Social Media Ranking for 2018

The newest report about social media usage by the PEW Research Center for the upcoming year was released the past week. I have used this research for multiple projects in the past because of the extensive detail it goes into throughout the article. The research provides not only the most popular social media platforms, but also the ones that have grown the most and visited the most on a daily basis. The past few years, Facebook has been in the lead by a large margin in the United States because of its rising popularity in the past decade. But, for the first time since the Center started doing this research, it changed. YouTube is now the leader for social media platforms for all ages in the United States, ahead of Facebook by 5%. When I read this, I was surprised because of Facebook’s usual domination of social media, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized YouTube’s rise in the past year. In my last article on social media, I talked about Facebook’s loss of users with teenagers and young adults in 2017. That being said, according to the PEW research, 94% of the age range Facebook lost uses YouTube on a daily basis. This is where YouTube advanced as the top overall platform in the United States. Media has now moved to focus more on video created by users online, which is where the rise of YouTube came about. 

Other than the top two platforms in the United States, each platform has made strides in the number users on their platforms. Instagram is now the third most used social media overall, followed by Pinterest and Snapchat, which is something else I found interesting. Last year’s research did not even include Snapchat as a top platform, and it now rests as the fifth most used in the United States. Specifically among 18-to-24 year olds, Snapchat now sits at the third most used platform, and is ahead of Instagram by 7%. Instagram has been resting in the same position for the past few years and has not made much advancement. Twitter is barely in the running not only for this age group, but for social media users in the United States as a whole. I have felt a rise in Twitter’s popularity in the past year, but maybe that is just because I made a Twitter account just a few months ago. Overall, the average American says they use three of the major social media platforms, which is, once again, a number I thought would be higher. Despite the ranking and usage of the most popular platforms, the amount of times each site is visited each day does not reflect how they place. Adults in the United States use Facebook the most everyday, followed by Snapchat and Instagram. This is the fact I found made the most sense to me because of the amount I use each of these platforms each day.

Overall, I was surprised by this year’s reflection on social media in the United States, but it gave me valuable information about the platforms I use almost everyday. I think it is important for companies to know this change because it can help them get the most followers on the platforms that have the most users. Since there has been a standard in the ranking that has been changed, it is valuable information anybody can use for their business in advancing their social media presence. If you are interested in reading more about this research, here is the link to PEW’s website: 

http://www.pewinternet.org/2018/03/01/social-media-use-in-2018/.