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Social Media Statistics and Trends
There are 4.33 billion social media users worldwide
In 2021, 4.33 billion people are using social media around the world. The world’s population is at 7.85 billion, meaning that more than half of all people are social media users.
There were over 4.14 billion people on social media platforms monthly, by the end of 2020.
This would represent 88.9% of total internet use. This is an incredible penetration rate of 53% of the global population, seeing daily social network logins stand at 2 million people on average.
The current popularity of social media can be marked by changes that started happening between October 2019 and the same month in 2020. During this period social network usage rose by 21.3%, an additional 453 million users.
Eight out of ten Americans are on social media
Eight out of ten Americans are now using social media, a higher percentage in comparison to the global averages of 3.96 billion people.
Out of the total 298.8 million US internet users, there are 240 million people with social media profiles.
Internet users on social media have an average of 8.4 accounts
In 2021, the average 18 to 34-year-old runs 8.4 profiles on social media.
In India, the number is higher with 11.5 accounts attributed to one user while Japan scores the lowest with 3.8.
This multi-social media networking is attributed to the specialization of individual platforms, such as YouTube for videos, Instagram for photos, or LinkedIn for professional connections. The sites have also grown significantly, widening the variety and choice of content available.
81% of small and medium businesses have social media accounts
In 2021, 81% of small and medium enterprises operate social media accounts. Brands have increasingly reached out to audiences on these sites depending on the communication, business field, or product.
Social media continues to inform buyers on their purchase decisions, appealing especially to the younger age groups.
As it stands, 71% of small and medium-sized businesses market their products or services on social media. Out of this number, 52% will create a marketing post at least once a day.
Social media advertisers spent $40.34 billion in the United States in 2020
In the US alone, social media marketers spent $40.34 billion on sponsored advertisements.
Global ad spending had been projected to rise by 10.1% Year on Year for this year, spurred by an 18% growth on social media.
For Q1, 2021, there was a 5% growth in America’s ad-spend on social networks.
Global social media advertising is expected to grow to $84 billion this year
The total global ad spend for brand marketers on social networks is forecasted at $84 billion by the end of 2021’s fourth quarter.
This growth is attributed to the effectiveness, ad affordability, and ease of marketing offered by platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
People between the ages of 55 and 64 are more than twice likely to engage with a brand’s content
It’s more than twice likely for social media users aged 55 – 64 to engage in advertised brand content. Known as baby boomers, this generation has always been targeted by marketers through traditional TV ads.
There’s a 66-point increase in social media engagement in the increasingly digital-savvy age group. In 2021, baby boomers have been spending longer on social networks discovering new products and brands due partly to the pandemic.
Of the people who discuss a brand on social media, 96% do not follow the brand
96% of users that come across sponsored brands will discuss or comment on the product but will not follow the advertiser’s profile.
47% of those who follow will do so to stay updated on the company’s performances, while 57% want to learn about new products.
91% of social media users that follow a brand will visit the website or download the app. Of these, 89% will convert or buy products while 85% will recommend or share the brand’s profile.
62% of Fortune 500 CEOs are present on any of the 7 major social media networks
As of August 2020, 62% of Fortune 500 CEOs were on at least one social media site, with some using their names in their profiles.
While an overwhelming majority are still on LinkedIn with 94%. Twitter has garnered 26.5%, and Instagram attracted 17 executives making that 3.4% of the total.
71% of Americans get news on social media platforms
As of January 2021, 71% of US adults were getting their news content on social media platforms.
36% of Facebook users frequently get their news from the platform as opposed to YouTube’s 23%. Twitter and Instagram carry 15% and 11% respectively.
77% of small businesses use social media to promote their businesses
One of the challenges that small business owners face is getting the word out. It all starts with generating demand for products and services. If it’s difficult to cut through the noise online, getting sales will be difficult.
$36.14 billion small businesses use Facebook, benefitting from Facebook’s services like Pages, Groups, and Messenger. 85% of small and medium businesses use Twitter to provide customer service. $36.14 billion use Facebook and 82% use Instagram to interact with their customers.
That’s why social media is important because there are hundreds of millions of ideal buyers already active there.
Facebook, the largest social media network, has a base of 2.85 billion active users per month.
Facebook surpasses other social media platforms in size by far. The user figures demonstrate how this social network’s user base has increased from 1.73 billion in the first quarter of 2020.
As a company, Facebook, which also owns Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger, claims that 3.45 billion people were visiting at least one of its core products during Q1, 2021.
Facebook was the second most downloaded app in 2020
Despite having been launched in 2004, Facebook remains one of the most downloaded apps in the world. By the end of 2020, only TikTok beat Facebook in terms of the number of total downloads.
