others digitally. Whatever our current reality and experiences are, we’ll still be sharing them with our network online, with the latest social media technologies of the time.

Did these facts and figures convince you to get socially savvy for 2018? Why not talk to our foxy team of social superstars? We have the dream team experienced in all your social needs. Book in for the latest workshop or contact us today to see how we can help your business thrive in social media in the coming year!