​​As of April, 2022, active users of social platforms:
​
Facebook 2.9 billion 
YouTube 2.2 billion
Instagram 1.4 billion
TikTok 1 billion
Snapchat 500 million
Pinterest 480 million
​Twitter 397 million

Facebook - Instagram - Twitter - LinkedIn - Snapchat - TikTok - Nextdoor - Pinterest - YouTube - Reddit - WhatsApp - Discord - Twitch - Tumblr

​3.5 billion social media users exist worldwide with an average of 3 hours spent on social media channels per day. Many social media users prioritize their follower count and social connections in order to reinforce their online reach and feel connected to a community of like-minded individuals, particularly in a climate of physical social isolation.   

63% of consumers who search for businesses online are more likely to become consumers of brands with an established social media presence. Social media usage is one of the most popular online activities and in 2021, 82% of the population in the United States had a social networking profile, representing a 2% increase from the 80% usage reach in the previous year. This equals approximately 223 million U.S. social media users as of 2020.

When done effectively, social media marketing can lead to more customers, more traffic, and more engagement. ​No matter what you sell and who you sell it to, using social media as a marketing tool can help you grow your brand and increase your revenue.

According to recent research, global consumers aged 20 to 29 are the biggest users of social media—not entirely dissimilar to social media age demographics in the US. Those in this age group make up nearly one-third (32.2%) of all social media users worldwide.

​New York, a U.S. capitol for social networking, holds the number eight spot with an average of 1,457 influencers across six social channels.

California is the leading US state by Facebook users, with 19 million Facebook users, meaning 1 out of every 2 Californians has an account. 

California is also the state carrying the highest number of Instagram influencers. 28,000 influencers hail from the Hollywood Hills, Santa Monica, and the greater Los Angeles area.

​48.4% of all Instagram users are female while 51.6% are male. 31.2% of Instagram users are 25-34-year-olds. Out of the 25-34 age group, 16.4% are male and 14.8% are female users. 31% of Instagram users are 18-24 years old.

​According to Influence.co, Louisville, KY is a hub for 444 top fashion, food, fitness, and lifestyle micro-influencers, and nearly 50% of Louisville residents post or update their social media accounts multiple times per day. 
​
Nashville, TN has over 2,576 social media influencers including musicians, photographers, chefs, celebrity trainers, and reality TV stars.

​​In September 2021, social video app TikTok reported 1 billion monthly active users worldwide, representing a 45% growth compared to the previously reported figure of 689 million MAU in July 2020. TikTok is one of the biggest social networks worldwide.

​Whether you are trying to foster relationships through online means, advocating for a cause or idea, promoting a brand, or selling a product, large-scale connectivity across social networks is critical. In turn, large social media followings usually develop from high levels of engagement, activity, and quality content creation.

However, it is vital that you know the geographic locations and age ranges associated with these large followings so that they can adjust their content and social media marketing strategies in order to reach them in the most effective way. 
This targeted connectivity can be streamlined to specifically focus on a physical, age and gender demographic that you feel will be most interested in your idea, cause, brand or product.

This is where Universal Media and Marketing steps in. 

When Pew Research Center began tracking social media adoption in 2005, just 5% of American adults used at least one of these platforms. By 2011 that share had risen to half of all Americans, and today 72% of the public uses some type of social media.

According to the Pew Research Center Social Media Fact Sheet published on April 7, 2021, YouTube and Facebook are the most-widely used online platforms, and its user base is most broadly representative of the population as a whole. Smaller shares of Americans use sites such as Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and LinkedIn.

Usage of the major social media platforms varies by factors such as age, gender and educational attainment. For example, in the 50-64 age group, Facebook and YouTube were the preferred social media platform.

On June 22, 2022 Pew Research Center issued another report that stated Twitter is the go-to social media site for U.S. journalists, but not for the public. 

​69% of U.S. journalists say Twitter is the social media site they use most or second most for their job. Twitter is followed by Facebook at 52% and, far lower on the list, by Instagram (19%), LinkedIn (17%) and YouTube (14%). None of the other sites asked about in the survey – Reddit, WhatsApp, TikTok, Discord, Twitch and Snapchat – were named by more than 4% of the journalists surveyed.

