It’s a question that most business owners ask themselves. “How do I choose a Social Media site that will provide the best results for my investment of time, money and planning?” Facebook? Twitter? Instagram? Pinterest? LinkedIn? Each of these networking platforms has millions of users. But unless you have a multi-million dollar budget set aside for Social Media marketing and staffing, it’s doubtful that you will be able to use all of them effectively.

We are bombarded every day by blogs, news stories and ads about Social Media. And it’s easy to form opinions based on just that. For example, everyone seems to be using Twitter, right?

But only 18% of Internet users actually engage on Twitter.

As far as Facebook is concerned, a whopping 71% of Internet users are not only Facebook members, 63% of them log into the site every day!

But before you choose (or get totally confused) it’s a valuable exercise to see where the intersection of your customers and the major Social networking sites exists. The Pew Research Internet Project is incredibly helpful here. In December 2013, they reported the latest figures on Internet usage. This is a great place to start. Any surprises here for you?

Of course, there are many more questions to be answered before deciding where to invest your valuable Social Media time and energy. Such as: “Am I just looking for more traffic to my website?” “Do I want to build a strong community around my brand and let the fans be the ambassadors?” “Is my goal to sell more products online?” etc. More on that later!

Will these statistics influence which Social Media site(s) you choose for your business?

Data from: Pew Research Internet Project