7 New Statistics About Facebook Users That Reveal Why It's Such A Powerful Marketing Platform

Who's on Facebook? The short answer 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 it has the most users in the mid-twenties to mid-thirties age bracket (Facebook also still has the highest number of daily teen users of any social network).

In a new report from BI Intelligence, we break down the current 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 make it the obvious go-to marketing platform. We also spotlight similar statistics for all the main social networks, but Facebook's numbers remain the most compelling.

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Here are a few of the key takeaways from the BI Intelligence report:

• Penetration and population: Facebook remains the dominant social network by a huge margin. This holds true globally and in the U.S. More than 7 out of 10 U.S. internet users ages 18 and up are accessing Facebook, according to Pew's latest round-up of social-media adoption in the U.S.

  • Penetration reaches as high as 84% for web users between the ages of 18 and 29.
• Gender: Gender is the most notable differentiator on Facebook. Facebook still skews significantly female. Women in the U.S. are more likely to use Facebook than men by about 10 percentage points, according to a 2013 survey of social network adoption. Considering that women's lead on social networks in general has narrowed to 4 percentage points, it seems other social networks are doing a better job drawing in men than Facebook.
• Age: Facebook sees users in their late 20s and early 30s account for a bigger share of users than 16- to 24-year-olds.YouTube, Tumblr, and Instagram are more dependent on younger users.
• Teens: Facebook remains the top social network for U.S. teens. Nearly half of teen Facebook users say they're using the site more than last year, and Facebook has more daily teen users than any other social network. That said, Instagram has edged out Facebook and Twitter in terms of prestige among young users. U.S. teens now describe Instagram as "most important," while Facebook and Twitter lost ground on this measure, according to Piper Jaffray's twice yearly teen survey.
• Income: 69 % of internet users in the U.S. with an income of $75,000or above annually are on Facebook
• Education: 68% of internet users with a college degree are on Facebook.

The report is full of charts (over 20 charts) and data that can be downloaded and put to use.

In full, the report:

• Looks at overall social networking adoption in the U.S. and globally
• Assesses the most important demographic skews at the top social networks, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, and Tumblr
• Closely examines whether Facebook is losing out on teen and millennial users as sites like Instagram grow
• Compares how demographics have changed over time as older social networks have matured
• Identifies the social networks that have become more and less gender-skewed in the last year
• Digs into demographics at top social messaging apps, including Snapchat

For full access to all BI Intelligence reports, briefs, and downloadable charts on the digital media industry, sign up for a free trial.