It’s the start of a new year and with that will come a plethora of new blogs that highlight new social media stats. I know this because I just spent hours combing through the numbers to find the ones that mean the most for marketers in our industry. Below are my top stats for 2021.

General Stats:

• There are 4.5 billion social media users around the world – up 400 million than last year (that’s almost 10% growth).
• Current trends project social media users will pass 60% of.

The world’s total population sometime in the first half of 2022.

• Monthly Active Users by top platforms:
  • Facebook: 2.8 billion
  • Youtube 2.3 billion
  • Instagram 1.4 billion
  • Tiktok – 1 billion
  • Twitter – 463 million
  • Linkedin doesn’t report monthly active users but self- reports 800 million active users*
• 99% or 4.43 billion social media users access networks using a mobile device.
• Speaking of mobile devices, TikTok & Instagram saw the most significant quarter-on-quarter grown in worldwide app downloads in q2 2021.
• Globally, the average time a person spends on social media a day is 2 hours 25 minutes / 145 minutes. You can extrapolate this number a lot of different ways, but the one that stuck with me was that the average person will spend 36.5 days a year on platforms from the age of 16+
• 54% of social browsers use social media to research products.
• More than 1 in 5 internet users aged 16 to 64 now listens to a podcast each week.
• In a 2021 HubSpot Blog poll of 1,000+ global marketing professionals, 79% of marketers report buying paid advertising on social media. (HubSpot)

Now let’s take a more in-depth look at some of the top social media networks:

Facebook:

1. 2.9 billion active users in October 2021, ranking it at the top of social media platforms.
2. 69% of US adults use Facebook and 76% of those have visited the platform in the last month.
3. Even though it is still the most popular social network, the only demographic that saw an increase in users was 55 and older age group, every other group declined.
4. Facebook is the world’s third-most visited website behind google and YouTube.

TikTok

1. At the end of September 2021, TikTok passed 1 billion monthly active users.
2. In 24 months, TikTok was on 1 in 5 devices.
3. It ranks 7th in the list of the world’s most active social media platforms.
4. It is still currently blocked in India, which accounts for 15% of the global internet population.
5. Users between 18-24 account for 45% of global reach.

Instagram:

1. Instagram has 1.4 billion active users
2. Half of Instagram’s active users are checking Stories daily.
3. In 2022, 58% of marketers plan to leverage Instagram Reels.
4. 90% of Instagram users follow a business profile.
5. 67% of Gen Z and 57% of Millennials use the platform, in comparison to only 38% of Gen X.

LinkedIn:

1. LinkedIn reports 800 million active users in 200 countries.
2. 60% of LinkedIn users are 25-34.
3. For B2B, LinkedIn is the top paid and organic social channel
4. Almost 46% of social media traffic to a company’s website comes from LinkedIn.
5. In October 2021, 790 million users were reached with LinkedIn ads.

YouTube:

1. 2.3 billion active monthly users
2. YouTube is the second-largest search engine globally (behind Google).
3. It accounts for more than 25% of total worldwide mobile traffic.
4. On mobile devices alone, YouTube reaches more adults aged 18-24 than any TV network.

Twitter:

1. Twitter reached 211 million daily active users in the third quarter of 2021.
2. According to HubSpot, 79% of marketers will continue investing in Twitter Spaces in 2022.
3. Tweets with hashtags get 100% more engagement. (Twitter)

Top 3 takeaways:

1. Everyone is on social media… a lot. And most of that time is on their mobile device.
2. It’s time to take TikTok serious.
3. Time spent creating short-form video will render a big return in impressions (see point 2).

There are a lot of exciting things to look forward to in the world of social media this year – growth, more videos, more learning, more connecting. And Empowering Brands is here for it all. Continue to check back in for more of our tips and analysis on social media for the industrial sector.

Sources:
https://backlinko.com/social-media-users

https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2021-october-global-statshot

https://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/23865/13-mind-bending-social-media-marketing-statistics.aspx

https://www.statista.com/statistics/272014/global-social-networks-ranked-by-number-of-users/

Social Media Usage Statistics for 2021 Reveal Surprising Shifts

https://statusbrew.com/insights/social-media-statistics/

https://influencermarketinghub.com/social-media-marketing-benchmark-report/

https://www.gwi.com/hubfs/Downloads/Social%20flagship%20report%20Q3%202020%20-%20GlobalWebIndex.pdf?utm_campaign=Generic%20nurture%202019&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=92167087&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--ToYkWbckba94xZrxmlXgG0M4hDalwu0HhI2oUvHfTSVLi9D63_SejUi8ymtQ57YeRB7K1EQ9_Z5nGPDoADK9lXJ7amw&utm_content=92167087&utm_source=hs_automation