If we look at Statista’s data as of January 2022, the most popular social media platforms worldwide are:
- YouTube
- Facebook Messenger
- TikTok
- QQ (Chinese instant messaging software)
- Douyin
- Telegram
- Sina Weibo (Chinese microblogging website)
- Snapchat
- Kuaishou
- Quora
The top five most popular social media platforms in the world are Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook Messenger. TikTok comes right after that, but Snapchat is number 11, Twitter is number 15, and LinkedIn isn’t even on there.
This may seem surprising, but while 80% of customers engage with brands on social media, not all social media platforms are designed for this use case. Some are purely for instant messaging and some platforms are wildly popular in other areas of the world, like China.
So let’s narrow our list down to the most popular social media platforms in the U.S.
The most popular social media platforms in the U.S. in 2022
Interestingly enough, the most recent data I could find on monthly active users for each platform in the U.S. alone was Statista’s from 2019—and three years is an eternity for social media. So I went with this chart from Pew Research:
According to Pew, the most popular social media platforms in the U.S. are:
- YouTube
- Snapchat
- TikTok
- Nextdoor
This data is less ideal, as it’s based on the percent of adults who said they ever used the platforms, and it doesn’t look like Facebook Messenger was included. Nevertheless, the list is starting to look more familiar, right?
Now let’s move on to the best social media platforms for marketing.
The most popular social media platforms for business in 2022
According to Statista, the most popular social media platforms for marketing are:
- YouTube
- TikTok
- Snapchat
In the rest of this post, we’re going to explore what is popular on each of these platforms and how to incorporate them into your social media marketing strategy.
Note: I didn’t include YouTube here because my brain still doesn’t see it as a social media platform. I know I need to change my act. While I work on that, you can get plenty of YouTube tips here.
Facebook is the most popular social media platform for…
Everything…just kidding (sort of). It is the biggest social media platform worldwide and its versatility makes it a go-to for just about anything. But in particular, Facebook is best for the following:
Local marketing
Did you know that Facebook is right up there with Google My Business as one of the top local business directories? When you think about what a Facebook business page contains, this shouldn’t come as a surprise. This includes:
- Description, category, price range
- Contact info, hours, photos
- Call to action button, reviews, instant messaging
60% of Facebook users visit a local business Page at least once a week, so promote your page, and use it to build relationships, keep customers updated, and connect with your local community.
🎬 Action time: Learn how to promote your Facebook business page for free or try these 22 budget-friendly Facebook marketing tips.
Advertising
While your business page is a popular hub for those who know about your business, Facebook isn’t the best platform for reaching new audiences organically. In fact, its organic reach is 2.2% (compared to Instagram at 9.4%).
On the other hand, thanks to its size and targeting capabilities, Facebook is tied with Google as a top digital advertising platform. Facebook ads can reach up to 36.7% of the adult population, the highest percentage of all social media platforms (Twitter is the lowest, at 6.5%).
An average Facebook user clicks on 12 ads per month and the volume of impressions can raise brand awareness and improve your ad performance elsewhere. The average conversion rate and cost per conversion on Facebook is 9.21% and $18.68, compared to 4.40% and $56.11 for Google Search.
Compared to Instagram, Facebook’s cost per click and click-through rate is $ 0.49 and 3.06%, vs Instagram at $1.09 and 0.68%.
…to ages 65+
Influencer Marketing Hub also tells us that age 65+ is the fastest-growing demographic for Facebook ad reach. In 2021, this group grew by 25%. Now this, of course, doesn’t mean that this is the most popular age group on Facebook. It’s still 25-34, but for the 65+ age group, it is the preferred platform.
Links & photos (or maybe not?)
Here’s an interesting find. According to Statista, photos and links are the leading types of branded posts on Facebook (videos and status updates pale in comparison). But this is just the quantity of posts—not the engagement of posts. So on the one hand, links and photos are a good bet since they’re what users expect, but they’re most frequent because they’re the easiest to create. This means that posting videos can give you a competitive edge.
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