The best social networks. Top Social Networks Demographic Statistics on Social Media Usage

Today, social networks are so firmly rooted in our lives that the composition of the five most popular social sites practically does not change from year to year. However, the scale of penetration and use of these social networks differs depending on geography and demographic factors. Understanding these differences goes a long way when targeting a specific audience. When comparing the most popular social networks, it is important to pay attention not to the number of registered accounts, but to the number of active users. From the review, you will find out which social networks are growing faster than others, and which are currently in decline.

Most Popular Social Platforms

The chart prepared by analytics agency Statista gives a clear picture of the number of active users (in millions) on the most popular social networks in the world. Tops the Facebook list. This hardly surprises anyone. Facebook holds the majority of the market with over 2 billion active users. In January 2017, the giant's closest competitor was WhatsApp, which is also owned by Facebook. Then he was in second place. Today, YouTube is in second place with 1.5 billion active users. Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp come in third and fourth respectively.

They are followed by platforms, most of whose audience is in the Asia-Pacific region. These are QQ, WeChat and Qzone (with over 600 million active users). This shows that there are a number of popular social media in Asia-Pacific countries. After them, we see a cluster of sites that are popular mainly in the West - Tumblr, Instagram and Twitter.

But what about in Russia?

In Russia, the penetration of social networks is estimated at 47%, 67.8 million Russians have accounts in them. According to Statista, YouTube is the most active in the Russian Federation (63% of respondents), VKontakte ranks second with 61%. The global leader Facebook is only in fourth place with a figure of 35%. Skype and WhatsApp dominate among instant messengers (38% each).

Social networks that grow faster than others

Marketers usually do not spend much time on SMM. In which social network to concentrate efforts? Twitter, which managed to reach 313 million users between 2010 and 2017, has seen the slowest growth compared to its biggest competitors Facebook, WhatsApp and China's WeChat. Founded in 2013, Instagram surpassed Twitter in terms of audience size by 2014.

A new study from Statista has found that in 2017, Twitter has lagged far behind its rivals. It posted the lowest monthly active audience growth, with only 23 million from Q3 2015 to Q3 2017. Facebook, meanwhile, has grown by 461 million.

How users interact with brands on social media

Knowing how to behave and what to post on social media is also important, as it shapes your brand image and, as a result, encourages users to buy your products or vice versa to unfollow your groups. Social media is increasingly being used as a platform for working with customers, where customers, existing and potential, want to get answers to their questions in real time. From a chart taken from a Sprout Social report, it can be seen that 48% of users can be persuaded to buy by quickly answering questions in a group. 46% respond positively to promotions, and 42% may choose a brand's product if its page has educational content. 27% of the surveyed users admitted that they would want to make a purchase if they were shown materials that usually remain behind the scenes.

Half of Sprout Social survey participants said they would unfollow a brand's community if I posted content that annoyed them, while 27% said they would mark the brand and page as spam and block it. That is why it is so important to reach and engage your potential customers by publishing relevant and interesting content that resonates with your target audience.

Social networks with the most active audience

An important factor that influences how much time we should devote to SMM in a particular social network is the level of audience engagement. Here again, Facebook dominates, which also has the highest engagement over time, according to data obtained by analytics company comScore as a result of studying a group of consumers from the United States.

The success of Facebook is amazing. In addition to the social network itself occupying the top spot, other platforms owned by the corporation also occupied second and third place. The penetration rate of Facebook Messenger is 47% and Instagram follows right behind it.

From the latest data from Pew Internet, shown in the chart below, we can see that Facebook is also in the lead in terms of the number of active audience per day. 76% of users enter the social network every day, on Instagram this figure is 51%. Only 42% of Twitter users check it daily, which is almost half that of Facebook.

The average daily duration of using social networks in the United States is 2 hours 1 minute, in Russia users spend a little more time on social sites - 2 hours 19 minutes.

