Over 40-per-cent of social media users are looking at news and current events (rather than just cat pictures)

  • According to this research, users are just as likely to access social media to see what their friends are up to as they are to read about what’s happening in the world
  • This is closely followed by ‘filling spare time’ which 39-per-cent of users admit to using social media for, while 37% use it to find funny or entertaining content
  • Meanwhile, more than a quarter of people (27%) use social media to meet new people, although this was the least popular of the top 10 uses

 

Facebook wants you to have more ‘meaningful social interactions’

  • Mark Zuckerburg has announced that posts shared by users’ friends and family will be prioritised to help people to ‘connect with one another’
  • It means that in future, the social media site will want you to see updates from your loved ones before you see *that viral video that everybody is talking about*

 

People engage with brands more on Instagram than any other social site

  • Apparently a whopping 80% of Instagram users will voluntarily connect with a brand, according to this Forbes article
  • It states that people engage with brands on Instagram 10 times more than Facebook, 54 times more than Pinterest and 84 x more than Twitter – which should mean that right now you are rushing to get to your phone to set up some Instagram ads
  • This benefits the 71% of brands which are on the photo sharing social media site because when people follow a brand, they are 75% more likely to take action (e.g. Buy your product. Yay!)

 

And in other news…

  • It’s that time of year when everyone loves to hate that Cadbury’s Crème Eggs are already on sale (Let’s not talk about the white chocolate crème egg competition!) and so the firm are celebrating that fact by running a ‘Crème egg boot camp’ with donations going to The Prince’s Trust