References:
Report: 65% of Adults Now Use Social Media (From 7% in 2005)
The Demographics of Social Media Users
The demographics of YouTube, in 5 charts
AKRON (Oct. 12, 2015) — People are obsessed with their phones. We watch people at restaurants sitting together and texting. We see more people sitting on the floor at airports just to be near an outlet so they can charge up before getting on an airplane.
And on Friday night, I watched people on the Jumbotron at a Garth Brooks concert in Cleveland miss the fact that they were on the Jumbotron (including the ones in the front row that Garth was actually interacting with). Why? They were too busy texting or recording the show with their phones.
I had never seen anything like it. Granted, I was also recording and posting to my Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts. However, I would like to believe if Garth Brooks was shaking my hand, I would be living in the moment and not trying to capture it with the best filter I could find on my phone.
As per usual, my work brain never truly turned off and I began to think: Where are all these photos and videos getting posted?
A recent PC Magazine report stated that 65 percent of adults living in the U.S. use social media while, a decade ago, that percentage was only at 7. This is a drastic change, but the numbers aren't all that surprising. Throughout the past decade, we have seen how much the social media and technology landscapes have changed.
As a business owner trying to use social media, it is important to understand where people are on social media. You may have goals — who to reach on social media, whether you are trying to reach more female customers or younger demographics, knowing where to post is important. They're all part of the battle.
Pew Research Center looks into this type of data often, so I decided to check in and report to you what the statistics are:
- Facebook is still the most commonly used social media site with 72 percent of online American adults using the site.
- It continues to be popular among women, with 77 percent of those going online using the site.
- Of those using Facebook, 82 percent are adults ages 18 to 29; 79 percent are ages 30 to 49; 64 percent are ages 50 to 64; and 48 percent are those 65 and older.
- Some 23 percent of all online adults use Twitter.
- Internet users living in urban areas are more likely than their suburban or rural counterparts to use Twitter.
- Three-in-10 online urban residents use the site, compared with 21 percent of suburbanites and 15 percent of those living in rural areas.
- Twitter use is more popular among younger adults: 30 percent of online adults under 50 use Twitter vs. 11 percent of online adults ages 50 and older.
- Some 28 percent of online adults use Instagram, from 26 percent of online adults who did so in September 2014.
- 55 percent of online adults ages 18 to 29 use Instagram.
- Online women continue to be more likely than online men to be Instagram users (31 percent vs. 24 percent).
- Some 31 percent of online adults use Pinterest, up from 28 percent in September 2014.
- This is a female-dominated social media site: 44 percent of online women use the site vs. 16 percent of online men.
- Those under the age of 50 are also more likely to be Pinterest users: 37 percent do so, compared with 22 percent of those ages 50 and older.
- A quarter of online adults use LinkedIn, from 28 percent of online adults who did so in September 2014.
- It's especially popular among working-age adults as well as college graduates and those with relatively high household incomes.
- LinkedIn is the only major social media platform for which usage rates are higher among 30- to 49-year-olds than among 18- to 29-year-olds.
- Fully 46 percent of online adults who have graduated from college are LinkedIn users, compared with just 9 percent of online adults with a high school diploma or less.
For more information, check out the full article by clicking here.
YouTube
Additionally, I wanted to check out the demographics of YouTube and found a report from Digiday, stating that both men and women watch videos on the site, but it is still fairly male-dominated.
“Men spend 44 percent more time on the site per month, and of 51 categories of YouTube content measured by OpenSlate, men make up the majority of viewers in 90 percent of them,” the article reported.
The article references comScore data that said YouTube reached 81.2 percent of Internet users in the U.S. As far as age demographics, younger visitors do tend to spend more time on the site than older demographics.
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Is there any social media site you are thinking about logging onto? Anything you'd like more information on? Let me know: email [email protected] or tweet to me at @jenniferkarpus.