Engagement rates in different social networks

Analyst marketing company TrackMaven analyzed 51 million posts from various companies across 130 industries to find out which social networks have the highest engagement rates. The results showed that the absolute leader in terms of engagement per 1000 followers is Instagram. This is so much higher than other social networks that I had to make a separate chart to illustrate the difference between Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

As you can see from the second chart, Facebook is well ahead of Twitter and LinkedIn. The reason for this is largely due to the fact that more posts are published on Twitter, because there is no algorithm that allows you to show content to only a small part of the audience. Because of this, brands have to bombard their feeds with posts in order to break through the information noise. This, in turn, reduces the level of response to publications. Below is the average daily number of posts per account in three social networks.

General statistics of social media usage around the world

Every year, WeAreSocial updates its comprehensive Global Digital Report, which brings together useful data from social media around the world. From it you can find out how differently social platforms are used in different parts of the world. Surprising is the fact that Western countries are seriously lagging behind in terms of the rate of penetration of social networks.

Below are the main conclusions of the research.

• The number of Internet users in 2018 reached 4.021 billion, up 7 percent from a year ago.
• The audience of social networks in 2018 totals 3.196 billion people - 13% higher than last year's figure.
• The number of mobile phone users is 5.135 billion people, which means plus 4% compared to last year.

The numbers are growing rapidly, especially for social media active users on mobile devices – the penetration rate is 39%, which is 5% more than in 2017.

If we talk about the structure of web traffic depending on the type of device, then mobile users generate the most traffic (52%, which is 4% higher than last year). Only 43% of all web pages are visited from desktops, which is 3% lower than last year.

Northern, Western and Southern Europe, as well as North America, boast the highest levels of Internet penetration, with 74%-94% of the total population using the worldwide web. In Russia, 110 million people use the Internet - 76% of the total population.

The growth of the global audience of social networks since January 2017 amounted to 13%. The fastest growth in the number of users is observed in Saudi Arabia. Since January 2017, their number has increased by 32%, the global average is 17%. Other countries with the highest growth rates include India, Indonesia and Ghana. The reason for the jump was the development of technology, which made it easier for the population to access social platforms. Social networks grew the slowest in the UAE, South Korea and the UK -<5%. В России пользователей соцсетей стало на 8 826 000 человек больше (+15% к прошлогоднему значению).

Since the largest share of users is on Facebook, it would be useful to know how the content you post will perform on this social network and what features to use to increase its reach. According to social network statistics, the average coverage of a publication is 10.7%, while organic posts have 8% (organic coverage in Russia is 11.3%), and for paid posts this value is 26.8% (27.4% in Russia) . Organic and paid posts on Facebook have huge potential. It is important to correctly target publications in order to receive high-quality leads.

You can get a more complete picture of the state of the global digital market in 2018 by studying our survey of the Internet 2017-2018 in the world and in Russia: statistics and trends, which we prepared based on the Global Digital 2018 study.

Popularity of social networks by country

The graph from the GlobalWebIndex report below, based on a survey of Internet users, perfectly reflects the popularity of various social networks by country. Indonesia, the Philippines, Mexico, India, and Brazil are among the top 10 most active audiences on each social media, well ahead of the US, UK, and European countries.

Of the four social networks represented (Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Google+), Russians most actively visit the video service. Twitter and Google+ are relatively often used by only 20% of our compatriots, while Facebook is regularly viewed by just over 40%.

Demographic statistics of social media usage

As can be seen from the graph, there is a similar structure of social media use in different age groups. This suggests that social networks have reached the stage of maturity when they can be used to reach all demographic groups, regardless of age and gender. The exceptions are Instagram and Tumblr with younger audiences.

Strategies for interacting with the audience of social networks

According to The State of Social 2018, 96% of brands have a presence on Facebook.

At the same time, only half of the respondents have a documented SMM strategy. Large businesses are a little more responsible about this issue than small companies (60% said they have such a document).

When it comes to the types of content published by brands, images, links and texts are in the lead. Even though video posts tend to get the most engagement, video content only comes in at number four. This is primarily due to the complexity of creating such materials.

