Dissertation Preparation @dissertationprep-isobelmck - Tumblr Blog

Creating my info graphics

Poster facts

Digital Kidnapping

· 1.3 million children have their identities stolen every year

· In a 2016 study, parents shared an average of 116 photos of their kids.

· It’s estimates that 90% of children have photos on social media by the age of 2

· When parents share their latest family outing or their kid’s adorable new outfit with friends and family, they may also be sharing with strangers. And some of those strangers, it turns out, use those photos to create online fantasy worlds.

It’s called digital kidnapping. Instagram users “roleplay” with these photos, using hashtags like #AdoptionRP, #KidRP, #BabyRP and #OrphanRP to post children’s pictures “up for grabs,” i.e., to be used to establish the identity and backstory of their “character.” For instance, in a photo that shows a full baby diaper, the user implores someone to adopt “Baby Tye,” who was “put into a big basket with his teddy, some milk and himself on the streets.”

· Facebook and Instagram have no laws or policies in place to top this from happening.

How to stay safe

· Practice Safe Browsing: You wouldn't choose to walk through a dangerous neighborhood—don't visit dangerous neighborhoods online. Cybercriminals use lurid content as bait. They know people are sometimes tempted by dubious content and may let their guard down when searching for it. The Internet's demimonde is filled with hard-to-see pitfalls, where one careless click could expose personal data or infect your device with malware. By resisting the urge, you don't even give the hackers a chance.

· Make Sure Your Internet Connection is Secure. Use a Secure VPN Connection: When you go online in a public place, for example by using a public Wi-Fi connection, PCMag notes you have no direct control over its security. Corporate cybersecurity experts worry about "endpoints"—the places where a private network connects to the outside world. Your vulnerable endpoint is your local Internet connection. Make sure your device is secure, and when in doubt, wait for a better time (i.e., until you're able to connect to a secure Wi-Fi network) before providing information such as your bank account number.

To further improve your Internet browsing safety, use secure VPN connection (virtual private network). VPN enables you to have a secure connection between your device and an Internet server that no one can monitor or access the data that you’re exchanging.

· Be Careful What You Download: A top goal of cybercriminals is to trick you into downloading malware—programs or apps that carry malware or try to steal information. This malware can be disguised as an app: anything from a popular game to something that checks traffic or the weather. As PCWorld advises, don't download apps that look suspicious or come from a site you don't trust.

· Choose Strong Passwords: Passwords are one of the biggest weak spots in the whole Internet security structure, but there's currently no way around them. And the problem with passwords is that people tend to choose easy ones to remember (such as "password" and "123456"), which are also easy for cyber thieves to guess. Select strong passwords that are harder for cybercriminals to demystify. Password manager software can help you to manage multiple passwords so that you don't forget them. A strong password is one that is unique and complex—at least 15 characters long, mixing letters, numbers and special characters.

· Be Careful What You Post: The Internet does not have a delete key, as that young candidate in New Hampshire found out. Any comment or image you post online may stay online forever because removing the original (say, from Twitter) does not remove any copies that other people made. There is no way for you to "take back" a remark you wish you hadn't made, or get rid of that embarrassing selfie you took at a party. Don't put anything online that you wouldn't want your mom or a prospective employer to see.

Identity theft

· There were 174,523 incidents of identity fraud in the UK in 2017.

· Public Wi-Fi is an identity thief’s friend.

· No one can prevent identity theft.

· 28% of organizations say customer information or customer passwords are the information of greatest value to cyber criminals.

· Identity Fraud Occurs Every Two Seconds

· Thieves Use Social Media to Find Personal Information: While many cases of identity theft involve someone the victim knows, many others involve a stranger using the internet to obtain your personal information. The easiest way for them to do that is through your social media profiles.

· Your Smartphone is Vulnerable: Almost all of your personal information is on your smartphone, especially if you use it to shop online. Use a secure Wi-Fi connection, keep your software updated, and use a screen lock or password to protect your user data.

"I have your son and I'm going to f*ck him up," a voice on the other side of the phone said.

