This post originally appeared in Business Insider.
Who’s on Facebook? The short answer, of course, is everyone. And that’s why every company and brand needs to seriously consider a major presence on the platform, as well as a Facebook-specific content strategy.
But digging into the data reveals more specific and compelling reasons why marketers should be active on Facebook, such as the fact that despite recent news coverage about how Facebook is getting older, it’s still strongest in the young adult age bracket so precious to many marketers.
In a new report from BI Intelligence, we break down the demographics of Facebook and show why it’s such a powerful platform for companies, brands, and products. Facebook’s surprisingly strong statistics in terms of gender breakdown, income levels, and age diversity makes it the obvious go-to marketing platform. Our report also spotlights similar statistics for all the main social networks, but Facebook’s numbers are perhaps the most compelling.
Here are seven of our surprising findings on Facebook:
1. Population and Penetration: Yes, we know that over 1 billion people are on the platform. But what’s the penetration rate in a major market like the U.S.? 67 percent of Internet users in the U.S. are on Facebook. In European markets, penetration is even higher (82 percent in the U.K.).
2. Age: Facebook still skews young. In the U.S., 83 percent of 18 to 29-year-olds who use the Internet are on it, but the proportion is only 67 percent across all age brackets. However, the 45- to 54-year-old age bracket has seen 46 percent growth since year-end 2012.
3. Income: Among U.S. Internet users, 73 percent with incomes above $75,000 are on Facebook (compared to 17 percent who are on Twitter, and 13 percent who are on Pinterest).
4. Mobile: Facebook is the most popular social media app on smartphones and accounts for 66 percent of total social media sharing on iPhones.
5. International: Eight-six percent of Facebook’s users are outside the U.S. And 29 percent of its users log in from Asian countries.
6. Gender: Facebook skews slightly toward women. But it is more gender neutral than Pinterest and Google+.
7. Education: Nearly 75 percent of U.S. Internet users who have had at least some education in college use Facebook, according to Pew Research.
Business Insider