At the end of 2017, Smart Insights, together with Clutch, conducted a survey among business representatives in which they asked which of the social networks are of the greatest value to them. It turned out that among B2C companies, Facebook is considered the most effective (93% of respondents), and the majority of B2B companies prefer LinkedIn (93%).

The value of social media for brands in 2018

1. If you think that your target audience is not on social networks, you are mistaken.

Through social networks, you can reach any audience, regardless of gender, age, social status. 98% percent of online consumers are registered in social networks, quite a large part of them are adults aged 55-64.

1. A third of all time on the Internet people devote to social networks.

The average user spends 2 hours 15 minutes a day scrolling through the feed and chatting on social platforms, while young people aged 16-24 spend almost three hours. If you do not consider SMM as a channel for attracting customers, then you are voluntarily giving up the attention of your target audience to competitors.

1. Half of all social media users are subscribed to brand pages.

4 out of 10 Internet users follow the pages of their favorite companies on social networks, and a quarter follow brands when they plan to buy something. People have a positive attitude towards such content, so an active presence in social media is of great value to companies.

1. Social networks are the main source of information for consumers.

People aged 16-24 prefer to search for information about brands in social networks, rather than in search engines. A quarter of users in this age group admit that a large number of likes on a brand's page can persuade them to buy. In the group of 35-44 years old, 20% of respondents said the same. Social commerce can be considered one of the main channels for generating income, which means that it is important to diversify efforts, and not rely only on advertising.

1. Watching videos is my favorite social media activity.

Facebook is the largest social network in terms of the number of users, but YouTube takes the first place in terms of traffic and the reason is in the video. Video posts get the most active response, which is why leading brands constantly publish videos on their pages.

The following materials were used in preparing the article:

1. Global Social Media Research Summary 2018 by Smart Insights
2. The State of Social 2018 Report by Social Media Week
3. The Biggest Social Media Trends Shaping 2018 article published on the GlobalWebIndex blog
4. Social Networks Study: How social networks were used in 2017 by Metricool analytical agency
5. Global Digital 2018 report package compiled by WeAreSocial analytical agency

Do you want to order the maintenance of your company's communities in social networks? Contact us by phone:

The most popular social networks among Russian-speaking users are three projects - Vkontakte, Odnoklassniki and the world-famous Facebook. Each of them has its own advantages and disadvantages. But which site is the best? On which of them does it make sense to register your own page?

In this article, we will compare all three projects according to a number of criteria that are important for visitors - convenience, entertainment opportunities, information content, and others. This will help beginners make their choice. So, let's get acquainted with the participants of the comparison in a little more detail.

Comparison of social networks VKontakte, Facebook, Odnoklassniki

Now that you've got a brief idea of ​​the projects, let's move on to their direct comparison. Let's start with the most important.

Popularity with the audience

User-friendly interface and management

Information content

Social networks are now not only a means for finding people and communicating with them, but also an information environment. In social networks, users share their personal experiences, exchange valuable information on issues of interest to them, and so on.

Entertainment options

The modern social network is a real “food processor” of the entertainment industry. Resources of this type have already replaced many gaming sites, entertainment portals, online cinemas. Why leave the limits of the social network, if all this is already in it?

• Facebook has quite a lot of entertainment content - music, videos, online games, applications. The only problem is that the social network administrators adhere to a strict policy regarding the distribution of unlicensed products, so you will not find any pirated media content there (and some go to social networks just for the sake of it).
• Odnoklassniki provide their users with everything they need. Music, both licensed and pirated, is posted on the pages in tons. It's the same with video. There has also been progress with games - over the past year, the number of applications and games in Odnoklassniki has increased, and more favorable conditions have been created for developers of this kind of content for its production.
• Focusing on the youth audience, the VKontakte administration is simply obliged to provide users with the necessary functionality in terms of entertainment. And she copes with this task perfectly well. Tens of thousands of applications and games of various kinds, a convenient music player, watching videos and listening to audio. A variety of legal and not-so-legal content. What else do you need to be happy?