How scammers fake a kidnapping"We've seen an uptick in virtual kidnappings in the past few years because the crime is lucrative and there's not a lot detection from law enforcement," Matthew Horton, the FBI's international violent crimes unit chief, who's been closely following virtual kidnappings, told CNN Business. "It's a quick way to make money — and it's a lot easier to conduct a virtual kidnapping than a real one."Spoofing involves a call placed from any voice-over-IP service, such as Skype, or a specialized app that allows users to enter any host number they want — whether it's a made up number, a number in their address book, or one from the White House. It's so easy, anyone could do it.Skype declined a request for comment.Some of these scams also come from pre-paid phones that are not registered and not attributable to a person.The incidents can leave victims bilked out of up to thousands of dollars and emotionally shaken. Because a scammer knows a potential victim is more likely to pick up if they recognize the caller, they might enter a number they think is in their target's address book.It's hard to quantify how common the scams are. The FBI said it does not collect national statistics on virtual kidnappings because "most victims tend to report the crime to their local law enforcement department or not report it at all."In some cases, victims say they hear screams in the background pretending to be from a daughter or son. Another spoofing scam targets parents and grandparents who are asked to bail their child out of jail.But Horton noted the majority of virtual kidnapping scams that he sees aren't targeted: "Many of these cases are done at random based on cold-calling numbers, even hotel rooms or wealthy area codes, and using social media posts to search for more information."

It’s no surprise that new threats to personal security and privacy crop up as online communities change and grow. We’ve known about "sharenting" for a while—the tendency of parents to share every milestone in their child’s life online makes lots of personal information about children readily available to people looking to nab a new identity. But now there’s a new game in town: digital kidnapping. Digital kidnappers take screen shots of pictures posted on social media, blogs, and other online sites and use them for various activities, the most prevalent of which is online role-playing.

Digital kidnappers take screen shots of pictures posted on social media, blogs, and other online sites and use them for various activities, the most prevalent of which is online role-playing. Online role-playing has been around for decades, but only recently has it sparked outrage when a subgroup of this community, baby role-players, began stealing and repurposing online photos for their game.

Some members of the baby role-playing community are snapping up images of children on photo-sharing sites such as Instagram, Flickr, Facebook as well as various blogs to use as avatars or virtual children in their game. Players either pretend to be the child or claim the baby as their own and assign friends and other players to act as online family members to the child. There are even virtual adoption agencies where a role-player can request a youngster with a distinct look, which the “agency” seeks to fill by finding a matching image online. Participants search at #babyrp to find new “babies” for adoption or get chosen as a family member.

Psychologists theorize that many of these players are teens and tweens from less-than-optimal home situations who are fantasizing about having the perfect family. When interviewed by Fox News, child psychologist Dr. Jephtha Tausig-Edwards explains why these children are acting out these fantasies online: "They're going to do this maybe because they're bored, they're going to do this maybe because maybe they want some attention," Tausig-Edwards said. "They're going to do this because perhaps they really are a little envious and they would like that beautiful child to be their own.”

Other psychologists, like Dr. Justin D'Arienzo, admit that there are darker reasons why someone might be interested in these types of pictures. The internet has become a haven for fetishists and others who practice socially deviant behaviors, including those that require children or some element of childhood for their personal fulfillment or sexual gratification. And, although the children themselves are not being exploited—the photos in many cases have been recontextualized to play out a dark or abusive fantasy. For example, a recent thread of comments on an Instagram post regarding a baby boy has one commenter asking if he or she “can have a private with a dirty baby.”

However, one of the most recent cases of digital kidnapping didn’t involve role-playing in game form. Instead, an adult male from New York, Ramon Figueroa, stole online photos of a 4-year-old girl from Dallas and posted them on his Facebook page, claiming she was his daughter. He posted numerous pictures of the little girl, with the action in each shot lovingly described by the doting “father.” Some of the captions he wrote under the pictures of the little girl were, “Girl version of me,” and “This is how she looks in the morning…she said daddy stop (taking pictures).” After being contacted by the girl’s mother about his use of the photos, he promptly blocked her from seeing his page.