There are more male Facebook users than female.
56% of the total Facebook audience is male, while only 44% identify as female (Facebook limits gender reporting to only male or female).
86% of U.S marketers use Facebook to advertise
With an advertising audience of 2.14 billion people, Facebook remains one of the best go-to places for most digital marketers. In the U.S alone, 86% of marketers are using Facebook as an advertising platform.
There are 6 million+ active advertisers on Facebook
Although there are 6 million+ active advertisers on Facebook, these figures actually indicate a drop in the numbers from the previous years. This can be attributed to the fact that advertisers rely on other more audience-specific platforms to advertise.
36% of American social media users get their news from Facebook
53% of Americans on social media users claim to get their news from such platforms. Out of the total number of those surveyed, 36% of them said to get their news from Facebook.
Facebook is the world’s third-most visited website
Facebook is the third most visited website in the world with an estimated 3.65 billion monthly visits.
Only Google at 17.37 billion and YouTube at 3.99 billion monthly visits rank higher.
Only 8.9% of Facebook users are from the U.S
There are many Facebook users in the U.S. (over 190 million users to be precise).
However, with 2.85 billion users globally, it is pretty straightforward to note that the majority of Facebook users come from outside the U.S.
Only 8.9% of the total Facebook users come from the U.S.A.
India, with over 320 million active Facebook users takes up the highest percentage of users per country.
On average, users spend 34 minutes on Facebook every day
According to a study by eMarketer, Facebook users spent on average 34 minutes every day on the platform. These numbers indicate a downward trend, as users continue to spend less time on Facebook.
One of the biggest contributors to this trend is the fact that there are now numerous other major social media platforms that people spend the majority of their time on, hence, not giving Facebook more time as it was before.
1.8 billion people use Facebook Groups
There are tens of millions of Facebook groups joined and visited by over 1.8 billion users. These groups are run by over 70 million moderators and admins.
Facebook users have an average of 338 friends
The average number of Facebook friends among adult users stands at 338. However, the median (midpoint) number of Facebook friends stands at 200.
This means that half of Facebook users have more than 200 friends while the other half has less than 200 friends.
15% of all Facebook content is video
15% of all Facebook content in 2021 is made up of video. This is a clear contrast from previous years, such as 2014 where the number of video posts by brands was only 5.47%.
There are 1.074 billion active monthly users on Instagram
There are 1.074 billion active monthly users on Instagram in 2021, having crossed the 1 billion mark in 2018. This brings it to the super-league club of other social platforms like Facebook and YouTube that have all crossed the billion mark.
The network hit 1 billion monthly active users in June 2018. This is up from 800 million in September 2017. The platform also boasts of 500 million daily active users.
Instagram is the sixth-most visited website
Although the majority of users prefer using the mobile app to go through their profiles, Instagram still beats many other websites to become the sixth most-visited website globally. As it turns out, most users prefer to go through their feeds on a larger screen.
The United States and India lead with the highest number of Instagram users
Tying at 140 million users, both the United States of America and India are the countries with the highest number of Instagram users.
Brazil follows thereafter with 99 million active Instagram users.
88% of Instagram users are outside the U.S.
Although the U.S is one of the leading countries with the highest number of Instagram users, the majority of users on the platform are from outside this country.
There are over a billion Instagram users while only 140 million are from the U.S.
The number of female Instagram users is slightly higher than that of males
The gender divide on Instagram is quite low, as the percentage of both male and female users is almost similar, compared to other social platforms. 50.8% of all Instagram users are female, while 49.2% are male.
Instagram users spend an average of 30 minutes per day
According to data collected in 2020, the average Instagram user spent approximately 30 minutes on the platform every day.
If these figures do not stun you, this accounts to a 13.8% increase from the previous year, showing that users tend to spend more time on the platform.
There are more than 200 million business accounts on Instagram
There are more than 200 million business accounts on Instagram globally that users visit every day.
According to Instagram, 90% of the total number of users follow at least one business brand from their personal accounts.
As the social platform continues to become even more popular, an estimated 71% of U.S businesses claim to use Instagram for Business. That’s seven out of every ten businesses!
Over 500 million accounts use Instagram Stories every day
Ever since its inception, the use of Instagram stories has been on a gradual rise. Today, over half a billion accounts use Instagram stories every day.
Out of that, 58% of users claim to have become more interested in a brand after seeing it for the first time in a story.
130 million Instagram users tap on shopping posts every month
It is now much easier for brands to sell their products directly from their Instagram profiles through the shopping and eCommerce features recently introduced by the platform.