Earnings in social networks

For the majority of Internet users, it has long been no secret that not only their owners and persons investing in the development of social networks, but also ordinary users of these projects can make money on social networks.

• Facebook provides an opportunity to earn money for users of various qualifications - both beginners and advanced. The former can engage in primitive activities: paid comments, putting "likes" under the records. The second one opens up broader prospects - promotion and promotion of communities, development of browser games and applications, organization of trade. And the list doesn't end there.
• Odnoklassniki has the most solvent audience on the Russian-speaking Internet, which makes them just the perfect place to offer your goods and services. Create free applications with paid premium features, open your own online store, advertise your own brand - there are many ways to make money.
• On VKontakte, as well as on Facebook, there is more than enough work for users. And given the fact that the project is focused mainly on Russian-speaking users, making money in it is much more convenient and profitable than its direct competitor. VKontakte is especially popular for making money on creating various communities and groups, on which advertising materials are subsequently placed and affiliate programs are promoted.

Mobile opportunities

Now there is a pronounced trend towards the “mobilization” of social networks. More and more people access their pages from various portable devices such as tablets and mobile phones. The developers of social networks are well aware of this, so they took care of ensuring the most comfortable stay on their projects for owners of mobile devices.

Summing up

Based on the analysis of the above information, we came to the conclusion that that it is impossible to define a universal social network for all occasions. Everyone should choose the project that suits their interests. For example, if a person wants to be promptly aware of any events and receive first-hand information, then Facebook is most suitable for him.

If his choice falls on entertainment and games, then it is better for him to find nothing on VKontakte. And if you want to resume communication with people lost many years ago, then you should first look in Odnoklassniki.

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Social networks are a type of Internet resources with the ability to join different interest groups, discuss all sorts of links, videos, photos, etc. I do not know such people who have not heard of at least a couple of networks from the list below.

How did you find out about this site?
- I am a registered user.
- Is it true? Do you do this single thing?
- I'm a 32-year-old sysadmin who works in the basement. Yeah, I do this single thing.

Facebook has an audience of 750 million users in 200 countries. The service was born in 2004 as a site for communication between Harvard students, and what's next is a well-known story. Whoever has not seen Fincher's film, I highly advise - informative and 3 Oscars no matter how.

The founder of the service, Mark Zuckerberg, Forbes included in the list of the richest people in the world. Many independent programmers work inside the site, the programs they created brought the lion's share of success

LiveJournal is a blog platform that brings together a wide variety of people, whether it be age, social status, religious beliefs, preferences, and so on.

In 1999, American programmer Brad Fitzpatrick registered the livejournal.com domain and created a giant virtual diary service. At first it was his personal blog site, then his friends and acquaintances began to unsubscribe there, and off we go. Fitzpatrick founded Danga Interactive, which was sold to Six in 2005.

Twitter is essentially a microblogging system where users can post short texts of up to 140 characters using SMS, pagers, and a web interface. Twitter was created in 2006 in San Francisco by Evan Williams, Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass and Biz Stone. IT specialists worked on an R&D project with Odeo.

In October 2006, they opened their own company, Obvious, through which Twitter and Odeo were managed. There was nothing like this before, so immediately after entering the market, the number of users of the tweeting network began to grow very quickly. In April 2007, Twitter split from Obvious and became

Tom Anderson and Chris DeWulf met at XDrive Technologies, which they left to form their own firm, Response Base Marketing. The main task was to create a universal space for online activities. Initially, the guys focused on the interests of the creative part of users - photography, programming, music, cinema.

As of June 2006, the resource boasted 48 million unique visitors and 27.4 billion page views. Even the Pentagon decided to play on the popularity of MySpace: in the name of replenishing the ranks of the US armed forces, the official page of the US Marine Corps was created on the social portal, equipped with a button “Contract

Google+ is the social network of Google Inc. In 2010, there was information about the development of a new social network Google Me, but it turned out to be a duck. In the spring of 2011, information was leaked about the social network Google Circles, but when Google + launched in June, it became clear that Google Circles was its foundation.

