While most may think of June 30 as end of financial year, in our industry, we celebrate Social Media Day!

Social Media Day has been championed by popular digital news source, Mashable, to celebrate the revolution of social media. For us, it’s an opportunity to reflect on the current state of social media, how far we’ve come, and speculate about the future…

This year’s social media highlights and lowlights

A quick summary of some of of the top social media news and events of the past 12 months.

Google keeps on growing…

Technically this first one happened last year… Google’s social media platform Google+ was launched on 29 June 2011, and although it has had a slow start, it seems to be sticking around. Further development of Google’s platforms and its impact on search engine rankings, mean it probably won’t be disappearing like Google Wave and Buzz did.

Google is also in the process of converting Google Places business listings into Google+ Local profiles, meaning all business listings will have their own Google+ profile. This is certainly a way of getting businesses to use Google+, and is much more visually appealing for people using Google Maps.

Microsoft embracing “social enterprise”

After buying Skype for $8.5 million last year, Microsoft has only recently purchased the collaboration platform Yammer, for $1.2 billion. This is expected to help build Microsoft’s “social enterprise” offerings, a term we’re hearing more and more.

Facebook buys Instagram

Earlier this year Facebook bought hugely popular photo taking, filtering and sharing platform, Instagram, for $1 billion. It has been questioned whether Facebook bought the platform to improve their offering in the photo media area, or to quash a strong competitor. It’s also been rumoured that Facebook will explore the commercialisation opportunities for Instagram.

LinkedIn’s wins and losses

The professional networking platform LinkedIn has been growing in leaps and bounds, with a solid increase in users, and a steady release of new features, and development integration capabilities. This positive performance was sadly tarnished by the leaking of 6 million account passwords by a hacker earlier this month. One disgruntled user is now launching a class-action law suit against the organisation. Most of us just changed our passwords.

And more Facebook, Facebook, Facebook

Facebook have had a very busy year. Not only did they purchase Instagram and made numerous layout, advertising and feature updates, but they also:

• Made SSL certificates compulsory for all custom Page tabs and apps
• Launched the new Timeline layout not only for individuals, but also for Business Pages
• AND the hugely popular social platform commenced trading as a public company.

While Facebook’s share price has been in a steady decline since its launch last month, we’re going to just wait and see how it goes. There are a lot of people who once said that Facebook itself wouldn’t last long…

Pinning is the new poking

Seemingly out of nowhere (although it has been around for nearly 3 years), image collation and sharing platform Pinterest has fast become the third most popular social media site, behind Facebook and Twitter respectively. Businesses and marketers are now busily finding creative ways to visually engage the fast growing community of pinners.

Mobile on the go, go, go

And mobile internet usage continues to soar, with the rapid launch and uptake of both tablet and smart phone devices. A recent Sydney Morning Herald article advised that mobile wireless accounts for almost half of all Australian internet subscriptions. And in addition, there are another 11 million mobile handsets with internet access. This growth is affecting both how users interact with the internet, and how businesses and marketers need to prepare and present content to their target audience.

Social media and internet statistics

And a quick wrap up of current social media statistics (in most cases as of May 2012).

General social networking statistics

• 62% of adults worldwide use social media.
• Social networking is the most popular online activity, with 22% of internet time spent using platforms including Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.
• Smartphone users spend an average of 77 minutes per day using apps on their smartphone.
• 167 million people are expected to shop online this year, increasing to 192 million by 2016. These online shoppers are expected to spend an average of $1,800 per person, per year.

Social media for business statistics

• 65% of the world’s top companies have an active Twitter account.
• 53% of small businesses are using social media.
• 43% of marketers have noticed an improvement in sales due to social campaigns.
• 91% of experienced social marketers see improved website traffic due to social media campaigns, and 79% are generating more quality leads.
• LinkedIn is 4 x better for B2B lead generation than Facebook and Twitter.
• 47% of customers are somewhat likely to purchase from a brand they follow or like.

Quantity of Australian users for popular social media platforms

Australian Facebook Statistics

• Total Facebook Users: 11,008,520
• Position in the world: #20
• Penetration of population: 51.77%
• Penetration of online population: 64.63%
• Male/Female user ratio: 46% male, 54% female
• Largest age segment: 25-34 year olds, accounting for 26% of Australian users (or 2,752,130)
• Average time spent on site: 23:20

Australian Twitter statistics

• Total Twitter users: 1,800,000
• Male/Female user ratio: 66% male, 34% female
• Largest age segment: 45-54 year olds (34%)
• Average time spent on site: 9:40

Australian LinkedIn statistics

That’s certainly not the state of ALL social media, as it is growing and evolving all the time. It does give you an indication of how far we’ve come in the last 12 months though. We’re very excited about the next 12 months!

Find out more about Social Media Day and get involved here.

Statistics via thesocialskinny.com, socialbakers.com, socialmedianews.com.au