Your business is growing. You know you need to create an online presence for your brand, but you're not sure where to start. You may be wondering a myriad of questions, such as, "What social media has the most users?"; "How do I choose a social media platform to use?"; "Do I pour all of my effort into one account or make multiple for different websites?"; and any other ways to maximize app usage for your business. There's a lot to unpack, but we're here to get you started off right! Read on for Social Media Apps 101.
1) There Are Over 2 Million Social Media Apps
Yes, you read that right. No, it's not a typo. There are literally over 2 million different social media applications/websites. Of course, only a relatively small portion of those apps are widely known--like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. Regardless, there are 4.74 billion social media users around the world--that's 90% of Internet users and 59.4% of the total global population. Social media originally started as a way to interact with friends and family online. Now, it's used for just about everything. There are many niches of social networking and a plethora of sites to go along with each--photo and video sharing, blogging, social gaming, virtual worlds, reviews, direct messaging/contact, and more. Individuals report primary reasons for their social media use include keeping in touch with friends and family, filling spare time, reading news stories, finding blog and video content, finding products to purchase, sharing and discussing opinions, making new contacts, and seeing content from favorite brands. The right social media apps can be a powerful tool to grow and maintain your brand via advertising and direct contact with costumers/clients.
2) It's About Who, Not How Many
One of the great things about social media is that it allows you to target a specific demographic. You don't need to waste your energy by casting the widest net possible in the hopes that you'll just happen upon your target audience. By choosing the appropriate social platforms for your business, you can ensure that you're reaching the people you need to. Consider the goals of your business and its social media presence when deciding which sites to use. 60.9% of Instagram users reported that they use the platform to follow or research brands and products. 55.2% of Facebook users and 38.1% of Pinterest users similarly reported scrolling through the platforms to look into businesses. In addition to high user rates, the visual formatting of these apps make them ideal for showcasing products. But... what if you don't make products... then what? You need to stick with what makes sense for your brand. Various industry experts may have a harder time finding their target audience on higher usage sites like Instagram and TikTok than on a more professional site like LinkedIn. While it only ranks at #20 among top social media apps, LinkedIn still has 250 million monthly active users (MAUs) and could be the most appropriate site for your company, depending on your demographic. Ultimately when choosing which apps to use for your business, go to the sites that your target audience uses the most.
3) Facebook Has the Most Active Users
It likely comes as no surprise that Facebook, at 2.9 billion MAUs, takes the cake for Most Social Media Users. For reference, 2.9 billion averages out to 36.9% of the global population. Facebook reports 1.93 billion daily active users. There are also 7 million active advertisers and 200 million (primarily small) businesses utilizing the site's tools daily. Facebook's user base skews male (as do most global social media, simply due to the fact that men are more likely to have Internet access than women) with only 43.2% of its users identifying as female. The median age of Facebook users is 31, but it maintains a large range of user ages. Approximately 58.1% of users are ages 13-34, about 36.5% are 35-64, and 5.3% are 65 and older. Following Facebook in the top five most-used social media apps are YouTube (2.56 billion MAUs), WhatsApp (2 billion MAUs), Instagram (1.47 billion MAUs), and WeChat (1.26 billion MAUs).
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