Circles divide the social circle into separate subgroups. The number of photos and videos is not limited by anything other than size, the duration of the video is a maximum of 15 minutes at a resolution of 1080p. There are Video Meetings where users can set up a video chat (maximum 10

The brothers Pavel and Nikolai Durov were inspired by Facebook and created Vkontakte.ru. Previously, Pavel made Durov.com and Spbgu.Ru (by the way, it is now one of the largest communities for students in St. Petersburg and Moscow).

Due to the similarity of the interfaces, there were many copyright disputes, but for Vkontakte it was necessary to write your own code, look through the reference books of the Ministry of Education, university websites and do a hell of a lot of work. So be honest

Albert Popkov was on the team to create the social network Passado.com. Since 2000, he has developed a project similar to Classmates for his own money. This high-profile and at times scandalous network gained an audience of 1.5 million users in Russia in 7 months.

The British company i-CD Publishing, Popkov's former employer, accused him of using Passado's ideas and other terrible sins. They also said that Odnoklassniki is a project of the FSB, so they follow people and collect dossiers in leather folders. Or what is there

Hello everyone, the holidays are over, no matter how sad it is, we must continue to live. Today I want to tell you what applications and social networks Americans use.

Two years ago I moved to live and study in the USA, talked to many people, this is already my

1. Snapchat

Let's start in order, the very first app on the list is, of course, Snapchat. In my opinion, this is the most popular mobile app in America.

With all the features of stories on Instagram and WhatsApp, young people remain faithful to it and use it constantly, for them it is something so secret, not accessible to anyone, personal.

On Snapchat, you usually only add people you know and friends. For this, the abbreviation "AMOSC" is used, which means Add Me On SnapChat or add me on Snapchat.

You don’t need to take a really high-quality picture that will always hang in the tape, you don’t need to bother at all, after 24 hours everything will disappear. You can play around, shoot something funny, experiment, share emotions and impressions. Yes, and only those whom you yourself have chosen and added see it.

2.Instagram

Instagram includes almost all the features of other social networks. What is interesting here is that Americans actively use personal messages, create conversations. To do this, they also use the abbreviation “DM”, which stands for Direct Messages.

3.Twitter

People like the microblogging format. They love to share their thoughts and mood, it will immediately go into the feed. It is very convenient to advertise your posts. Wrote - threw a link and everyone who constantly reads you can already read the article and comment.

Also, every popular company, school club, sports team, famous person, in general, almost every more or less well-known organization has Twitter, which allows people to follow any news.

4.Pinterest

The fourth application on the list, in the USA it is very popular, quite a lot of people actively use it - the Pinterest application. In Russia, this is not popular at all, I think many don’t even know about it, I didn’t meet this application with us at all and didn’t know anything about Pinterest before my trip to the USA.

This is an application where people get ideas for everything, there are a lot of pictures, life hacks, some interesting solutions. There you can find absolutely everything, recipes for cooking, ways to combine different clothes.

Searching on Pinterest is easier than just searching in a search engine, because there are no different ads, left sites and left content, everything that is really needed is selected.

5. Simple phone messages

What follows is not quite a social network and application. We have popular messengers. Some use Viber, others use WhatsApp and Telegram, some just use Vkontakte. But Americans do not understand why all this is necessary if there are ordinary phone messages.

People correspond there, exchange videos and photos, all in ordinary messages. Moreover, all cellular operators in the US have one tariff plan, in which calls and messages are unlimited.

But let's also discuss what is unpopular there, what applications they do not use.

It was very strange for me, Americans don't use Facebook. I will not be responsible for the entire population, but young people do not use it, many are not even registered there. They find it inconvenient.

P.S. I asked ten classmates if they use Telegram, among which were Americans, Spaniards, Italians, Swedes and a Greek. No one knew about such a messenger at all, they just laughed at the name. No one has heard of Durov at all.

I told them about the rally in support of Telegram and the free Internet in general, everyone supported :)

I think that's all, I mentioned all the social networks and applications that are popular in the US among guys from 16 to 25 years old. By the way, here is our international team.