​On June 2, 2022, Pew reported that 25% of U.S. adults use Twitter and when they share their views on the site, quite often they are doing so about politics and political issues. 49% of American adults who use Twitter post fewer than five tweets per month and 59% of infrequent tweeters are ages 30 to 49.

​Unlike Facebook, LinkedIn is more likely to be used by journalists at nationally or internationally focused news organizations. 25% of journalists at national news organizations and 27% at international news organizations count LinkedIn among their most frequently used social media sites, compared with only 9% of journalists at community-focused news outlets and 12% of those working at outlets with a statewide focus. 

However, for Americans overall, Facebook is the most widely used social media site for news, with 31% of U.S. adults saying they go there regularly for news. YouTube is the second-most frequently used site, with 22% of the public regularly getting news there. Fewer adults (13%) say they regularly get news on Twitter, despite the platform’s widespread use among journalists. Overall, a little under half of U.S. adults (48%) say they often or sometimes get news from social media sites. ​

​In a fall 2019 survey, few Americans trusted Instagram as a place to get political and election news. Just 6% of U.S. adults said they trusted Instagram as a place to get political and election news, with a much larger share (42%) saying they distrusted it for such information.

About three-in-ten Americans knew in 2019 that Instagram and WhatsApp are owned by Facebook. TikTok is owned by Beijing-based ByteDance Ltd, which launched in 2017. According to Sensor Tower data, TikTok was the top-grossing non-gaming app worldwide for February 2021, with more than $110 million in user spending, 1.9 times its revenue in February 2020. As of January 2022, The United States was the country with the largest TikTok audience by far, with approximately 136.5 million users engaging with the popular social video platform. Indonesia followed, with around 99 million TikTok users. Brazil came in third, with 74 million users using TikTok to watch short-videos. According to SensorTower estimates, the total number of TikTok downloads has reached 3 billion, making it the most downloaded app in Q1 and Q2 in 2021. TikTok is the first app outside of Facebook to reach the milestone of 3 billion downloads.

TikTok Vs. The Facebook Empire

​Facebook’s “Lasso” (it’s TikTok clone), has 250,000 downloads in the U.S. since last November. TikTok has 41.3 Million in that timeframe.

TikTok users love the app. They spend an average of 52 minutes per day in the platform. A new study has shown younger people ages four to fifteen spend an average of 90 minutes per day on the app. ​TikTok has about 80 million monthly active users in the United States. 60% are female, 40% are male. 60% are between the ages of 16-24. 26% are between the ages 25-44. 80% are between the ages 16-34. This data comes straight from TikTok. ​

$500 – the amount TikTok is reportedly paying influencers to join the app and start creating content. TikTok has recently created a $1 Billion Creator Fund. This money will be paid by TikTok directly to its creators in an effort to further solidify its relationships with influencers. TikTok has many competitors, large and small (Facebook’s Reels, YouTube’s Shorts, former Vine creator’s Byte, and Triller, among others). Forbes put out a report on the highest-earning TikTok stars. Addison Rae comes in at number one making $5 Million, Charli D’Amelio is number two at $4 Million, and her sister Dixie is number three at $2.9 Million.

​60% of TikTok users are Gen Zers. Gen Zers are trendsetters. Next year, 74 million people in the U.S. will be part of “Gen Z”, which will make it the largest generation of all. TikTok is estimated to pull in $500 Million in revenue from the U.S. alone in 2020.

​According to Sensor Tower, TikTok was the second most downloaded app in the U.S. in November with 4 million downloads (trailing only Disney+).

​Douyin, aka TikTok in mainland China, just hit 400 million daily active users there (and the most active dance video creators are over 60 years old!).

​The TikTok Creator Marketplace is a platform run by TikTok that houses thousands of profiles of TikTok creators. Brands can search the marketplace for creators whose audiences best fit the target market of their campaign.

