The rise of Social media in recent years has been so tremendous that none of us who got in to the flock could even think of getting away any time soon. There are many newer mediums, just like Pinterest, that have become the hot spots of people who keep coming back to the sites every single day.

Rather than calling Social media a trend, it has more over become the way we live and do business today. Today is the last day of 2012 and  no other day can be better to have a look at the state of social media in 2012.

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Facts & Figures on Social Media

January

• Pinterest was named the Best New Startup of 2011
• Pinterest reportedly referred more business than Google+, LinkedIn and YouTube.
• President Obama holds the first ever virtual interview with US citizens through Google + hangouts.
• 5,635 participants take part in Anonymous’s refusal attack to the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA)

February

• An average user spends 7.5 hours on Facebook as compared to only 3.3 minutes on Google+ in a month, stated Todd Wasserman of Mashable.

March

• Facebook releases desktop messenger for Windows users allowing them to chat with friends without opening the site in a browser.
• Kony 2012 campaign receives more than 87 million views online on YouTube. Current statistics of the video are in excess of 95 million views.

April

• Facebook buys Instagram, the photo sharing app for $1 Billion.
• Anonymous group names the “Most influential person” by Time magazine.
• Kony campaign releases 2nd video which receives half a million views in a week.

May

• Facebook goes public with its IPO opening at a price of $38 a share.
• Jim Spinello of rEvolution predicts that all companies will finally go social.

June

• 33% of people tweet while watching TV shows.
• 30% of people who make a public post on Google+ never make a 2nd one.

July

• Users spent a total of 121 billion minutes from previously 88 billion on social media in the US.
• Nearly a third of people in the 18 – 24 age group connect to Social media from bathroom. While 51% of people connect to social media from work.

August

• 80% of pins have become repins on Pinterest.
• Instagram tops daily active  users from Twitter at 7.3 million. Crosses 80 million users overall.
• “This seat’s taken” becomes the most re-tweeted tweet of the Republican National Convention.

September

• Facebook announces that its music app has 210,000 years of music played between September 2011 and September 11, 2012.
• Facebook reaches 1 Billion users mark. Would be the world’s 3rd largest country by user base.
• LinkedIn gains 175,000 users a day.

October

• Brazil becomes the largest active country on Facebook by posts/day.

November

• President Obama’s “Four more years” tweet becomes the most re-tweeted on Twitter with 819,680 re-tweets. The same picture was posted on Facebook and now has over 4.4 million likes.
• Instagram launched web profiles for users.

December

• Pope Benedict XVI joins Twitter.
• PSY’s Gangnam style reaches 1 billion views on YouTube. Becomes the most viewed video in YouTube’s history.

State of Social Media in 2012 Infographic

This infographic is courtesy of Seoco.