Social Media Statistics Update

At the end of the Q4 of 2022, there were 4.9 billion people globally who use one or more social media platforms daily (Forbes, 2022).

An average person spends 145 minutes every day on social media (Workup, 2022).

Short-form video will remain the top marketing content format for 2023, it has the highest ROI and growth rate, with 90% of marketers now using this media format (HubSpot, 2023).

Facebook

• Facebook has remained the most-used social media platform with 2.98 billion monthly active users as of Q1 of 2023, a 7.18% increase year on year (Dean, 2023).
• On average 78.63% of these users use the platform daily, equivalent to 1.9 billion (Dean, 2023).

Instagram

• At the end of 2022, it was estimated that there were 1.28 billion monthly users, it has been forecasted there will be an increase to 1.44 billion (Dixon, 2022).
• Static images posted on Instagram achieved an average reach of 1,850 users and carousels reached an average of 2,325 users (Dixon, 2022).

YouTube

• At the end of 2022 there were 2.5 million active monthly users (Omicore, 2023)
• The average time spent on YouTube globally is 19 minutes daily (Omicore, 2023)
• 500 billion YouTube videos are watched daily (Omicore, 2023)

Twitter

• In 2022, there were 229 million daily active users, this is a 15.9% increase compared to 2021 (Oberlo, 2023).
• On average, 500 million tweets are shared daily (Oberlo, 2023).
• 6 out of 10 (59.2%) Twitter users globally are between 25 and 49 years old (Statista, 2021)

TikTok

• TikTok had 1.6 billion active monthly users at the end of 2022 and is estimated to reach 1.8 billion by the end of 2023 (Kurve, 2023)
• Gen Z dominates TikTok, with 83% using the platform in Q1 2023 (Kurve, 2023)
• TikTok is the most engaging social media platform, with an average session length of 10.85 minutes, the time spent on TikTok globally in 2022 was a mammoth 68 billion hours.
• Over 1 billion videos are viewed daily (Kurve, 2023)
• TikTok has the highest engagement rate 4.25% compared to Instagram 0.60% (Kurve, 2023)

If you need some help with any areas of your marketing, get in touch by emailing us on [email protected]

4 Instagram Marketing Trends You Need To Know

In less than a decade since its launch in 2010, Instagram has enjoyed exponential growth, with the platform recently reaching 1bn active monthly users.

In doing so, it has become an attractive platform for brands eager to learn if Instagram marketing can help them forge a closer connection with their consumers.

Here a four of the latest trends in Instagram marketing that brands should be aware of when devising their social strategy for 2019.

1. Micro influencers

Influencers dominate Instagram, but scandals around purchased or fake followers has brought into question the viability of influencer marketing on the platform.

Despite these concerns, research has shown that the popularity of influencer marketing has not been negatively impacted. Rather, the direction has simply changed, with brands increasingly turning to networks of micro-influencers.

Their belief is that influencers with a smaller, yet more niche following and can better forge engagement than celebrities with a massive following but a hollow connection.

2. Video

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then Snapchat must be feeling pretty flattered by the resounding success of Instagram’s 2016 launch of Stories, signalling the platform’s foray into video territory.

After a slow start, it is now of the most popular aspects of the platform and recently hit the 400 million daily users mark.

Stories’ accessible interface exposes viewers to a wide range of content before they choose to settle on one that catches their eye.

This is prime digital real estate for brands to insert ads between stories and snare viewer attention. Moreover, with specialised features like polls and contests and the ability to see the number of views your story has received, Stories are an excellent means of measuring community engagement and gaining consumer insight.

Instagram allows third parties to create branded stickers which can be attached to consumer Stories. This tactic was used most effectively by Aperol to complement its most famous, Instagrammable drink – the Aperol Spritz.

As the summer months rolled in, so did the images of people enjoying their Aperol Spritz al fresco, and the alcohol brand jumped at the chance to create its own digital stickers.

Brands are discovering a new lease of life by moving their content onto social media and have found the Stories function particularly helpful through this transition.

One such brand is Glamour UK: once a monthly glossy magazine, in 2017 the publication decided to decrease its physical output to just two issues a year and reinvent itself as a fully digitised online beauty and fashion platform. A radical change, but she who dares wins in this case: the magazine’s following has grown steadily since this shift.

3. Augmented reality

Another way in which brands are able to benefit from the Instagram social network is through the use of filters. Instagram comes complete with its own inbuilt camera and filter selection, which similarly to stickers, can be purchased and created by brands.

We’ve seen these filters be used by celebrities to promote their work including Arianna Grande for her 2018 ‘Sweetener’ album, Rihanna for her Clara Lionel Foundation and Kylie Jenner for her Kylie Cosmetics line.

Seeing the success of these filters has prompted brands like Adidas and Gucci to take notice, and for them to follow suit in launching their own.

These are accessed in the camera function of Instagram, are free to use and innately promote both your brand and your work in a non-ostentatious way.

4. Instagram shopping

Against other platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, Instagram’s visual edge lends itself readily to the world of online shopping. With high street brands like Weekday and Asos seeing their engagement on Instagram steadily increase, it was only a matter of time before they started actively advertising their products via the platform.

This is currently achieved by promoting products on the brand’s feed, as well as across Stories. These stories showcase the products and include the call to action, ‘Swipe up’, which then redirects the viewer to the product for sale on their online shop.

Want to know more about how social media advertising could work for you? Get in touch today.

