The 4 Most Popular Social Networking Sites
When looking back on 2012, it is important to reflect upon the growth and development of some of the most popular social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. 2012 was a year of milestones for social media sites, and users time spent on social media grew from 88 billion minutes to 121 billion minutes in the United States. The social media landscape changes rapidly and keeping up with the latest statistics is an essential part of continuing to make your marketing relevant and focused.
Facebook reached one billion monthly active users worldwide. To put that number into perspective, there are approximately 7 billion people on the planet. In February the site celebrated it’s eight birthday. In 2012, Facebook became a publicly tradable company, and this social media site played a larger role than it ever had before in the 2012 presidential election. Facebook also introduced its timeline feature in February of 2012. Cover images were introduced, making a positive first impression to fans and providing a greater opportunity for branding.
Twitter celebrated its sixth birthday this past March. There are an average of 175 million tweets per day, and one million accounts are added to Twitter daily. The 2012 Presidential election broke Twitter records; Election Day was the most tweeted about event in US Political history.
In early April, Pinterest became the third largest social networking site behind Facebook and Twitter. Pinterest became one of the fastest-growing social networks in history. This site is especially popular among women; 97% of its users are female. Also, in early August, Pinterest introduced an app for Androids and ipads. The site became more business friendly when it launched business pages for marketers. Pinterest has driven more referral traffic than Google+, LinkedIn, and Youtube combined. This site proved to be extremely effective for retailers, due to its connection between browsing and purchasing.
Instagram hit 80 million users, after Facebook bought the site for one billion dollars. This photo-sharing platform became immensely popular, which proved users are increasingly visually focused. Photo sharing gradually moved from Facebook to Instagram in 2012. Instrgram also launched web profiles for its users in 2012, rather than simply being a mobile social networking site. More people are using Instagram at work than any other social media platform.
What are your thoughts on these social networking leaders and the year they had in 2012? Do you think these sites will continue to grow in 2013, or decline in users? Comment below and let us know what you think.