Unfortunately, there is currently no law against pretending someone is related to you. This little girl’s mother had only one option: To file a complaint with Facebook, which met with little success initially. Dismayingly, Facebook merely confirmed that Mr. Figueroa’s profile met their standards and, as such, there was nothing that could be done about the pictures if he didn’t voluntarily take them down. However, after being contacted by news media, Facebook recanted and agreed to remove posts of this nature as parents report them.

Shockingly, this type of photo theft doesn’t seem to violate the policies of most social sharing sites. Instagram (now owned by Facebook) explicitly states in their policy that when you post content through their system: “…This means that other Users may search for, see, use, or share any of your User Content that you make publicly available through the Service, consistent with the terms and conditions of this Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use (which can be found at http://instagram.com/about/legal/terms/).” So parents, beware: Whatever you post online through these channels can be reposted at will by anyone who can see it.

But the social media site has yet to respond publicly to the increasing concerns.

Psychiatrist Gail Saltz, author of “Anatomy of a Secret Life: The Psychology of Living a Secret Life,” said these role-playing teens and tweens may come from broken or abusive homes. “These role players have a desire to try on the fantasy of being a family person, a mother,” she said to Fast Company, “whatever it might be that they’re searching for or void they’re trying to fill.”

Instagram user @adoptionrp sometimes answers questions in the voice of the baby in the photo and even poses questions to prospective (virtual) adoptive parents: “why do u wanna adopt grace? What if she went missing? What would u do if she said she hates u?”

Another "virtual adoption agency" Instagram user, @adoption_pr, under the photo taken from the Instagram of a prominent "mommy blogger," captions the photo, “This is Emily she is 1 and is lesbian/gay.” A commenter claiming to be her mother writes, “This is my photo- please remove it. You DO NOT have permission to use my photos and I have reported this account.”

It is unclear if or how Instagram plans to address the photo-snatching. The company has yet to issue a public response.

Stylesheet

Moodbored

Here is a mood-bored that i have created using info-graphics that already exist as inspiration for what i was to achieve to create. I’ve also included some examples of icons and characters i like the look of.

As you can see most of the info graphics i have used to do with internet safety/ cyber-crime they all have a some what similar colour scheme of different shades of blue & then a brighter contrasting feature colour that in most of my examples appears to be orange.

Infographics

Here is a look at some infographics i like the look of & will be using as creative inspiration.

Personally i think the infographics that look the most appealing are the ones that are all one colour but contain lots of different shades of that one colour

Mock ups

Then & now

10/10/2019

for this session we went over the different between then and now when it came to our dissertation question for me this meant that I looked at the different effects and threats that have come with the development of technology over the years.

Here is my checklist along with a time scale showing what i need to do and when i need to get it done by.

03/10/2019

Personas

Today i created my personas for what is going to be my info graphics, this will help me get an idea of the demographic i need to be aiming at, along with the research i have done and also my own knowledge i was able to come up with these four different types of people based off of what will be the audience i will be most aiming to target.

As you can see from the above graphics i have chooses four different people to look at; middle aged woman, a young man in his 20′s, a girl in her mid 20′s and a man in his late 20′s all of which have very different lifestyles and different knowledge of technology. I need to make sure that my info graphics accommodate for all these people and those that may be in between as well

My Proposal

1 Induction

I have chosen to do this question as I feel that although we know of identity theft there is a new realm of cyber crime where identity theft & digital kidnapping are easier that ever at the fault of ourselves. “There’s a new victim of identity theft every 2 seconds, Over 1 million children in the U.S. were victims of identity theft in 2017” (Bellemare, 2019). I feel as if there is a gap in the market for some form of educational material regarding the safety what we post and how it can have the consequences of identity theft & digital kidnapping. As we get older we become more susceptible to different threats and not just the ones we were told about when we were little like don’t talk to strangers online but never the less with our social circles forever growing as we add work colleagues and friends of a friend to our social platforms are we unintentionally putting ourselves at risk. I’ve done it before where I’ve see a friend request from someone I didn’t recognise by name but we had 200 mutual friends so I must have known them, right? Wrong “There are 83 million fake profiles on Facebook alone” (Noyes, 2019). & right there I’ve just added another link to the chain of allowing this profile to now look even more legit as I’ve just added my own name to the mutual friends list in turn possibly not only putting myself at risk but also other people that are on my friends list as well.