​Engagement on TikTok is incredible. Case in point: Jennifer Lopez recently posted the same video on Twitter and TikTok. She has 45 million followers on Twitter and 5 million followers on TikTok. The video on Twitter got 2 million views (off 45 million followers). The video on TikTok got 71 million views (off 5 million followers). TikTok recently started nightly programming which is undoubtedly training Gen Z to tune in at certain times, like TV viewing of days past. Engagement has increased dramatically over the past few months. The New York Times reports that TikTok usage has been skyrocketing since Coronavirus began.

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47.8% of Facebook users are also on TikTok, 48.8% are on Twitter,
​and 36.1% are on Pinterest.

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TikTok Marketing and Advertising related statistics

Brand takeover ads cost anywhere between $20,000 – $200,000 (Digiday, 2019)
Hashtag Challenges cost brands $100,000+ (Adweek, 2019)
Advertising campaigns start at just $50/day now with no long-term commitment.
TikTok recommends an additional $100,000 – $200,000 in ad spend within TikTok to promote a hashtag challenge (Adweek, 2019)
TikTok influencers with 2.5 million followers or more charge around $600-$1,000 per post compared to $100-$200 for every 10,000-20,000 followers on Instagram (Telegraph, 2019)

​TikTok ads can send users to your website, an app page in the app store, or promote your hashtag challenge on the platform (TikTok, 2019)
Brands are able to create branded AR lenses, filters, and stickers for TikTok users to insert into their video content. (TikTok, 2019)
TikTok is working on a new augmented reality ad format that should be available soon (Digiday, 2020)
TikTok is now offering ad credits for new brands advertising on the platform. There is a $300 ad credit and a $2,000 ad credit.

Meta - Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp

Out of 4.6 billion global Internet users, 3.59 billion people use at least one Meta app every month: Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, or WhatsApp. Many use more than one.
Facebook’s annual revenue increased by 2,203% over 10 years. In 2012, Facebook earned $5.08 billion. In 2021 - $117 billion, which is up 36% from 2020. Most of Facebook’s revenue is from advertising, which totaled $114.93 billion in 2021.
Facebook is the 7th most valuable brand in the world. Apple holds the top spot with an estimated brand value of $263.4 billion USD. Facebook follows huge brands like Amazon, Google, and Walmart to land in 7th place for 2021 with a brand value of $81.5 billion.

Facebook has been researching AI for 10 years. In October 2021, Facebook announced it was rebranding to Meta, which is now the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and more. In Mark Zuckerberg’s words, the rebrand is to allow the company to become “metaverse-first, not Facebook-first.”

​Over 1 billion Stories get posted every day across Facebook apps. The Stories format continues to grow in popularity across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. 62% of users say they will use Stories even more in the future.
Over 72% of Facebook users also use YouTube, WhatsApp, and Instagram. The figures come in at 74.7% of Facebook users also frequenting YouTube, 72.7% using WhatsApp, and 78.1% using Instagram.

​"Having a strong cross-platform campaign strategy will ensure that ​you deliver the right message on each platform."

Snapchat

Monthly active users: Over 530 Million.

Daily active users: 332 Million according to Q1 earnings report
Daily active users in the US/Canada: Over 100 Million.
20 Million users are in the $100k-$250k household income bracket.
Daily active users of Snap’s Augmented Reality features: 200 Million.
Active users shopping with Augmented Reality: 100 Million.
Monthly active users of Spotlight: 125 Million.
Number of daily video views: Around 18 Billion.
Number of daily Snaps created: Over 6 Billion.
Average time spent per user each day on Snapchat: Over 30 minutes.

​Percentage of daily reach to 13-24 year olds in the U.S.: Over 90%.
Percentage of daily reach to 13-34 year olds in the U.S.: Over 75% (78 million).
Amount of time users interact with Snap Ads: Over 30 seconds on average.
Snap Map reaches 250 million monthly active users.
Snap Games have been played by over 100 million users.
Over 135 million people create Augmented Reality experiences with the Snap Camera every day.
Over 60 Snapchat Shows have got at least 10 million viewers per month.
Time spent watching Discover content has increased 35% year over year.

125 million people got their news from Snapchat over the last year.