Adults in the US are still using YouTube more than any other social media: close to three-quarters of US adults use the platform, with usage high across demographic groups, according to a study from the Pew Research Center, which provides some updates on social platform usage.
The following is a brief overview of some of the highlights from the report.
For trend purposes, some of the following data is compared to a similar report issued by Pew Research in early 2018.
The YouTube adoption rate, which stands at 73% among American adults, is consistent with 2018’s finding. YouTube is broadly popular with both men (78%) and women (68%) although usage among women has declined somewhat from 72% last year. YouTube adoption is higher among multicultural groups, with Hispanic (78%) and Black (77%) adults ahead of White adults (71%).
Facebook’s reputation has diminished drastically over the past few years – and its usage, particularly among the younger generation, is decreasing. This Pew report shows that while it’s behind YouTube, Facebook still boasts adoption by more than two-thirds (69%) of the adult population.
Instagram adoption keeps growing – now at 37% of US adults – and its popularity among teens continues to rise.
Pinterest is used more than one-quarter (28%) of US adults and has a few characteristics that make it stand out from the pack in terms of demographic variances.
For one, it is the platform with the biggest gap in use by gender. In fact, women are almost three times as likely as men to use Pinterest (42% and 15%, respectively).
More than one-quarter (27%) of adults in the US use LinkedIn, according to the report, with more men (29%) than women (24%) using the platform. This is a shift from 2018 where men and women used LinkedIn equally.
While Black (24%) and White (28%) adults use LinkedIn at a somewhat similar rate, the platform has not caught on among Hispanics (16%), although their adoption has increased in the past year.
Snapchat, used now by roughly 1 in 4 adults (24%), trails LinkedIn in usage in this year’s report.
The adoption rate among men and women is now equal at 24%, and unlike last year where Black adults used Snapchat considerably more than Whites and Hispanics, adoption has leveled out for the most part on a racial and ethnic basis.
Twitter usage has dipped slightly from 24% of adults last year to 22% in this year’s survey.
Adoption is slightly higher among men (24%) than women (21%), and use is also slightly higher among Hispanic (25%) and Black (24%) than White (21%) adults.
New to the list last year, WhatsApp is used by 1 in 5 (20% of) US adults.
Its distinguishing characteristic is its usage by Hispanics: fully 42% of Hispanic adults report using WhatsApp, a rate more than twice as high as the average.
The final platform on the list is Reddit, used by 11% of US adults.
Usage among men (15%) is almost twice that of women (8%) while use among White (12%) and Hispanic (14%) adults is considerably higher than Black (4%) adults. Read the rest at Marketing Charts.
The e-Strategy Academy covers all aspects of digital marketing including search optimization & marketing, email marketing, social media marketing, video marketing, mobile marketing & public relations.