My reason for choosing this it is something that I do find interesting and want to investigate myself and I hope to find out why it happens when we have so many features and guidelines in place to prevent it along with the reasons behind why people are doing it & how at the peak of people having the resources to educate ourselves right at the end of our figure tips is it still such a big issue “in 2017, there were 16.7 million victims of identity fraud” (Iii.org, 2019)

2 The Problem

The current situation is it’s a very common thing to post your life online. We live in a world where everyone’s showcasing their best bits especially when It comes to materialistic items, holidays and most importantly the growth of their family “The 30-39 age group experiences the highest number of identity thefts” (Bera, 2019) as well as the older generation I also want to be looking at the younger generation (GEN Z) “Many will never see through it and will spend their entire life absorbed in materialistic and atheistic pursuits. It is not a good time to be born.” (Murari Das,2017) seen as GEN Z have grow up in the thick of the development of technology & GEN Z are the focus. Nowadays everything we do is posted somewhere; photographs are taken instantly & posted out into the world within seconds. “ Who is vulnerable to identity theft? Here’s what our list of identity theft targets looks like: Children, Mega social media users, High-income earners, The elderly” (Porter, 2019) Everyone is at risk. The worst thing is people may not even know they’re giving away information as they are just posting relevant things to keep up with the trends, such as when you buy some new like expensive trainers or splashing on a lavash holiday. We also have the habit of posting in real time for example, you put up a snapchat of you at home with the filter that says where you’re from right then people know where you are and what you’re doing “Posts tagged with another user (56%) or location (79%) have significantly higher engagement rates” (Hainla, 2018) Especially with apps such as snapchat where live location updates can be seen by different users depending on your settings. “she had inadvertently broadcast where she lived to every one of her snap contacts”(Deahl, 2017) so not only are you telling people what type of things you own weather this is expensive designer goods but you’re also on another platform letting people know where you live & also weather or not if you’re home. I want to make people more aware of this & that there are people in the world who will go out of their way to piece all this information together. We want people to see what we’re doing we don’t even realise we’re doing it we just see the number of viewers and not who’s viewing it. we are putting other people at risk and not just ourselves along with our children and friends and family.

To the left is an image showing the most common types of identity theft, although Credit card fraud is the highest their still is other forms of theft that happen and leave people vulnerable.

3 Solution

What needs to change is that there isn’t any educational materials for adults on this subject saying that they need to be careful on what they post & who they’re sharing it with, I don’t just mean the basic don’t tell anyone your password & username but more along the lines of are you checking into your family home when you announce your child’s having a birthday party? Are you giving people access to the most recent picture of your child as well as knowledge of what school they are attending, I want to change that & make people more aware. I want to change this by making my own educational material by designing one if not three different infographics. This will be a universal way of keeping people safe with providing tips & tricks along with being eye catching and captivating. I feel that this is a good solution as it is something that can be universally understood, even if people may not be able to read the graphics will help with the understanding of what’s going on this can also be used to educate people as a infographic be displayed on a variety of different platforms. Which is the best possible way to bring up the issue as it right there on the social platform that is possible putting them in risk I also feel that it is the best way to get the information out as “According to the survey, internet users are now spending an average of 2 hours and 22 minutes per day on social networking and messaging platforms.” (Saima Salim, 2019) so why not broadcast my solution right out there in front of them.

This is going to benefit large majority of people who maybe don’t even know this is a security factor and to educate people and raise awareness of the simplest things that can put them or close ones in danger the more sinister thing about my findings is that people really are just utilising the use of the app/ social media platform half of the time . The main audience is going to be “18-24-year olds as this is the minority of social media users.” (Aaron Smith, 2018) as this is the most popular age group that are found to be using social media apps however the educational material will be suitable for all ages as this is an issue that affects a very wide demographic.

