Mark Zuckerberg’s announcement of the impressive latest social media user statistics 2017 revealed that Facebook’s community has now reached 1.9 billion people.

latest social media user statistics 2017

Facebook has received a lot of criticism over the past year; only recently did the BBC’s Panorama investigate issues of Fake News and Facebook’s growing influence during elections. Despite all this, the latest social media user statistics are an urgent call for small and large businesses alike.

Social media networks like Facebook allow businesses to target ads to specific groups of people, based on demographic and location information as well as their likes and interests. Though some are beginning to feel wary about the wealth of information gathered by Facebook’s algorithms, businesses can actually use this information to create more focused ads – advertising to only those who are likely to be interested in the first place. After all, wouldn’t you rather be pestered about a pair of shoes you really want than something totally irrelevant like cat food when you despise cats?

Many of these social media outlets allow you to track and monitor the performance of these ads in real time, too. They also offer a huge range of advertising options: from video campaigns, carousel adverts, personalised banners, and the more traditional photo or text adverts, so you can really choose what works best for you and your social media followers.

The latest social media user statistics show that

700 million users log in to Instagram each month

1.2 billion use messenger services like WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger each month

and every day 1.3 billion people use Facebook

Even if you’re not interested in running a paid campaign, these figures reveal the huge potential to use social media as a market research tool. You can analyse exactly how many people have clicked through, liked or commented on your business page. Even more importantly, you can start using Facebook and Instagram to search for key words, phrases or hashtags that are trending or relevant to your business, in order to better understand your target market and their interests.

With social media users ever increasing, this insight is invaluable. What’s more, it can be gained online without having to run time-consuming and expensive campaigns in person. A simple search for your business name or some of your key products can reveal how people feel about your brand. Doing so might allow you to address any negative feedback or complaints, or discover what it is people really love about your brand, thus helping you decide where to focus your efforts in the future.

After the publication of the latest social media user statistics 2017, it is more important than ever to replicate your users’ behaviour. That is to say, your business should be a part of a shared and interactive experience. Think of ways you can engage with your social media followers more, for instance by creating opinion polls, asking for comments or running competitions. The more of a response you can elicit, the more you are raising brand awareness. Even a simple reply to a positive comment leaves an appreciative and customer-focused trail for those searching for your business online.

The Takeaway?

Following Zuckerberg’s latest announcement of the quarterly social media statistics for 2017, it would be careless for businesses not to take note. The number of social media users reveals just how connected the world is right now, with Zuckerberg stating that Facebook’s “next focus is building community”. Businesses would be foolish to disconnect themselves from these huge online social circles and global communities. More than just using the platforms to advertise to users then, in order to make the most out of theses platforms businesses must be learning from their users and interacting with them too. Make sure your business is, as Zuckerberg states, “a part of this journey to connect the world”.

Read more blogs on how to use Social Media to grow your business at https://theclickhub.com/category/social-media/ or why not consider our social media management service?