50 Social Media Statistics To Inform Your Digital Marketing In 2020 (2023)

When social media first burst onto the scene in the early 2000s, it was used only by small groups of people, mostly college students, and there was a lot of skepticism about its future.

This was mostly because people didn’t understand how to monetize social media and turn it into something with staying power. For proof, just ask people you know if they still have an account on Six Degrees, Friendster, or MySpace…exactly.But oh how things have changed.

Today, social media is a huge part of our lives. We use it, along with a whole host of other platforms, to connect with friends and family, learn about events happening in our area, buy and sell goods, start new relationships, review shops and restaurants, and, most importantly, look at funny pictures of cats. But just how much social media do we use? And how do we use it? And how can you use this information to grow your brand? Here’s how things are shaping up in 2020:

2020 Social Media Usage

As of January 2020, there were more than3.8 billion social media users in the world. Considering there are around 7 billion people in the world, this means that more than half of the global population is currently using social media in one form or another.

In the US, though, this percentage is much higher. Consider these findings fromStatista:

Young People LOVE Social Media

It seems natural. After all, today’s youth have been born into a digital world, so it’s only normal that they would be the ones most likely to adopt social media.

However, most of us also know that older people are hip to the social media game as well. But have they taken over young people?

Not yet. But usage is up across the board. Here’s some more data fromPew:

Some more interesting facts are:

• Social media use is roughly equivalent across race, gender, income level, as well as community (urban/suburban).
• 79 percent of college graduates use at least one social media site, whereas just 60 percent of those with a high school degree or less use social networks.

2020 Daily Social Media Usage

Most people like to use social media at least once a day. But which networks are they most likely to use on a daily basis? The most recent data fromPew, which took a look at usage from 2019, found the following breakdown for US social media use by platform.

As you can see, daily use of Facebook has remained the same, despite reports that more and more people are taking steps to reduce their Facebook use, as well as some of the controversy surrounding the site in regards to data privacy.

YouTube and Instagram are both being used slightly more frequently, both by adults and younger people, but Instagram is certainly the most-preferred and most-commonly used amongst the youth.

Twitter and Snapchat have both seen a decline in daily use, trends that have been ongoing for several years.

Brands and Social Media

Social media started as a way for people to connect and communicate with friends and family.

However, as it became more and more popular, brands began recognizing it as a great opportunity to interact with their target audiences and customers, as well as to expand their reach and grow.

To give you an idea, consider that in 2019 alone,marketers spent more than $89 billionon social media advertising and marketing, a number that has been going up steadily for some time.

In general, this has worked. But just being on social media doesn’t mean your brand will automatically be successful. Here are some key stats to consider that have been provided bySprout Social:

As you can see, there is a sharp drop-off from funny to trendy. There are people out there who may want you to be snarky or trendy, but most just want you to be helpful and friendly.

As a result, if you’re just starting out, then this should be your focus on social media: relating to people in a friendly way while also being as helpful as you can be.

Where do people want to see brands showing off their personality?

• Facebook (83 percent)
• YouTube (48 percent)
• Twitter (40 percent)
• Instagram (35 percent)
• LinkedIn(30 percent)
• Snapchat (27 percent)

Hey look! Facebook came in at number one. After what we learned by studying usage and engagement, this shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, and it serves as additional proof that your social media time and money might be best spent working on your Facebook strategy.

What Social Media Actions Drive Purchases?

When talking about brands and social media, we tend to focus a lot on things such as reach and engagement. But all this does is cloud our vision.

The ultimate purpose of using social media as a brand is to drive sales. Anything else that social media provides is great, but it’s a bonus.

As a result, you need to be paying attention to what you can do on social media to trigger people into wanting to buy something you are selling.

Luckily, we’ve got some stats to help you figure this out. Here they are:

In this case, perhaps the biggest piece of insight we’ve gained is that trash-talking competitors pretty much gets you nowhere. If you were able to present it in the perfect way, i.e. funny and friendly, it might work. But overall, it is likely not worth the risk.

Instead, it’s much better to just be helpful. If people ask questions, make sure to answer them promptly and try not to let too many questions or comments go unanswered.

Other Social Media Platforms

We’ve spent a lot of time talking about Facebook, but there are other social media platforms. Indeed, Facebook will probably provide you with the best bang for your buck, but don’t close the door on other options.

2020 YouTube Statistics

• We watch over 500 billion YouTube videos each day, which accounts for more than1 billion hours of YouTube videos each day.
• 400 hoursof video are uploaded to YouTube every minute.
• There are around 1.3 billion people who use YouTube regularly.
• For brands, using TrueView, YouTube’s proprietary advertising can be very effective. Viewers who watched a TrueView ad to the end were23 times more likelyto complete the action you want them to complete, and they are still10 times more likelyeven if they don’t watch the whole ad.

2020 Instagram Statistics

• There are now more than1 billion users on Instagram.
• There are also some500 million daily active users.
• Instagram is the place for images, as we might expect. On average, Instagram images get23 percent more engagementthan Facebook images.
• 70 percentof people look up brands on Instagram.
• 60 percentof people find out about new products on Instagram.

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NB: Did You Know That You Can Schedule your Instagram Posts?

Yes, despite what you might have heard you can schedule Instagram posts in advance.Many people use and view Instagram as an in-the-moment type of social channel. You snap a shot, maybe crop it or add some filters, and post it, right then and there. To learn more about how you can schedule your Instagram posts, visit Bulky

How To Get More Followers On Instagram?