4 Obstacles

My biggest obstacles going to get people to listen as we live in a society where everyone believes that it won’t happen to them this is where I’m going to need to get peoples attention and keep it. I’m going to have to make my infographic eye catching along with educational & clear so the points I’m making will get across but also make the steps universal so they can in some way apply to every person. I will need to consider the language used, style, images and design. Will I be using characters if so, how will they be represented? How will I keep the interest of both the older and younger audience?

5 Summary

To summarise my findings I found that the problem was that there was a gap in the market for some sort of educational material to help people understand that what they post about themselves and their families could put them at risk of some sort of identity theft/ digital kidnapping. “So many of us are posting pictures of ourselves and our kids with little regard to who sees them or how these pictures could be used or stolen.” (Bearak, 2019) personally this was something I had never taken into consideration & I want to look into this more along with the effects of identity theft have on people. “The figures show 13,357 people in the UK reported cyber crimes over six months.” (Lee, 2019) People still associate identity theft with stealing your bank details but we live in an age where its now so much more than that.

https://www.experian.com/blogs/ask-experian/identity-theft-statistics/

Facts + Statistics: Identity theft and cybercrime

The scope of identity theft

According to 2018 Identity Fraud: Fraud Enters a New Era of Complexity from Javelin Strategy & Research, in 2017, there were 16.7 million victims of identity fraud, a record high that followed a previous record the year before. Criminals are engaging in complex identity fraud schemes that are leaving record numbers of victims in their wake. The amount stolen hit $16.8 billion last year as 30 percent of U.S. consumers were notified exposure to a data breach last year, an increase of 12 percent from 2016. For the first time, more Social Security numbers were exposed than credit card numbers.

Following the introduction of microchip equipped credit cards in 2015 in the United States, which make the cards difficult to counterfeit, criminals focused on new account fraud. New account fraud occurs when a thief opens a credit card or other financial account using a victim’s name and other stolen personal information. According to the Javelin study, account takeovers tripled in 2017 from 2016, and losses totaled $5.1 billion.

Identity theft and fraud complaints

The Consumer Sentinel Network, maintained by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), tracks consumer fraud and identity theft complaints that have been filed with federal, state and local law enforcement agencies and private organizations. Of the 3 million identity theft and fraud reports received in 2018, 1.4 million were fraud-related, and 25 percent of those cases reported money was lost. In 2018, consumers reported losing about $1.48 billion related to fraud complaints, an increase of $406 million from 2017. The median amount consumers paid in these cases was $375. Within the fraud category, imposter scams were the most reported and ranked first among the top 10 fraud categories identified by the FTC. They accounted for $488 million in losses. In 2018, 15 percent of all complaints were related to identity theft. Identity theft complaints were the third most reported to the FTC. Identity theft claims fell from 2015 to 2018 by 9.3 percent, but began to increase again in 2018 and were up 19.8 percent from 2017 to 2018.

Cybercrime

As businesses increasingly depend on electronic data and computer networks to conduct their daily operations, growing pools of personal and financial information are being transferred and stored online. This can leave individuals exposed to privacy violations, and financial institutions and other businesses exposed to potentially enormous liability, if and when a data security breach occurs.

Interest in cyber insurance and cyberrisk continues to grow as a result of high-profile data breaches and awareness of the almost endless range of exposures businesses face. Through November in 2018, 500 million records were exposed in November from Marriott International; 340 million records were exposed in June from Exactis, a marketing firm; 150 million were exposed at Under Armour; 92 million at MyHeritage, a genealogy firm; and 87 million records at Facebook. In 2017 the largest U.S. credit bureau, Equifax, suffered a breach that exposed the personal data of 145 million people, including Social Security numbers. It was among the worst breaches on record because of the amount of sensitive information stolen.

