New data from Pew Research Internet Project finds that while Facebook is still the most popular social media site, Instagram is by far the fastest growing.
When it comes to attracting new users, no one can touch Instagram right now. The amount U.S. adults using Instagram grew nine percent over 2014 — mean that 26 percent of all US adults are now on Instagram.
By comparison, Pinterest’s user base grew by 7 percent, LinkedIn by 6 percent, and Twitter by 5 percent. What about Facebook? Well it actually didn’t grow at all last year in terms of user base, but it did see gains in engagement.
Facebook’s user growth hit a plateau, but engagement on the network has increased. In fact, engagement across all major social media platforms — Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn — is on the rise.
Facebook draws the most engagement of all networks though, as 70% of its users are fully engage with the site daily, up from the 63% in the previous year. By comparison, 49 percent of Instagram users and 17 percent of Pinterest users engage with the respective networks each day.
Where the young adult population is concerned, meaning 18- to 29-year-olds, 53 percent are on Instagram. That means if your audience is young adults, Instagram is where your business needs to be. The company announced a millstone last month of reaching 300 millions monthly active users, surpassing Twitter for the first time.
Here are some other key findings, which are based on the 81% of American adults who use the internet:
- Multi-platform use is on the rise: 52% of online adults now use two or more social media sites, a significant increase from 2013, when it stood at 42% of internet users.
- For the first time, more than half of all online adults 65 and older (56%) use Facebook. This represents 31% of all seniors.
- For the first time, roughly half of internet-using young adults ages 18-29 (53%) use Instagram. And half 0f all Instagram users (49%) use the site daily.
- For the first time, the share of internet users with college educations using LinkedIn reached 50%.
- Women dominate Pinterest: 42% of online women now use the platform, compared with 13% of online men.
If you’re hungry for more data, you can view the comprehensive 4-page report right here.