According to Instagram, approximately 130 million Instagram users tap on shopping posts every month.
As these features become even more popular this year, the numbers are predicted to grow.
11% of people use Instagram as a news source
People don’t majorly use Instagram as a news source, as it is more of a photo-sharing app.
However, at 11%, these numbers are still high considering the nature of the platform which only requires users to publish either videos or photos only and no text-based posts.
In the U.S. alone, 26% of users aged 18-24 have recently used Instagram specifically to access coronavirus news.
LinkedIn has over 756 million users
LinkedIn boasts over 756 million users in more than 200 countries and territories worldwide.
Although these figures seem considerably low compared to the likes of Instagram with over 1 billion users and Facebook at 2.85 billion users, the numbers are quite impressive, noting that LinkedIn targets a specific group of users ‒ the professional community.
37% of U.S. adults use LinkedIn
At least one in every three U.S. adults use LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a social platform where professionals can interact with each other and network.
This is why the majority of the users are working professionals, or those fresh out of college.
When broken down further, those between the ages of 25 and 34 form the majority of users, taking up 60.1% of the total.
LinkedIn is more popular among males than females
56.9% of all LinkedIn members are male, while females take up 43.1% of the total users.
The gap narrows even further, as the males only form 51% of the total user base, while females take up 49%.
57% of all LinkedIn traffic is from mobile devices
With the world moving towards the mobile-first ideology, it is no surprise to learn that 57% of all LinkedIn traffic is from mobile devices.
Furthermore, statistics also show that 80% of all engagement on LinkedIn comes from mobile.
LinkedIn users spend an average of 7 minutes on the platform
According to Similarweb, LinkedIn members tend to spend at least 7 minutes on the platform, while reviewing an average of 6 pages per visit.
LinkedIn’s popularity among B2B marketers for content marketing is at 97%
LinkedIn is the most popular social media platform B2B marketers use for content marketing purposes. Its popularity is at 97% compared to Twitter and Facebook at 87% and 86% respectively.
There are over 57 million companies listed on LinkedIn
As per the latest statistics, there are over 57 million companies listed on LinkedIn with more than 15 million job openings.
LinkedIn states that over 40 million people use the platform to search for jobs every week, and in every minute, three people get hired on LinkedIn.
There are 65 million decision-makers on LinkedIn
In terms of absolute numbers, there are 61 million senior-level influencers and 65 million decision-makers on LinkedIn.
This makes LinkedIn the best place you can go to if you need a direct connection with key decision-makers of your target market.
There are 2 million active publishers on Linkedin
Besides being a network for professionals to connect with each other, LinkedIn also offers a platform where individuals share ideas with each other.
This is a unique platform that makes it possible for users to not only post images, videos, and text, but also be able to publish long-form content.
As at now, there are about 2 million active publishers on LinkedIn. Out of these, there are 1M+ LinkedIn members that publish content weekly.
About 51% of college graduates in the United States are LinkedIn users
These users are prospective business owners. They perceive that connecting to top brands will give them the opportunity to learn the pros and cons of winning in business.
Pinterest currently has 478 million monthly active users
As one of the most popular social media platforms in the world, Pinterest currently has 478 million monthly active users.
It is currently ranked as the 14th most popular social media platform in the world.
Seven out of every ten Pinterest users are female
Pinterest is a predominantly female platform, as seven out of every ten Pinterest users are female.
Users that identify as female on the platform account for 77.1% of the total audience.
Male Pinterest audiences grew 40% year over year in 2020
There has been a significant rise of men joining the platform.
Male audiences grew 40% year over year in 2020, bringing a ton of new pinners to the platform.
More than half of Pinterest users live outside the United States of America
Having been founded and headquartered in the US, Pinterest’s largest user base is found within the region, but today, its reach has transcended borders.
More than half of Pinterest users live outside the United States of America.
49% of Pinterest users are mostly there to get entertained
There are many reasons behind the success of Pinterest, and much of it has to do with what people mostly use it for. According to statistics, 49% of those that use Pinterest are mostly there to get entertained.
About 32% of the users in the US claim that they use the social media platform to follow brands and other companies, which is the second-most popular reason behind the use of Pinterest.
82% of Pinterest’s active users claim to have bought products based on the brand’s content on site
One of the key reasons marketers should consider Pinterest as their go-to platform is its huge influence on the users’ shopping decisions.
According to the platform, 82% of Pinterest’s active users claim to have bought products based on the brand’s content on site: that’s eight of ten Pinners!
97% of all queries carried out on Pinterest are unbranded
Nearly all Pinners don’t search for specific brands when browsing the platform, making it easier for small and new eCommerce sites to have a level playground with the ‘giants.’