Cyberattacks and breaches have grown in frequency, and losses are on the rise. Breaches again hit a new record in 2017, with 1,632 breaches tracked, according to the Identity Theft Resource Center (IRTC). The number of records exposed in 2017 rose to about 198 million. In 2018, the number of breaches fell 23 percent from 2017 to 1,244 breaches, but the number of records exposed that contained sensitive personally identifiable information more than doubled to 447 million, a 126 percent increase. Because only half the total number of breaches reported by the IRTC included the number of records exposed, the actual total number of exposed records likely exceeds the reported number substantially. The business sector suffered the most breaches by industry in 2018, with 571 breaches or 46 percent of the total number of breaches. Medical/healthcare organizations were affected by 363 breaches or 29 percent of total breaches. The banking/credit/financial sector ranked third as it suffered 135 breaches (11 percent of all breaches). These figures do not include the many attacks that go unreported and undetected. Despite conflicting analyses, the costs associated with these losses are increasing. McAfee and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) estimated the likely annual cost to the global economy from cybercrime is $445 billion a year, with a range of between $375 billion and $575 billion.

In 2018, the ITRC reported that hacking was the most used method of breaching data, with 482 data breaches resulting in almost 17 million records exposed. Unauthorized access ranked second with 377 data breaches affecting the highest number of records exposed by data breach type—404 million. Accidental exposure had the third highest number of breaches, 114, with 22 million records exposed.

In 2019 through September 12 the ITRC tracked 1,030 breaches that exposed almost 147 million records. The total includes the Capital One breach of July 29, 2019 that exposed 100 million records. The banking, credit and financial category continues to be the most affected sector by number of records exposed, with 100.4 million records, or 68 percent of all records exposed so far in 2019. The banking sector had 63 breaches, or 6.1 percent of all breaches detected. The medical and healthcare sector had about 36 million records exposed to date, or 25 percent of all records exposed, in 363 breaches or 35 percent of all breaches.

Cyber insurance evolved as a product in the United States in the mid- to late-1990s as insurers have had to expand coverage for a risk that is rapidly shifting in scope and nature. According to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, 140 U.S. insurers reported writing some cyber insurance premiums in 2016, based on the Cybersecurity and Identity Theft Coverage Supplement for insurer financial statements. Direct premiums written totaled $1.86 billion in 2017, at companies that can report premiums for stand-alone and coverage provided as part of a package policies.

According to the Insurance Information Institute’s 2017 report, Protecting against #cyberfail: Small business and cyber insurance, insurers foresee substantial growth coming from the small business segment, as these companies become aware of the possibilities of liability, especially due to a breach and the resulting response costs arising out of the possession of private data. According to the Insurance Information Institute (I.I.I.) and J.D. Power 2018 Small Business Cyber Insurance and Security Spotlight SurveySM, 10 percent of small businesses surveyed suffered one or more cyber incidents in the prior year, and the average cost of cyber-related losses over the past year was $188,400. Only about one-third of firms surveyed had cyber insurance, nearly 60 percent of respondents said their company is very concerned about cyber incidents–and 70 percent think that the risk of being victimized by a cyberattack is growing at an alarming rate. Insurers can reach these potential small business customers through education, training and risk assessment services regarding cybersecurity.

Number Of Data Breaches And Records Exposed, 2008-2017

The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), a joint project of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the National White Collar Crime Center and the Bureau of Justice Assistance monitors Internet-related criminal complaints. In 2018 the IC3 received and processed 351,937 complaints, a 17 percent increase from 2017. Losses soared to $2.7 billion in 2018, almost double losses reported in 2017 that totaled $1.4 billion. In terms of dollar losses, business email compromise and email account compromise complaints were the most reported scams, with about $1.3 billion in losses, close to half of all losses. This type of scam targets both businesses and individuals who perform wire transfers. Criminals hack email accounts and attempt unauthorized fund transfers. About 20,000 people were victims of email account scams. Personal data breaches resulted in $149 million in losses and identity theft caused $100 million in losses. About 51,000 people were victims of personal data breaches and 16,000 were victims of identity theft scams.

