By Judith Lee

I learned a raft of new statistics worth sharing about the state of social media.

The first “factoid” is that Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are still the “big three” and Pinterest is now at #4.

You may not like Facebook, but it drives more than one-fifth of all social media referral traffic to websites; 30% of the U.S. population gets its daily news there; and 77% of B2C companies have acquired a customer through Facebook.

85% of B2B marketers distribute content on Twitter, but only half view it as an effective social media channel. Yet 75% of journalists use Twitter to build their personal brands, and Twitter drives more web visits than five other social media channels combined.

B2B loves LinkedIn: nine out of 10 B2B marketers distribute content there, 65% of B2B companies have acquired a customer there, and 40% of B2B buyers say LinkedIn is important when researching purchases.

Pinterest drives 25% of all retail website referral traffic. Consumer brands are noticing: 36% of Fortune 500 companies had a presence in 2014, four times the level in 2013.

So who is lagging behind in social media? America’s top corporate leaders! Just 8% of Fortune 500 CEOs have a Facebook account (a lower adoption level than American grandparents). Just 42 of CEO’s from the Fortune 500 have a Twitter account.

Are you a Chester County business leader? Social media represents an opportunity for you to get ahead of the “big guys” by increasing and/or refining your social media presence.

Learn more  social media statistics here.

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Judith Lee is a marketing and communications professional who focuses on social media and email marketing based in Atglen. She is a SCORE Volunteer and the Chair-Elect of the Southern Chester County Chamber of Commerce. Her posts on marketing and social media are a regular Monday morning feature on VISTA Today. She can be reached at 610-368-2058 or via email at judithlee@epix.net. Photos courtesy of Chester County Chamber of Business & Industry.

Top photo credit: social media, social networking, social computing tag cloud (#2) via photopin (license)