It’s been a while since I checked the latest statistics of Facebook users and how that impacts your potential reach as a business. Here are the latest stats for January 2012.
Number of People who use Facebook
More than 800 million active users on Facebook
More than 50% of Facebook’s active users log on to Facebook in any given day
The average Facebook user has 130 friends
Activity on Facebook
More than 900 million objects (including pages, groups, events and community pages) that people interact with on Facebook
The average Facebook user is connected to 80 community pages, groups and events
On average, more than 250 million photos are uploaded per day by Facebook users (who needs a photo sharing platform?)
Global Reach of Facebook
More than 70 languages available on Facebook
Approximately 80% of users are outside of the United States (you’d be surprised how often I hear from UK businesses that they thing Facebook is predominantly a USA ‘thing’).
The Facebook ‘Platform’
On average, Facebook users install apps more than 20 million times every day
Every month, more than 500 million people use an app on Facebook or experience Facebook Platform on other websites
More than 7 million apps and websites are integrated with Facebook
Facebook via Mobile Devices
More than 350 million Facebook users access Facebook through their mobile devices
More than 475 mobile operators globally work to deploy and promote Facebook mobile products
So what does this mean to a small business?
Well, let’s ignore all the techie bits and what the global potential is and focus on the number of people who could be exposed to anything you do and say on Facebook.
Remember, the average Facebook user has 130 friends. That means when someone “likes” your Facebook Page or comments on your Page or “likes” one of your posts or photos or videos, then their 130 Friends could see that they did that.
It you had, say, 1,000 “fans” of your page (people who have clicked “like” at some point), everything you do, say, post, upload on your Facebook Page has the potential to reach 130,000 people.
Imagine if you had 10,000 “fans” and the numbers are truly staggering.