Almost one out of four victims (24.1 percent) was over the age of 60. Close to half of all victims were under the age of 50, and they accounted for 57 percent of all losses in 2018.

https://www.iii.org/fact-statistic/facts-statistics-identity-theft-and-cybercrime#Top%2010%20Writers%20Of%20Identity%20Theft%20Insurance%20By%20Direct%20Premiums%20Written,%202017%20(1)

Facebook represents a huge potential market for your social media efforts, but it is becoming increasingly difficult to stand out from the crowd. The following statistics highlight some relevant Facebook facts and can ultimately help you to navigate it better, increasing your return on investment (ROI) and leading to greater marketing success.

#social media usage

The world of social media is dynamic and constantly changing. We have gathered all of the of the freshest numbers for 2019 to make sure you are up to date on the trends that will drive social media marketing in the coming year.

There are 3.48 billion social media users in 2019, with the worldwide total growing by 288 million (9 percent) since this time last year.

Social Media Marketing Statistics in General

Social media just keeps growing and growing. At the end of 2018, Facebook had 2.32 billion monthly active users. And most of the other social networking platforms and apps also continued to grow past 2018 levels.

1. Online adults aged 18-34 are most likely follow a brand via social networking (95%). (Source: MarketingSherpa) Think about your audience and see where they are most likely to follow your brand.

1. 71% of consumers who have had a good social media service experience with a brand are likely to recommend it to others. (Source: Ambassador) Use social media as an effective customer service tool to increase brand engagement and win new customers.

2. 63% of customers actually expect companies to offer customer service via their social media channels, and 90% of social media users have already used social media as a way to communicate with a brand or business. (Source: Smart Insights). Don’t neglect social media as a crucial customer care channel.

3. 80% of companies online are under the impression that they deliver exceptional social media customer service, while only 8% of their customers say that they agree. (Source: Smart Insights) Strive to be one of the companies that does social media customer care right.

4. The active number of global mobile social media users is 3.3 billion global equaling 42% penetration (Source: Statista). Nearly 1 million people used mobile social media for the first time each day in 2018 (Source: We Are Social). Make sure to optimize your mobile social media campaigns and since mobile ads are relatively cheap and easy to produce, test multiple versions to see what works the best. Users spend on average 69% of their media time on smartphones (Source: comScore).

5. 96% of the people that discuss brands online do not follow those brands’ owned profiles. (Source: Brandwatch) Companies need to go beyond their own channels and monitor those unbranded conversations to gain valuable insights and manage brand health. Radium One estimates that 84% of sharing of content is happening outside of social networks, on channels like email, instant messenger and SMS (Source: RadiumOne)

6. Visual content is more than 40 times more likely to get shared on social media than other types of content. (Source: HubSpot) Flying Point Digital has a great post on how to create an innovative content strategy on social media.

Facebook statistics

6. In 2015 Facebook influenced 52 per cent of consumers’ online and offline purchases, up from 36 per cent in 2014. (Source: The Drum) This shows the importance for retailers to manage their social media channels which will have a direct impact on purchase behaviour.

7. There are now more than 50 million small businesses using Facebook Pages to connect with their customers (Source: Facebook). 4 million of those businesses pay for social media advertising on Facebook. (Source: Forbes) The social media advertising statistics show that small-sized companies should consider paying for Facebook ads in order to gain visibility and surpass competitors relatively easily.

8. There were over 4.4 million videos uploaded directly to Facebook in February 2016, generating over 199 billion views. (Source: ReelSEO) Video marketing is a powerful tool that personalizes your brand and increases conversions. 68% of marketers have published video content on Facebook, and 70% of marketers plan to use Facebook Video this year (wyzowl.com). 34% of marketers have used Facebook Live and 37% plan to use Facebook Live.

9. Only 20% of Facebook posts generate an emotional response while no ads did. (Source: AdEspresso) Instead of using Facebook as an emotional medium, delivering dynamic and tailored messaging to people in specific stages of at key times can yield much better results.