After all, the high numbers of those searching for unbranded content imply that the majority of Pinners are looking for inspiration and discovering new ideas.
Pinners are 55% more likely to purchase a product after seeing an image or video on Pinterest
Pinners are 55% more likely to purchase a product after seeing an image or video on Pinterest compared to other platforms.
Furthermore, 98% of Pinners have also claimed to have tried new things that they come across on Pinterest, a clear indication that Pinterest users are open to trying out new and fresh products (or brands).
25% of marketers use Pinterest to push for their brands
According to a study on the leading social media platforms used by marketers worldwide, 25% of marketers use Pinterest to market their brands.
It is one of the most popular social platforms, just behind giants like Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram.
However, according to the statistics, Pinterest is preferred to other popular social media platforms like Snapchat and TikTok, which take up 5% each.
Pinterest’s global revenue in 2020 grew 48% year over year to $1,693 million
Besides the international user growth, Pinterest has gained a significant amount of advertising momentum in the international markets.
Pinterest’s global revenue in 2020 grew 48% year over year to $1,693 million.
This seems to be the new trend as the platform gains more popularity, as the revenue for Q1 2021 grew 78% year over year to $485 million.
There are 280+ million daily active Snapchat users
There has been an impressive gradual growth in the number of Snapchat users over the years, and the trend isn’t changing any time soon.
The number of active users has been on a constant rise. By the end of 2020, there were 265 million active Snapchat users, marking an increase of 25 million people in just one quarter.
53% of all internet users aged between 15 and 25 years use Snapchat
Snapchat is known to target the younger generation, and it is no doubt that the majority of its users are young.
And that’s not all, according to the latest figures, more than half (53%) of all internet users aged 15 – 25 are on Snapchat.
69% of U.S. teens say they use Snapchat.
These figures show just how Snapchat is quite embraced by the younger generation in the United States.
Snapchat is more popular among teens than TikTok
Despite the huge download numbers that TikTok has enjoyed over the last year, it is quickly picking up momentum as one of the most preferred social media channels by the young generation.
However, Snapchat still leads in popularity among teens with 34%, as TikTok comes in second at 29%.
The average daily active user on Snapchat opens the app’s camera more than 20 times a day
How many times do you open your social media channel’s camera? Maybe once or at most twice a day?
Well, that’s not the case for Snapchat users. According to the company, the average daily user opens the app’s camera about 20 times in a day.
The U.S. leads with the highest number of Snapchat users in the world
According to the latest figures, the U.S. leads with the most number of Snapchat users in the world, with 108 million active users.
India comes in second with 74.35 million Snapchat users.
57% of Snapchat users are female
Although there are more female users on Snapchat, 57% actually is a decline. The gender gap between the male and female users is gradually closing in, taking in mind that about 7 years ago, the percentage of female Snapchat users was at 70% compared to only 30% for males.
Only about 4% of American adults get their news from Snapchat
This is quite a small number compared to the likes of Facebook whose figures stand at around 36%.
However, this is quite understandable as the main agenda of Snapchat in the first place was for people to share ideas and pictures of their life (or lifestyle).
Furthermore, since the platform is majorly used by the younger generation, the tendency to have news-related content is quite minimal.
Snapchat users are 60% more likely to make impulse purchases
If you are a brand that targets the young generation, advertising on Snapchat may be a good start as the purchasing power of the users is quite high.
And what’s more, statistics reveal that Snapchat users are 60% more likely to make impulse purchases, which means good business for you.
Revenue increased 66% to $770 million in Q1 2021, compared to the prior year
Snapchat’s finances are constantly growing, having made a little over $770 million within the first quarter of 2021.
There are 199 million monetizable daily active users on Twitter
Twitter tracks average monetizable daily active users (mDAU), which only includes Daily Active Users it can advertise to.
In 2021, there are approximately 199 million mDAUs on Twitter. This is a significant increase from 186 million mDAUs the previous year.
Twitter’s MAUs are reportedly at between 350 and 400 million.
USA has the highest number of Twitter users at 69.3 million
As of January 2021, the USA was the country with the highest number of Twitter users for the previous year with 69.3 million mDAUs.
It is closely followed by Japan at 50.9 million while India comes in third at 17.5 million mDAUs.
The majority of Twitter users are aged between 35 and 49
According to the latest figures, Twitter users aged between 35 and 49 make up the largest demographic, taking up 28.4% of the total usage population.
They are closely followed by those aged between 25 and 34 who make up 26.6% of the total Twitter user base.
68.5% of global Twitter users are male
Twitter is dominated by males more than females.
