It’s that time again! Our long anticipated UK Social Media Statistics is back for 2012, and we have updated our statistics from the edition in December. Hasn’t a lot changed in 6 months? We’ve seen the introduction of a new social network in the form of Pinterest and developments within Facebook that have seen our profiles change beyond belief! Google+ has a grown in popularity and other networks have disappeared off the face of the earth!

In a change from previous years, the list of social networking big dogs has seen a mix up and Xposure have changed the list to reflect the current social networking outlook. So keep your eyes peeled for ones we may have dropped and new additions to the social network lineup!

So let’s get going on this edition of the Social Media Statistics!

Facebook

Despite the changes to Facebook’s layout, that have left alot of people feeling a little confused and lost. The timeline has clearly not affected Facebook’s visiting figures which have steadily increased throughout the beginning of 2012.

Twitter

The second major player in the social networking game has seen little change over the past year. The site itself has seen a few updates in layout and presentation, and the user figures have gradually increased, a lot like last years statistics!

LinkedIn

Despite seeing peaks and troughs in its users since December 2011, the site has still seen a gradual incline in users. Given the current economic climate, I would have expected a larger increase in users logging on as a job-hunting outlet, but clearly, in the UK the site is not seen as merely an online CV just yet!

Myspace

Although some say Myspace has had its day, and as far as I’m concerned it probably has, there are arguments to say its still a social network to be considered. Now primarily for music use, the site’s decline in user figures has tailed off to a sitting point, and rather than decreasing further, has maintained a similar user rate for around 3 months now, and with 550,000 unique users, it isn’t doing too badly!

Flickr

As the popularity of photo editing apps have created a drove of individuals claiming themselves to be expert photographers because they can add a sepia tint to a picture of their feet (thanks Instagram) I thought that Flickr would have seen an instant surge of users. Contrary to my opinions however, the site has been moving down slightly in unique visitors, but with still 38M profiles and even more pictures to be seen, the site is undeniably successful.

Digg

The social bookmarking site Digg has seen, like its counterparts Del.ici.ous and Reddit, a distinct decline in users. This follows sites like Twitter being a convenient alternative for social bookmarking tools and status updates all in one area. This isn’t to say social bookmarking sites are all doomed, Stumbleupon has seen consistent figures for the past few years now and is used by many to find interesting and otherwise unbeknown to them sites.

Pinterest

A warm welcome to the social networking statistics series for Pinterest whose major popularity and exponential growth since its launch only 2 years ago in March 2010, has lead it to be a definite major player in the social networking team. Based on the premise of ‘pinning’ interesting images to create mood boards of your favourite things, the site received initial skepticism when someone actually bothered to read the ominous terms and conditions! Once amends were made, the sites growth resumed and here for your viewing pleasure are Pinterest’s social media stats.

Tumblr

For the first time in the social network statistics series we have included a blogging platform. Tumblr has been on the scene for awhile now, but has seen major growth over the last couple of months as an outlet for budding designers and photographers to display their own and work, and quite frankly be a little self indulgent with opinions and news.

Although I would have liked to include Google+ in this list, our friends at  Google Ad Planner are reluctant to provide this sort of information, so once again here are some interesting Google+ stats to keep you going until the time occurs when Google choose to share their data.

• From April 2012, Google states that Google+ has 170 million active users.
• From January 2012, an average American user spent 3.3 minutes on Google+.
• Websites that use the +1 button generate 3.5x the Google+ visits than sites without the button.
• Two of the biggest user groups on Google+ are college students and software developers.
• 63% of Google+ users are male.
• Google+ is expected to attract 400 million users by the end of 2012.

Thank you Google Ad Planner and Hubspot for your help with this blog post.