Last week we told you despite a number of worries, the sky was not falling as far as Facebook is concerned (PRN, February 27, 2018).
More evidence comes this week, from the Pew Research Center. As you can see from the chart immediately below, the majority of Americans use YouTube (73%) and Facebook (68%). The closest competitor is Instagram, a distant third at 35%, although that figure is stronger than the 28% Instagram pulled in Pew’s previous social media use survey in 2016. (See below for a breakout of this chart in the table Use of different online platforms by demographic groups.)
But not all the news is good for Facebook. The first worry is what Pew found when it asked Americans 18 to 24 about their social media habits.
As we saw earlier this year in a report from RBC (PRN, January 9, 2018), Facebook’s popularity with anyone older than 18 seems unassailable. Yet Pew also found 94% of 18- to 24-year-olds use YouTube. The figure is 80% for Facebook and 78% for Snapchat.
RBC asked what social site would you use if you could take one to a desert island? 64% of participants chose Facebook, 8% took Instagram, 5% for Snapchat and 6% for Twitter.
Yet 44% of teens chose Snapchat for their desert island platform, up from 28% in ’16. RBC also found 79% of 13- to 18-year-olds own Snapchat accounts vs. 73% for Instagram and 57% for Facebook.
Source: PEW, Social Media Use in 2018 (2018)
Giving Up Social
Another concern for Facebook, and all social platforms, seems minor but worth noting. Pew found a majority of Americans (59%) said it would not be difficult to give up social media (see bottom chart). 40% told Pew it would be hard to give up social media, though just 14% said it would be “very hard.” The 40% “hard” figure has grown over the years, Pew says. The figure was 28% in Pew’s 2014 survey.
Daily Dose
Moving back to Facebook’s upside, in addition to its popularity, its daily visitor figures are impressive. Similar to what Pew found in its 2016 survey, 74% of Facebook users told Pew they visit the site daily (it was 76% in the 2016 survey). 51% said they visit Facebook several times daily.
Snapchat and Instagram, Pew says, also tout a majority of users (63%, 60%, respectively) who visit daily. Again, Snapchat and Instagram have heavy user numbers from youth.Some 82% of Snapchat users 18 to 24 say they use the platform daily, with 71% visiting multiple times each day. Similarly, 81% of Instagram users 18-24 visit the platform daily (55% do so multiple times).
What marketers will find fascinating is the table above, which breaks out social media use by gender, ethnicity, age, geography, education and income level. Among the interesting findings: women (41%) use Pinterest more than men do (16%); popular in Latin America, WhatsApp retains its popularity among Latinos in the U.S. Less surprising is that college-educated Americans would use LinkedIn far more than the average American.
Maybe the biggest surprise is how similar tastes seem to be when it comes to social media platforms. Comparing the ethnic data, for example, fails to reveal too many large differences in preference. Perhaps we’re closer together than we think.
Source: PEW, Social Media Use in 2018 (2018)