Digital 2022: The World’s Favourite Social Media Platforms
When it comes to reporting social media trends, most media headlines focus on user numbers.
However, research from GWI reveals that the typical global social media user now uses an average of 7.5 different social media platforms every month.
What’s more, GWI’s data also reveals that at least 98.5 percent of the users of any of the top social media platforms also use at least one other social media platform.
For clarity, this finding means that advertisers can reach almost all the users of any given social media platform on at least one other social media platform.
This should give marketers greater confidence to explore a wider variety of social media opportunities, safe in the knowledge that individual platforms only offer relatively low levels of unique audience reach.
So, while platform user numbers are still a useful benchmark – especially for tracking a platform’s momentum – marketers also need to look at other data in order to build the most informed social media plans.
And one of the best places to start is by exploring people’s “favourite” social media platforms.
Global favourites
2021 may have been a challenging year for Mark Zuckerberg and team, but GWI’s data shows that Meta’s platforms are just as popular as ever.
The company’s offerings claim all 3 top spots in the latest ranking of the world’s “favourite” social media platforms, with WhatsApp chosen as the top platform by more than 1 in 6 internet users aged 16 to 64 (15.7 percent).
However, it’s interesting to note that Instagram has now overtaken Facebook to claim second place in the global ranking of social media “favourites”.
WeChat is the only non-Meta platform to claim more than 10 percent of the global vote, but GWI’s data shows that a resounding 99 percent of these votes come from users within Mainland China.
Outside of Mainland China, just under two-thirds of the world’s working-age internet users say that one of Meta’s offerings is their “favourite” social media platform, with both WhatsApp and Instagram each accounting for more than 20 percent of the non-China total.
But perhaps the biggest surprise in this data is how few people identify TikTok as their “favourite” social media platform.
Despite being the world’s most downloaded mobile app in 2021 (more on that here), barely 1 in 23 internet users aged 16 to 64 currently put the short video platform at the top of their list.
For added context, the data show that three times as many working-age internet users around the world say that they still prefer Facebook over TikTok.
However, things are changing quickly: the share of respondents choosing TikTok as their favourite platform jumped by 71 percent (+180 basis points) in the 90 days between Q2 and Q3 2021.
And what’s more, with TikTok’s user base continuing to grow at a rapid pace (see here for details), it’s likely that we’ll see TikTok continue to rise up those “favourite” rankings over the coming months.
Social media favourites by age and gender
It’s also worth highlighting that TikTok is considerably more popular amongst younger users.
Almost 9 percent of female internet users aged 16 to 24 say that TikTok is their favourite social platform, compared with just 1.5 percent of all users aged 55 to 64.
There are a few more surprises in this more granular demographic data too.
For example, Facebook remains the most popular global choice amongst men aged 25 to 44, even though it ranks a distant third amongst men aged 16 to 24.
Meanwhile, WhatsApp is the top choice amongst older users, with 1 in 5 global internet users aged 55 to 64 identifying it as their favourite social platform.
But these numbers offer more than great trivia.
In particular, they provide important insights into the affinity that our audiences have for each platform.
As a result, this particular GWI dataset is perhaps the most representative guide for marketers when it comes to planning a social media platform mix.
So go ahead – copy the image below and add it to your next planning presentation.
Want to learn more about what the state of digital looks like in 2022? Check out our full Digital 2022 Global Overview Report by clicking here.
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