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As a social media marketer, statistics are your best friend.
You conduct deep dives into your analytics to find the best performing content, allowing you to publish more of what resonates with your audience. And you also rely on statistics to learn about the audience demographics of each social media platform to determine where to invest your time and energy.
Essentially, this data plays a major role in shaping how you’re showing up online and connecting with your target audience.
Because the social media world is always changing and at a rapid pace, you can’t rely on last year’s statistics to influence this year’s social media strategy.
To get you up to speed, we have compiled a list of the social media statistics you need to know in 2023. This data will ensure you set yourself up for success by choosing the right platforms and creating the best content possible.
First, let’s dive into the number of active users each social media platform currently has.
This information allows us to determine which platforms are most popular at the moment and which ones have been gaining traction year to year.
Now, as a marketer, you may be wondering what to do with this information. Well, it can be used to help you decide which platforms will make up your social media strategy in 2023.
To ensure you’re getting the best results from your online presence, it’s wise to be on the platforms your audience is actually using on a regular basis.
Plus, it helps to know which platforms are increasing in popularity because it provides insights into where you should consider investing more time.
Below, you’ll find usage statistics for the top social media platforms. This data was gathered in January 2023 by Statista. Each platform is ranked based on the number of active users it has.
As you can see from this list, Facebook is the social media platform that continues to reign supreme.
However, TikTok (which was launched in 2016) is beating out veterans like Snapchat, Twitter and Pinterest. That’s a good sign for the longevity of the platform itself. Using this information, consider if there’s a new platform that might be worth your attention this year.
Demographics help us to understand the users on each social media platform. What gender do they identify with? How old are they? And where are they located?
Since you’ve probably created a unique buyer persona for your brand, you can use this data to make an informed decision about which platforms are right for us to use as marketers.
Here are some social media demographics statistics to consider for some of the top platforms today:
On Facebook, males between the ages of 25-34 represent the largest demographic on the platform. That age group comes in second place on Instagram, with males ages 18-24 ranking in the top spot in terms of usage. And on Twitter, 43.6% of their users identify as female, meaning it leans predominantly male.
While a chunk of TikTok’s users in the States are 10-19 years old, only 18% of the platform’s users are over 50. TikTok has quickly become an online favourite for the Gen Z crowd. However, more age groups are joining and sharing content, primarily due to its popularity explosion during the COVID-19 pandemic that began in early 2020.
India has 314.6 million Facebook users, making it the top country for the platform. Trailing behind is the United States, which has 175 million Facebook users. Which countries come in right behind those two for Facebook popularity? Indonesia, Brazil, Mexico, the Philippines, and Vietnam.
Instagram is a pretty popular platform in the States, as 571,000 posts in 2020 originated from users based in the United States. Brazil came in second with 300,000 posts. These are some interesting social media statistics consider India is actually the country with the most active Instagram users, 201 million to be exact. The United States and Brazil are in second and third place, respectively.
With 76.9 million users, the United States has the most Twitter users of any country worldwide. Japan is following right behind with 58.9 million users. In third place, we have India with 23.6 million Twitter users.
Pinterest is another social media platform where a majority of its active users reside in the United States, 84.6 million to be exact. Rounding out the top five are Brazil, Mexico, Germany, and France.
The world of social media is always evolving, including how marketers and users access and create content for each of the platforms. To gain a better understanding of how the world is using social media in 2023, here are some social media statistics centered around usage to shape your strategy:
With more than half of the population worldwide using social media, it’s become a powerful tool for making new connections. Plus, more than two-thirds of the world’s population now has access to mobile phones, meaning social media is readily available at our fingertips every moment of the day.
From July 2019 to March 2021, the amount of total social media users worldwide increased 13%, potentially another byproduct of the global pandemic. This means there were a total of 376 million new users during that timeframe.
This data should come as no surprise with most of us accessing social media throughout the day on our smartphones. With those 2 hours and 28 minutes, users are scrolling through feeds, watching Stories, and spending time engaging with the accounts they follow.
Consumption is slightly lower in the United States (2 hours and 7 minutes), the United Kingdom (1 hour and 49 minutes), and Canada (1 hour and 46 minutes). However, the Philippines comes out on top with users averaging 4 hours and 15 minutes per day spent on social media.
Even though the top social media platforms offer desktop versions for access via computer, 99% of social media users opt to do their social media scrolling through a mobile device. Considering we typically carry out phones with us all day, every day, it’s no wonder it’s the more popular option.
Because many of us rely on social media as a marketing tool to generate brand awareness and to grow businesses, it’s smart to consider the most effective ways to use and create content for each platform. Here are some statistics you should know for your 2022 social media strategy:
According to Hootsuite’s Digital Trends 2021 research, 40.4% of internet users turn to social media for work purposes. If you’re using social media to grow your brand or to represent the company you work for, you certainly aren’t alone. There are tons of brands represented on each of the big platforms.
With multiple social media platforms incorporating a “Stories” feature to share photos and videos throughout your day, many users might question which one to focus their attention on. However, it’s clear that Instagram Stories reigns supreme with 500 million people using it daily. Facebook, on the other hand, has about 300 million people using Facebook Stories every day.
Modelled after the success of TikTok’s short and sweet videos, Instagram Reels is one of the many ways to create content on the platform. In 2022, 58% of marketers have said they want to utilize Reels for their brand as it’s proven to be an effective way to gain more exposure.
How often do you turn to social media instead of Google to search for a product or service? If it’s something you do frequently, you aren’t alone. 58% of Instagram users are doing the same. That’s a clear reminder of how important it is for brands to be promoting their offerings on Instagram.
If you’re planning to invest in advertising in 2022, social media statistics can help you create powerful advertisements that generate massive conversions. And when it comes to Facebook, video ads seem to perform better over other ad types, making them worth the extra time and money they require.
It’s no secret that the Facebook algorithm has made it more challenging to get content noticed over the years. Although, it may seem surprising to note that pages with fewer than 10,000 fans received the highest engagement rate on their posts (0.45%).
The birthplace of the hashtag! Twitter’s research has shown that tweets with hashtags see 100% more engagement than those without. Just don’t go overboard with hashtags because Twitter says the ideal is just one or two per tweet. Any more than that and you risk seeing your engagement decrease drastically. In fact, a tweet with more than two hashtags might see 17% less engagement.
When deciding which social media platform to run ads on, Facebook is often the first one to come to mind. However, Twitter is doing pretty well when it comes to advertising profit, making $4.5 billion in 2021. Clearly, it’s been a successful advertising tool for many brands.
Instead of turning on the TV to get the latest news, people are more inclined to visit social media to get the scoop on what’s happening in the world. 36.5% of people have made social media a go-to for news. Other top reasons for being on social media include finding entertaining content and to fill spare time.
Overall, these social media statistics can play a major role in helping you to plan your strategy for the year ahead. (Don’t think it’s too late if you haven’t started yet!)
Use this information to help you determine which platforms are worth your time, energy, and money in 2023 based on active users and demographics.
Allow usage data and marketing statistics to shape how you’re using these platforms as a marketer and the kind of content you’re sharing. When you use social media with purpose, you stand a much better chance at reaching your brand goals with ease.