As of January 2021, 68.5% of global Twitter users identified as male while only 31.5% are female.
21% of adults in the U.S. use Twitter
Although a larger chunk of the population uses other platforms like Instagram and Facebook, 21% is still a comparably high number.
To put it into perspective one out five U.S adults use Twitter.
500 million tweets are shared every day
On average, 500 million tweets are shared every day. This can be further broken down to 6,000 tweets per second, 350,000 tweets per minute, and around 200 billion tweets every year.
#COVID19 was the most used hashtag of 2020
#COVID19 was the most used hashtag of 2020 closely followed by #BlackLivesMatter. #COVID19 was used nearly 400 million times.
12% of the global users get news from Twitter
12% of the total Twitter users use the platform to get news. This is, however, lower compared to other social platforms like Facebook (at 36%) and YouTube (at 21%).
Only WhatsApp at 16% is the other app ranking higher than Twitter in terms of where consumers get their news from.
In America, 17% of the total users get their news from the platform.
An average Twitter user has 707 followers
A study into 96 million Twitter users who have tweeted on their account at least once in the past 6 months found that the average number of followers is 707.
@BarackObama is the most followed tweep with 130.3 million followers
At 130.3 million followers, the former president of the United States is the most followed individual on Twitter.
@justinbieber is the most followed musician with 114.4 million while @Cristiano Ronaldo becomes the most followed sports personality with 92.1 million followers.
There are 689 million monthly active TikTok users globally
These figures place the popular app as the 7th largest platform, well ahead of others that have been there for a lot longer such as Twitter, Snapchat, and Pinterest.
However, it should be noted that the 689 million active users do not include the Chinese version, Douyin, which in itself has over 600 million users.
In total, both versions of TikTok from the same parent company: Bytedance have over 1.2 billion active users.
53% of TikTok users are male while only 47% of them identify as female.
While the current statistics point out that there are more male users than females, we may see different figures in the near future if we’re to go with the recent trends.
In March 2021, female users accounted for 61% of TikTok’s active user accounts in the United States.
According to App Ape, male users only accounted for 39% of the video-sharing app’s user base on the Android platform.
TikTok has a total of over 2.8 billion downloads globally
With over 850 million downloads globally in 2020 only, TikTok became the world’s most popular social media platform.
The app has been on a gradual rise, before it quickly picked up pace in 2019, when it reached the 1 billion mark.
TikTok conquers the younger generation
TikTok creators understood the younger generation in a much better way, and this could be evidenced by the fact that their initial target audience was users aged 18 and below.
Even though this is a newcomer in the social media industry, it has overtaken other key players, such as Instagram to become one of the most popular social media platforms among the young users.
To date, only Snapchat leads in popularity. However, the gap seems to be closing quickly.
TikTok is currently available in 155 countries and in 75 languages
While TikTok is owned by the Chinese company Bytedance, its genius penetration strategy is what made them so popular.
The company first began by attracting Asian users and would later acquire Musical.ly as a way to penetrate the western market.
Today, the platform is available in 155 countries and can be accessed in 75 languages.
TikTok lost a huge follower base after it got banned in some countries.
There were about 200 million TikTok active users in India and 43 million downloads in Pakistan before it got banned in the countries.
There are currently three other countries that have banned the app including Bangladesh, Indonesia, and China.
The ban in India was a result of the ban of other Chinese apps which the government thought was used to spy on its sovereignty.
Bangladesh, Indonesia, and Pakistan all banned the app on various grounds, including the promotion of ‘indecency’ and cyberbullying. Douyin, which is the Chinese version of TikTok, is the only permitted version in mainland China, meaning the global version of TikTok isn’t available within the country.
90% of all TikTokers access the app daily
The average time spent on TikTok is 52 minutes per day, with each session lasting about 10.85 minutes. With at least 9 in 10 TikTok users opening the app daily, you can be sure that this remains one of the top social media platforms in the world.
TikTok generated $1 billion in revenue in 2020
Although it is still a new entrant in the social media industry, TikTok made a whopping $1 billion in revenue in 2020.
This revenue was from various sources, including running ads. Today, the company is worth over $50 billion.
TikTok has high engagement rates
Of all the content in the digital space, video has the highest engagement rates. TikTok is purely based on creators publishing short entertaining videos and so the engagement rates are quite high.
Studies show an engagement rate of nearly 18% with micro-influencers on the platform. This means that TikTok has a significant lead on Instagram’s 3.86% and YouTube’s 1.63%.
55% of TikTok users have uploaded their own video content
To show just how engaging TikTok is, more than half (55%) of the total users have uploaded their own video content on the platform.