10. The best time to post on Facebook is 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday. Other optimal times include 12:00–1:00 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays and 1:00–4:00 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays. (Source: HubSpot) Try using tools like Buffer or Timely to auto schedule your posts.

Twitter statistics

11. Link clicks account for 92% of all user interaction with tweets. (Source: HubSpot) Link clicks are the your easiest and strongest chance of gaining views and shares for your content.

12. 78% of people who complain to a brand via Twitter expect a response within an hour. (Source: Lithium) Customers are turning to social media outlets to unleash their frustration or questions. Make sure you are actively engaged on your social networks.

13. There is a total of 1.3 billion accounts, but 336 million are active. (Source: Business Insider) According to Content Marketing Institute, as Twitter’s sign-up growth has slowed down, it will boost its stock price by making ads more prominent, so be ready to start paying for visibility.

Twitter has a serious competitor now. Reddit is fighting to become the same number 3 number 3 social networking site in the Top 10 Social Networking Sites by Market Share of Visits. But for now, Twitter has found new growth and reached all-time highs. The growth also shows on Twitter’s stock price that’s moving steadily up during the last year or so.

14. Latest study by Locowise found that adding hashtags had no effect on engagement rates. In fact, tweets without hashtags outperformed tweets with hashtags. (Source: Adweek) Therefore, it is better to focus on the quality of your original content instead of overly relying on hashtags for increasing engagement.

Instagram statistics

15. Top brands on Instagram are seeing a per-follower engagement rate of 4.21% which is 58 times higher than on Facebook and 120 times higher than on Twitter (Source: Hootsuite) Instagram has become a powerful platform for marketers and its potential cannot be overlooked any longer.

16. Media brands are the most active whereas business services, financial services, and fast moving consumer goods have the lowest percentage of brands represented on Instagram. (Source: Simply Measured) Also, the increase in business activity on Instagram the brand posting frequency is becoming more normalized and standardized to highlight the increase in a more measurable approach. 41% of marketers have used Instagram video and 44% plan to use Instagram video (wyzowl.com).

17. 90% of Instagram users are younger than 35 (Source: ScienceDaily) Instagram has become the social media network for targeting millennials. 32% of teenagers consider Instagram to be the most important social network. Female internet users are more likely to use Instagram than men, at 38% vs. 26%.

18. Products were the top content types for the top 200 global brands in terms of engagement, at 60% in 2015 beating lifestyle category by over 20%. (Source: Hootsuite) This is great news for marketers since people who follow brands on Instagram are aware and accept the fact that they’re going to see offers of products, services, and general marketing messages.

19. Posts tagged with another user (56%) or location (79%) have significantly higher engagement rates (Source: Simply Measured) So don’t forget to add ‘with whom’ and ‘where’ to your Instagram posts.

Youtube statistics

YouTube is the main channel for moving pictures. Even YouTube on mobile alone, reaches more 18-34 and 18-49 year-olds than any cable network in the U.S.

20. There are 1.8 billion logged-in Youtube monthly active users visiting the website at least once a month. “Logged-in” part is important as there may be a lot of people coming to YouTube who aren’t using Google Accounts to do so. (Source: Youtube official blog)

21. In 2015 YouTube posted the figure of 40 billion all-time views for branded content. (Source: ReelSEO) That means video marketing has gone from nice-to-have to must-have, one that will set the pace for the foreseeable future. 87% of marketers say they plan to use Youtube this year (wyzowl.com).

Bonus 22. More than half of YouTube views come from mobile devices, and the average mobile viewing session lasts more than 40 minutes. (Source: YouTube) As mobile captures consumers’ full attention, at home or on the go, brands now have the opportunity to reach people anywhere. Combined people spend over an hour on Youtube every day.

Bonus 23: 2018 was a breakout year for LinkedIn video. The number of marketers sharing video content on LinkedIn is around 55% right now – this is set to rise to 65% in 2021

https://www.dreamgrow.com/21-social-media-marketing-statistics/

Trending Blogs

Recently Viewed Blogs

Dissertation Preparation