The use of social media has grown exponentially in the past year, and it's no surprise that the trend is expected to continue. With the latest social media statistics, it's easy to see why. From the number of users to the amount of time spent on social networks, the data paints a clear picture of how much social media has grown in the past year. Young adults were among the first to adopt social networks and continue to use these sites at a high level, but use by older adults has increased in recent years.
According to Statcounter, Facebook is still responsible for more than 70% of all web traffic referrals that come from social networks. North America and South America have the highest number of social media users, with 434.93 million and 306.76 million users respectively. The value that the use of social networks can add to consumers' lives is more evident than ever. People are trying to use the Internet with more “determination”, especially after the rapid increase in time spent using social networks during the COVID-19 lockdowns.
Meta continues to represent the three “favorite” social media platforms in the world and, more importantly, people are still two and a half times more likely to choose Facebook as their favorite social platform than to choose TikTok. The use of the main social media platforms varies according to factors such as age, gender and education level. However, Facebook is still by far the most used social media platform in the world, and available data suggests that it still has hundreds of millions more active users than its next closest rival. Meanwhile, at the other end of the spectrum, the regions with the least social media users are the Caribbean, with 24.71 million users, and Central Africa, with 21.13 million users. The best source for obtaining statistics on the most important social media platforms comes directly from company statements and earnings announcements.
GWI research and analysis indicate that if the decline in reach reported on different Meta platforms had been affected by the number of advertisers and their investments, this could indicate a decline in Meta's share of the overall social media advertising market. In addition, the average CPM of social networks (the cost of posting 1000 impressions on social networks) declined in the last 3 months, resulting in an 18.8% increase in the number of social media ads that were shown to users on all social platforms. In conclusion, while social media growth is expected to stabilize in the future, there is no doubt that its value will continue to be evident in consumers' lives. With these latest figures from Statcounter and GWI research and analysis, it's easy to see why structuring your marketing plan around a funnel that has been proven to improve performance is essential.
