What are the most popular social media sites in 2017?

The social network landscape is always in a state of flux, however certain sites seem to have stabilized as clear user favorites over the years. As of 2017, many of the top social media sites have been around for several years (Instagram, Snapchat), and many have been around for a decade or more (Facebook, Youtube, Twitter). So who reigns supreme in terms of popularity in 2017?

The Pew Research Center conducted a comprehensive survey of social media site use, and found that Facebook was the most popular social media site for online Americans overall at 79% (it is also the most popular social media network worldwide). Facebook was followed distantly by Instagram and Pinterest at around 30% each. LinkedIn and Twitter reached 29% and 24% respectively. However, there are some differences in social media site use among different age groups, as you might expect. Pew found that Facebook use was high among all demographics that had internet access, but had reached the highest level of use among the youngest age group (88% of 18-29 year-olds). However, even the 65+ age group had 62% Facebook users (among those who were online).

Sprout Social surveyed a cross-section of study of 1,000 Millennials, Gen-Xers and Baby Boomers, and the results are telling. In terms of most popular social networks, Facebook came out on top for all 3 demographics, though, Facebook was not favored as strongly by millennials (33% chose Facebook as top pick), followed by Instagram (22.2%) and Snapchat (15.8%). It is also interesting to note that even within demographics, there was a divergence in opinions. Younger millennials - those aged 18-24 - favored Instagram over Facebook.

Of course, use of multiple networks is the norm, and Pew found that a majority of internet users are on at least one social media network, a finding corroborated by Tracx. Do these statistics ring true with your experience? Do you think Facebook still reigns supreme?

The top 5 free resources for international social media statistics

There is so much social media data out there, it is sometimes hard to parse the bad from the good. This is especially true with international data, which can be even harder to find and murkier to interpret. So where to turn? Through trial and error, I have hit upon a few tried and true sites with valuable data covering a global population. Here are 5 of my favorite free resources for international social media stats and data.

1. GlobalWebIndex - Global Web Index is a large pay data and research service, which boasts a survey panel of a staggering 18 million people. Even better, their blog offers great insights about social media and device use worldwide, for free. On the blog, they offer a "Chart of the Day" with an insightful snapshot from larger survey panels and reports. Below, we can see one such chart of the day, covering the global percentages of users following charities on social media.

2. Statista - Statista is good for some general statistics including a frequently updated list of the top social websites in different regions of the world and the current number of social media users - 2.95 billion at the time of this post. Statista itself does not obtain these statistics, but rather it is a clearinghouse for thousands of different sources, all visualized online through Tableau. You can search by topic to find the dataset which is most relevant to you (they have a huge variety). Here we can see the growth of Snapchat worldwide from 2014 through early 2017.

3. International Telecomms Union - This is an international governing body that provides statistics for telecommunication use and diffusion across the world, including information about mobile use and internet and computer access. The ICTEye allows you to compare statistics for different countries on the fly. While they do not publish or blog everyday, their end-of-year reports are particularly comprehensive.

4. Google's Consumer Barometer - This data set is pulled from online and in person questionnaires conducted in dozens of countries (with at least 1,000 people from each country). This survey covers mobile and internet access and use, and also gets deeper into attitudes toward social media use. You can explore the data through their "Graph Builder," by selecting the country of interest and cycling through the survey questions. It is also interesting to see the more behavioral data collected by Google, which is not typically covered by other surveys. Here, we can see Japanese consumers' responses to the question, "In the past month, did you go online via another device (e.g. computer, smartphone, tablet) while watching TV?" Google also offers trends over time and selected results grouped by theme.

5. We Are Social - We Are Social, an international new media focused research agency, culls information from some of these statistical sources, as wells as its own research, to put together a yearly comprehensive look at social media use worldwide. The findings from their Digital in 2017 report, published in conjunction with Hootsuite, are the most recent, and provide relevant insights into mobile use, social media use, and growth for different continents. 

These websites are great resources for getting started with international social media and internet statistics, but this is by no means a comprehensive list. Do you have any favorite sources? Have you used the sources listed above?

Which social media network is the most engaging?

Social media is a dominant force in American life - and as of the beginning of 2017 - a full 30% of time spent online is dedicated to social media use. But which social media networks are the most engaging? First things first, what is engagement when it comes to social media? Engagement is a metric that measures how involved users are with the content on a site, and it can be defined in a number of ways. For the purpose of this blog post, we define engagement as time spent on the social media network/app and frequency of use. Other definitions of engagement may include the frequency of likes, comments or shares, or engagement between a company and its customers.

So where does that put the most popular social media networks? In December of 2016, Global Web Index found that WhatsApp and Facebook lead the pack in terms of average frequency of use (see below). Over half of those surveyed used both WhatsApp and Facebook more than once a day. This finding of Facebook's relative dominance in use frequency is replicated in other studies. According to Statista, as of December 2016, it was found that 44 percent of U.S. online users accessed Facebook several times a day. In both the US and UK, Facebook is the most popular mobile app, and is accessed 8 times per day on average, according to Forrester (seen at bottom of the post). In a previous blog post, we saw that Facebook ranked first in active users worldwide.

However, when you factor in how long users are on the network, another site comes to the fore. Social Media Today shows that users spent the most time on YouTube at 40 minutes, and 35 minutes on Facebook. ComScore corroborates this time roughly, showing that users spent an average of 1,000 minutes per month on Facebook. Overall, it seems that Facebook is still the most engaging social media network, according to the outlined metrics.

Even though its organic reach is declining, Facebook is still a vital part of most US consumers' social media routines, and is a key part of any social media strategy. To see how Facebook fits into your social media campaign, check out our blog post on how to choose the right social media networks for your goals.