Social media growth in the US
70% of the US population has
active social media accounts, with a year-on-year growth rate of 3.1% from 2019-2020. An original record of the US market size was 5% in 2005, growth in the US took just under 6 years to penetrate 50% of America’s population in 2011.
The percentage of US adults who use social media increased from
5% in 2005 to 79% in 2019
. … Social media’s growth in the US is comparable – in speed and to some extent also in reach – to that of most modern communication-enabling technologies, including computers, smartphones and the internet.
The creation of
broadband infrastructure
that began in the early 2000s was the first important step in allowing social media. Faster download and upload times meant that people could download and upload from the new social media tools much more quickly.
In 2020, over
3.6 billion people
were using social media worldwide, a number projected to increase to almost 4.41 billion in 2025.
Most Popular Social Media Platforms in 2021
The latest statistics show that
Facebook
continues to reign strong as the king of social media, with 2.80 billion active users as of January 2021. That means that nearly two out of every three of the 4.2 billion active social media users are active Facebook users.
Source: Pew Research Center surveys, 2005-2006, 2008-2015. No data are available for 2007. While usage among young adults started to leveled off as early as 2010, since then there has been a surge in usership among those 65 and older. In 2005,
2% of seniors
used social media, compared with 35% today.
A decade ago, social media seemed to be so much simpler. There weren’t sponsored ads all over our newsfeeds. … Over the past 10 years, social media has largely evolved from keeping in
touch with others
to flaunting what we have for attention or curating unrecognizable versions of our real selves.
People crave interaction and connection with other people. This is a main reason why social media has become so popular over the last decade. Via social media,
brands can create opportunities to share and recognize loyal followers with special rewards and incentives
.
The negative aspects of social media
However, multiple studies have found a strong link between heavy social media and an increased risk for depression, anxiety, loneliness, self-harm, and even suicidal thoughts. Social media may promote negative experiences such as:
Inadequacy about your life
or appearance.
- Use the right tools. …
- Focus on customer service. …
- Promote your social media accounts. …
- Pay attention to what’s trending. …
- Focus on eye-catching visuals. …
- Actively engage with your audience.
However, believe it or not, social media is even younger than that. In fact, it wasn’t until
the late 1990s
that it really became popular however it took even longer, until around 2005, for it to become the social and cultural institution it is today.
Characteristic Share of U.S. adults | 18-29 90% | 30-49 82% | 50-64 69% | 65+ 40% |
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Social media has revolutionized the internet marketing landscape. It has opened up
two-way communication between brand and audience
. It has also given businesses full control over who they wish to target with their advertising.
Social Media Advances in 2000s
It was founded in 2002 and has over hundred million registered users, mostly from Asia. Through Friendster, users can discover friends and expand their growing networks. Its
idea was to safely meet more new people than in the real world.
Pros Cons | Put yourself out there in a good way Posting inappropriate statuses/pictures | Connect with students in other educational systems Making people feel bad about themselves | Make new friends/communicate or connect with old friends/family Cyberbullying |
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Is Facebook a dying platform?
The truth is that Facebook’s thirst for young users is less about dominating a new market and more about staving off irrelevance. Facebook use among teenagers in the United States has been
declining
for years, and is expected to plummet even further soon — internal researchers predicted that daily use would decline 45 …
Social media will see a rise in the adoption of technologies like
augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR)
. As these platforms grow, users will demand better and more engaging experiences, and these technologies can make that happen.
Characteristic Number of active users in millions | 2,895 | YouTube 2,291 | WhatsApp* 2,000 | Instagram 1,393 |
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Instagram
. Due to its characteristics, and that is primarily the focus on visual content, and not on written content which main Internet users find boring and time-consuming, Instagram has been the fastest growing and most popular social media platform for several years.
Myspace
: “a place for friends” (2003)
2005 marked the apex of Myspace. The site had 25 million users and was the fifth popular site in the United States when it sold to NewsCorp that year.
May 1997:
Six Degrees
Six Degrees is widely considered to be the very first social networking site. Founded by Andrew Weinreich in May 1996, the site launched the following year and combined popular features such as profiles, friends lists and school affiliations in one service.
In early 2010,
Facebook—the world’s largest social media entity
—had roughly 400 million active users. … In 2012, Facebook purchased another social media biggie, Instagram, which was created in 2010 and had around 15 million active users at the time. Now, Instagram has more than 500 million active users.
Social media is defined by its interactivity, connectedness, and user-generated content. In today’s society, the use of social media has become a necessary daily activity. Social media is typically used
for social interaction and access to news and information
, and decision making.
One of the reasons social media marketing is so effective is the fact
that digital consumers spend 2.5+ hours on social platforms daily
. That means for nearly three hours a day, you have a chance to reach your target customers with your products and services.
Dopamine
causes us to seek, desire, and search. Dopamine is stimulated by unpredictability, by small bits of information, and by reward cues—pretty much the exact conditions of social media. The pull of dopamine is so strong that studies have shown tweeting is harder for people to resist than cigarettes and alcohol.
Social media networks are open to all, giving businesses a chance to follow their consumers’ activities or potential buyers. This helps marketers be
more informed
about their target audience, likes, dislikes, and interests so that they can create a better marketing strategy to attract such customers.
Social media
allows businesses to build more meaningful relationships and get to know future consumers better
. A business can build a fan base and receive feedback from their target audience. It can create new avenues of traffic that lead people to their products and solidify their identity to the consumer.
Social media has
opened up a world of information for consumers and given them something new to judge a business by
. Today’s consumers are more tech-savvy and inquisitive about the businesses they buy from, so social media gives businesses a chance to present themselves and share what their brand is all about.
The other way that social media marketing is changing marketing is
by creating a much more direct line of communication between marketer and audience
. In the past, marketing and advertising have largely been a “one way” affair. … They now expect their marketing messages to be more personalized and more engaging.
Being a part of a social media site can
increase a person’s quality of life and reduce the risk of health problems
. Social media can help improve life satisfaction, stroke recovery, memory retention, and overall well-being by providing users with a large social group…
- Cross-post like a pro. …
- Go live. …
- Strive for saves. …
- Post and ghost (the smart way) …
- Stop, collaborate and listen. …
- Make it snappy. …
- Take a stories-first approach. …
- Jump on trends (early)
What are the evolution of media?
The evolution of media, from
old media to new media
, has transformed the way we understand the world around us. New media is interactive and is user-generated while old media is a more traditional way of communicating through television, radio, newspapers, magazines, books, etc (Lecture Notes.
How many people use TikTok?
Social Network Active Users | Instagram 1.386 billion | Facebook Messenger 1.3 billion | Weixin / WeChat 1.242 billion | TikTok 1 billion |
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