In the last 11 months, the social media landscape has continued to evolve at a rapid pace. There have been tons of updates to social networks such as Global brand pages on Facebook, new LinkedIn company pages, Twitter cover photos and more.  Several of these updates made social media even more attractive for recruiters.

If you have not yet jumped into social media recruiting, now is as good a time as ever to lay a strong social media foundation for the future. Here I have complied 40 of the most fascinating social media statistics and figures from 2012 to help you better understand Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn for the coming year.

Facebook –

1. 1 billion monthly active users as of October 2012. (source: Facebook Press)
2. Facebook hosts 42 million “Pages” with 10 or more likes. (source: Jeff Bullas)
3. 584 million daily active users on average in September 2012. (source: Facebook Press)
4. 80 percent of social media users prefer to connect with brands through Facebook. (source: Business2Community)
5. 52% of job seekers used Facebook to help find work in 2012. (source: jobvite)
6. 14% job seekers searched for jobs on Facebook. (source: jobvite)
7. 23 percent of Facebook’s users check their account 5 or more times daily. (source: Socialnomics)
8. Approximately 81% of Facebook’s monthly active users are outside the U.S. and Canada. (source: Facebook Press)
9. Facebook has seen a 41% growth in active users from Russia, South Korea, Japan, India and Brazil during 2012. (source: DreamGrow)
10. 25% of users on Facebook don’t bother with any kind of privacy control. (source: AllTwitter)
11. Facebook users can reach an average of more than 150,000 Facebook users through their Facebook friends; the median user can reach about 31,000 others. (source: pewinternet)
12. 1 in 5 job seeker had a contact share a job on Facebook (source: jobvite)
13. 250 million photos are uploaded to Facebook every day. (source: Jeff Bullas)
14. 65% of Facebook users are 35 or older, The average Facebook user is 40.5 years old. (source: pingdom)
15. 70% of Facebook-using job seekers are male, 63% are under the age of 40, 40% earn more than $75,000 and 36% are college graduates. (source: jobvite)
16. 604 million monthly active users who used Facebook mobile products as of September 30, 2012. (Source: Facebook Press)

LinkedIn –

1. As of September 30, 2012, LinkedIn had more than 187 million members in over 200 countries and territories. (source : LinkedIn Press)
2. 63% of LinkedIn members are located outside of the United States. (source : LinkedIn Press)
3. Two new members sign up to LinkedIn every second. (source : LinkedIn Press)
4. There are more than 1 million LinkedIn groups. (source : LinkedIn Press)
5. 38% of job seekers use LinkedIn to help find work in 2012. (source: jobvite)
6. 19% of job seekers had a contact share a job on LinkedIn. (source: jobvite)
7. 11% of job seekers searched for jobs on LinkedIn. (source: jobvite)
8. 79% of LinkedIn users are 35 or older; the average LinkedIn user is 40.5 years old. (source: pingdom)
9. 60% of LinkedIn-using job seekers are male, 62% are under the age of 40, 51% earn more than $75,000 and 50% are college graduates. (source: jobvite)

Twitter –

1. There are over 510 million twitter users. (source: All Twitter)
2. 32 percent of all internet users are using Twitter. (source: Marketing Land)
3. In 2012, 1 million accounts are added to Twitter everyday. (source: Infographics Labs)
4. 11 accounts are created every second on Twitter. (source: Infographics Labs)
5. There are 175 million tweets sent from Twitter every day in 2012. (source: Infographics Labs)
6. The average user follows (or is followed by) 51 people. (source: Diego Basch’s Blog)
7. Top 3 countries on Twitter are the USA at 107 million, Brazil 33 million and Japan at nearly 30 million. (source: Jeff Bullas)
8. 34% of job seekers use Twitter to help find work; up from 26% in 2011. (source: jobvite)
9. 69 percent of follows on Twitter are suggested by friends. (source: Web Analytics World)
10. 11% had a contact share a job on Twitter. (source: jobvite)
11. 26 percent of retweets are incited by a request to retweet. (source: Web Analytics World)
12. 10% jobseekers searched for jobs on Twitter. (source: jobvite)
13. 55% of Twitter users are 35 or older, The average Twitter user is 37.3 years old. (source: pingdom)
14. 67% of Twitter-using job seekers are male, 69% are under the age of 40, 46% earn more than $75,000 and 44% are college graduates. (source: jobvite)
15. 50 percent of Twitter users are using the social network via mobile. (source: Microsoft)

So there you have it,  40 statistics about social media from 2012.

I hope you found these stats interesting. To me, one big takeaway is that you need to find a place in today’s social media landscape. Social networks provide a great opportunity to rock the recruiting world given a user-base spanning the entire age spectrum and an extremely engaged audience.

Update – Check out part II of this post covering 40 Pinterest, Google+, YouTube and Instagram statistics.

What is your favourite statistic? What are some of the interesting social media statistics and facts you have come across this year? Share it all in the comment box below.