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Also Checkout; 120+ Instagram Stats and Facts of 2020 by The Marketing Helpline

The Marketing Helpline reports that a huge chunk of the world’s population is now using Instagram. There’s no surprise that there are so many huge fans of the platform, since it is pretty versatile, both for private users, marketers and for individuals and businesses that want to use it to increase their presence, or to become an influencer and earn from the platform.

2020 Snapchat Statistics

• 60 percentof Snapchat users are under the age of 25.
• 73percentof all Americans aged 18-24 use Snapchat, a drop from 78 in 2019, suggesting the platform is losing its popularity.
• Of people who view one snap in a brand’s Snapchat story, social media tracking toolwatched the whole thing.
• 47 percentof U.S. teens think Snapchat is better than Facebook.

2020 LinkedIn Statistics

• 45 percentof people earning more than 75k a year use LinkedIn.
• There are46 million students and recent college graduatesusing the site.
• 75 percent of people who have recently changed jobsused LinkedIn to help them decide.
• 64 percent of social referralsto corporate websites come from LinkedIn.

2020 Twitter Statistics

• Twitter first turned a profit in 2017, quieting some concerns that it didn’t know how to monetize and might be on its way out.
• Only22percent of the people in the U.S. use Twitter, down from 24 percent in 2019 and80 percent of Twitter users are from countries other than the U.S.
• 80 percent of Twitter users are affluent Millennials. This should help you in deciding if this is a platform you want to use.

Facebook Dominates

The Pew Study referenced above showed that a larger percentage of people used YouTube than Facebook, suggesting that YouTube may be making a run for the top spot.

However, when we look a little more closely at how people are using each network, it becomes quite clear that Facebook is still the dominant force in the market place.

Facebook Is The Most Popular

From the previously mentionedPewReport, here is a breakdown of the popularity of different sites based on the percentage of the population that uses them:

• YouTube (73 percent) – no change from 2019
• Facebook (69 percent) – up 1 percent from 2019
• Instagram (37 percent) – up 2 percent from 2019
• Pinterest (28 percent) – down 1 percent from 2019
• Snapchat (24 percent) – down 3 percent from 2019
• LinkedIn (27 percent) – up 2 percent from 2019
• Twitter (22 percent) – down 2 percent from 2019

This was the first year YouTube was included in the study, and most reports on social media use don’t include it, asthere is some debate as to whether YouTube really is a social media network.

Nevertheless, Facebook, which 69 percent of people use, is far ahead of its next biggest competitor, Instagram, which isn’t really a competitor since Facebook owns Instagram.

Facebook Is Where People Spend Most of Their Social Media Time

For further proof of the dominance of Facebook, here are some stats taken fromComscore’s Digital Future in Focus Report:

• Facebook reaches approximately 97 percent of peoplebetween the ages of 18-34, and each person spendsmore than 1,000 minutes a monthon the site.
• Its closest competitor is Instagram (which it owns), butInstagram reaches just a little less than 65 percent of peopleaged 18-34, and teach user only spends around350 minutes on the site per month.
• Snapchat only reaches38 percent of people, but they spend more time using it than Instagram, spending around400 minutes per monthon the site/app. However, research indicates that Snapchat is growing in terms of reach and usage, so it will be interesting to see how things change moving forward.
• LinkedIn only captures about 52 percent of people between ages 18 and 34, but most don’t spend any time on the site at all.
• Pinterest gets about 40 percent of people, and they spend just a little less than 200 minutes on the site each month.

This particular study was done looking at people aged 18-34 in the United States, but other studies that look at the larger population have found similar results in terms of Facebook’s dominance of the social media space.

Here’s a graph from Comscore’s report that shows how minutes are divided among the different social media sites in countries around the world:

Source

Facebook Keeps People Coming Back

The following data, which comes from theForrester Data Digestshows that the people using Facebook tend to be heavy users. This means that there are lots of opportunities to interact with people on Facebook.

• In a given month, 63 percent of people will access the Facebook app. They go onto the app an average of 15 days per month, and they will access it on average five times per day.
• Instagram’s penetration (the amount of people who access the app) is just 27 percent. Those users access the app on average 11 times per month, and the average daily access is six times per day.
• Twitter’s penetration is 22 percent, with people accessing the site 7.5 times per month and 5 times per day.

These numbers may not be as jarring, but they help to reinforce this idea:Facebook is still on top of the social media world, and it will take a near miracle for that to change.

The Takeaway

With so many social media options to choose from, it’s easy to get distracted. It’s true that Instagram offers you the chance to showcase great photos and look cool, and it’s also true that Snapchat is rapidly becoming more popular, especially among young people.

But don’t let this distract you from the following truth:Facebook is still on top.

As a result, businesses should still be spending the majority of your time trying to boost reach and engagement on social media by using Facebook.

Social Media Around the World in 2020

Globally, there were 3.8 billion social media users in 2019, which is 18 percent higher than the year before, according toWe Are Social.

Also from We Are Social, the places where social media use is growing the fastest are:

• Saudi Arabia (32 percent)
• India (31 percent)
• Indonesia (23 percent)
• Ghana (22 percent)
• South Africa (20 percent)
• Vietnam (20 percent)

Conclusion

Overall, the social media landscape is one that’s changing constantly. However, there are a few constants:

• Social media is growing around the world. Exactly how that growth will look remains to be seen, but we can expect more from social networks moving forward.
• Facebook is still the dominant force. This may change, but it’s not likely in the immediate future.

It will be interesting to see how 2020 shapes the world of social media. Up until now, it’s been a wild ride, so we can really only expect more of the same.

This article originally was posted on Broadband Search

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