Advertising Age has published 9 graphs showing the current state of the social media market.

Key points:

• Of the 8 social media platforms included in the study, Facebook has the largest audience: 257.8M unique visitors (desktop +mobile).
• Facebook has the largest % reach of the digital audience aged 18 and over: 90.4%.
• Facebook has the highest % reach for every age group, ranging from 76.7% of those aged 65+ to 98.5% of those aged 25-34.
• In 2015 87.6% of teenagers used one or more social media platforms, down from 89.6% in 2014.
• In 2015, 53.9% of teenagers used Facebook, down from 64.4% in 2014.
• Use of social media platforms by teenagers increased from 2012 to 2015 except for Facebook where reach declined from 71.7% to 53.9%. (Reach of Vine decreased from 24.5% in 2014 to 24.1% in 2015.)
• In 2015 Facebook had a 74.3% share of US social network ad revenue, and a 69.1% share of world social network ad revenue.
• Mobile’s share of US social media ad spending increased from 2% in 2011 to 56% in 2015.
• In 2015, 90.0% of US social network users used Facebook.
• Top 3 answer to the question “What action is your firm taking in the coming year to increase influence and brand reach?” were:
  1. Improve digital sites (mobile and online) 37%
  2. Initiate or extend social media activity 35%
  3. Change/improve creative strategy 33%

Terrific research. But note that survey population for that last question consisted of “decision-makers whose firms are prioritizing increasing influence and reach in the market”. That’s not the same as “decision-makers who want to sell a lot of stuff at a profit” which is what the prudent decision-maker should be trying to do above all else.