Greetings!
Below are the findings from my research on the following questions. For each question’s answer I have the link below it from my research.
- What were the top three social media sites, in terms of traffic, in 22-23? List them in order of popularity.
The top three social media sites in 2022-2023 were YouTube, Facebook, and X (formerly Twitter). YouTube had 1.35 trillion visits, Facebook 216.4 billion visits, and X 112.9 billion visits.
- Provide a brief summary of how each social media site works and why people use it.
YouTube is a social media platform for sharing video content. People use it to watch videos online and to share their own content. Facebook is a social media platform used for social networking and posting a variety of content, like text, images, videos, and more. People use Facebook because it is user friendly and open to everyone. X (formerly Twitter) is a social media site where users communicate their thoughts in short messages. People use X for a variety of reasons, from attention, education, self-promotion, the list goes on!
Sources: https://edu.gcfglobal.org/en/youtube/what-is-youtube/1/
https://www.lifewire.com/what-is-facebook-3486391
https://www.lifewire.com/what-exactly-is-twitter-2483331
- What are “demographics” and why is it important in social media?
“Demographics” in social media are different audiences that use social media platforms regularly. These are important to social media because it helps the user putting out content be able to target their audience better, whether it is a marketer for a business or a content creator.
Source: https://www.ocoya.com/blog/social-media-demographics-guide
- Explain any demographics that stand out among the three social media sites you listed above. (More popular with a specific age group, are majority of users male or female, married or single, employees or self-employed, etc.)
YouTube has a high demographic of users 25 to 34 years old, with this being 21.5% of all users. Facebook has a top demographic of users from India, with 349.7 million users. X has a high demographic of US users at 21.09%, but is followed by Japan at 10.3%.
Sources: https://www.oberlo.com/statistics/youtube-age-demographics
https://www.websiterating.com/blog/research/facebook-statistics/
https://explodingtopics.com/blog/x-user-stats#region
- On average, how much time do users spend on each social media site during a day, week or month?
On average, users spend 143 minutes on social media as a whole every day. On YouTube, users spend about 46 minutes a day, 10 hours and 27 minutes a week, and 23 hours and 9 minutes a month. On Facebook, users spend about 39 minutes a day, 9 hours and 24 minutes a week, and 19 hours and 43 minutes a month. On X, users spend about 30.9 minutes a day, 3.6 hours a week, and 15 hours a month.
Sources: https://www.business2community.com/statistics-pages/average-time-spent-social-media
https://www.doofinder.com/en/statistics/time-spent-on-social-media
https://blog.hootsuite.com/twitter-statistics/
- Which of the three social media networks is growing the fastest? Why do you think that is?
Of the three social media networks, Facebook seems to be growing the fastest. I believe that is because of its high variety of content and networking uses. Many businesses use Facebook to grow their business, which makes sense since it is one of the most used social media sites.
Source: https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/fastest-growing-social-media-platforms
- How are the majority of visitors accessing these three sites (computer, mobile device, tablet)?
YouTube is being accessed by mobile devices the most, with it being 70% of all YouTube views. Facebook also is accessed by mobile devices the most, with 84.5% of Facebook users. X, like the other two, is accessed the most by mobile devices, with 80% of X users.
Sources: https://thynxlabs.com/blog/youtube-user-statistics-2023
https://www.businessofapps.com/data/facebook-statistics/
https://www.reliablesoft.net/twitter-statistics/
I hope you enjoyed reading this interesting information about the social media demographics! Feel free to comment with any thoughts or questions.
~Katie