When it comes to social media, part of making your marketing work is understanding which sites are the most popular, which are growing and which are shrinking. But all may not be as it appears, because social media members aren’t necessary regular users, as a GlobalWebIndex study points out.
GlobalWebIndex studied how more than 41,000 adult Internet users use Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Google+. Here’s what they found:
Facebook has the most members; 81 percent of respondents have a Facebook account. In addition, 42 percent are active Facebook users—the highest percentage of the four social networks.
While 60 percent of respondents are YouTube members, only 24 percent of respondents are active YouTube users. However, 73 percent overall visit YouTube, whether or not they have an account. (“Visit” was defined as going to the site, but not necessarily having an account or logging into one’s account.)
Sixty percent of respondents also have Google+ accounts, but usage is much lower. Only 29 percent of respondents visit Google+ and only 21 percent are active users.
While just 53 percent of respondents have Twitter accounts, only 22 percent are active users. Thirty-six percent visit Twitter, whether or not they have accounts.
What do these results mean to you?
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Karen Axelton is Chief Content Officer of GrowBiz Media, a media company that helps entrepreneurs start and grow their businesses. Visit her company’s blog at SmallBizDaily.com.