Sources:
https://www.thedrum.com/news/2019/04/26/instagram-marketing-trends-advertisers-need-know

Ad spend to shift from Facebook to Instagram

Brands head to Instagram to spend their ad budget in 2019, with more advertisers preferring it over Facebook.

Instagram is becoming an increasingly attractive place for brands to splosh some dosh and the numbers suggest this trend will continue into 2019. With advertisers increasingly turning their backs on Facebook’s News Feed and making better friends with Instagram’s Stories.

According to Socialbakers, ad spend on Instagram increased in 2018 while decreasing on Facebook, driven by hard-to-rival engagement levels on the photo-sharing platform.

While Instagram has a smaller audience size compared to its parent company, its users are far more engaged. Suggesting that Instagram is the go-to for capturing quality engagement within smaller communities.

Last year, Instagram posts continued to reach and garner more impressions per fan than its Stories feature (around 15% and 25% more, respectively).

However, the volume of brands posting on Stories has quadrupled over the last year, with brands investing 212% more in Stories compared with the previous year.

A quarter (25%) of brands’ Instagram ad spend now goes on Stories. This will continue to grow through 2019. As just a few examples, easyJet recently made it possible for users to find and book holidays simply by clicking on a photo, while Spotify, SoundCloud and Shazam are offering their services via Stories. Expect to see more of this integration in the coming months, especially as Instagram promises to enhance its ecommerce features.

Alice Cuffe, editor at We Are Social, says while no one can argue that the specialised and detailed targeting of Facebook is appealing to advertisers, when it comes to creative innovation, Instagram Stories has the edge.

“Instagram has evolved Stories to allow brands to connect with audiences in a space where they feel comfortable enough to express their truest, least curated selves,” she explains.

“While Facebook is simple and reliable, Stories is currently owning the reactive space.  Functionalities such as polls, questions, emoji sliders and swipe-up links all provide an easy and immediate way to connect with your audience and allow them to react to your brand in the moment. The temporary nature of Stories also means brands have more freedom to experiment, without necessarily requiring heavy design work or rounds of internal concepting.”

Interested in how we can help with your marketing?

Talk to our team on 02921 320 200 or [email protected]

If you want to find our more about social media advertising, click here.

Source: https://www.marketingweek.com/2019/01/04/five-trends-media-2019/?cmpid=em~newsletter~breaking_news~n~n&utm_medium=em&utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=breaking_news&eid=7065287&sid=MW0001&adg=5C1E1BD4-B878-43B7-9CA5-52C2F49301DB&nocache=true&adfesuccess=1

Improve the way you use Instagram for business

The latest blog from Cardiff media agency, The Media Angels.
How can you improve the way you use Instagram to market your business?

1. Personal or business account?  

There are two different types of Instagram account; personal and business. With a business account, you can get analytics into your followers and posts, promote Instagram posts and have a more professional profile. You can also link your Instagram profile to your Facebook page, allowing you to quickly post photos onto Facebook. Your Instagram business profile also has a “Contact” button, here you can choose to include directions, a phone number, or an email address. Most of the advantage of switching to a business profile is the ability to learn about your followers. Here you can see what posts work best, generate the best interaction, where your followers are and when they’re online.

2. Using Instagram scheduling

There are a lot of mobile apps available which allow you to schedule Instagram posts, like how you can schedule posts on Facebook. We use Apphi for our account. It’s easy to set-up and link your account, and from the app you can set filters, hashtags and a caption before setting a time and date to post. We find this app helpful as our analytics show our followers are most active during the evening, when we’re out of the office. By using a scheduling app we can make sure our posts reach our followers at the right time.

3. Which posts generate the best reactions?

This is all about trial and error. Have a quick look through your Instagram analytics and you can filter your posts to see which ones have created the most engagement. Is there a theme? Are the photos of your work, your clients’ work, of your team? For us, we find pictures of us out and about do well, alongside photos of our clients work in-situ.

4. Use hashtags and create a conversation

We have a “bank” of hashtags we use frequently as we find these get good engagement. We also tailor these to what we’re posting, and we’ll also try to tag the client in the post if they have an account too. It also helps to ask a question in a caption, prompting a response from your followers. Even something simple like “What do you think of this?” can generate a conversation.

5. Using Instagram stories

Stories are a helpful way to include your followers in your day if the content doesn’t warrant an actual post. We find them helpful for more light-hearted or time-sensitive events, such as the rugby for example. They are just another way of engaging with your followers.

Change is good for Instagram

When brands release new icons and logos, previously loyal customers often groan with frustration.

Last month that is exactly what happened when Instagram changed its app icon. The flatter, the more abstract design was described by Adweek as possibly “one of the biggest designs fails of the year.” It’s safe to say that it was not loved at first sight for the new design.

But it turns out that the majority of us are wrong, according to new analysis from Dragonfly, a design –
analysis app by black Swan and researchers from Queen Mary University of London.

One of the biggest designs fails of the year is actually 10% more engaging to the human eye than its
predecessor, according to the Dragonfly app.

The new logo is actually 10% more engaging to the human eye than it’s predecessor, according to the app.

Dragonfly uses a computational model to process the visual characteristics of what someone is looking at
(orientation, contrast, texture, luminance) to assign a stimulus attention score to every pixel, demonstrating its attractiveness. The resulting graphics are Heat maps that display what grabs human attention in the first three seconds of interaction.

In conclusion, change isn’t always better, but in this case, it has been proven it is.

If you need help with your marketing then contact The Media Angel on 02921 320 200 or email [email protected] for award winning media planning and buying advice.