Social Media Marketing Statistics and Facts for 2021

Posted: July 14, 2021 | Last updated: April 7, 2024

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2020 was a significant year for social media. Because of the pandemic, people spent more time online and discovered more ways to engage virtually. As revealed by various 2021 social media marketing statistics, the increase in active users proved beneficial to digital marketers and has helped improve their online presence.

Statistics are crucial for marketers when setting or assessing their marketing strategies. Staying abreast of the 2021 social media statistics and top trends helps marketers and brands enhance their marketing plans and social media engagement. Moreover, statistics are helpful tools in benchmarking marketers’ and brands’ performance in the industry or searching for a new network.

Read further to be informed of the relevant statistical data and social media facts 2021.

Social Media Users Statistics

94 Social Media Marketing Statistics 2021 — The best way to use social media is to impact people instead of impressing them.

As a marketer, you need to gauge how long and often users are active on social media. Wondering if social media use is declining in 2021? Here are some helpful social media usage statistics:

Over 3.6 billion people around the globe use social media. In 2025, this figure is projected to skyrocket to 4.41 billion users.
As of June 2021, Facebook stays on top with the most active users. It’s followed by three other Facebook-owned platforms—Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger. YouTube also belongs to the top 5 social media platforms.
Facebook has 2.7 million active users, YouTube has 2.2 million, WhatsApp has 2 million, Facebook Messenger has 1.3 million, and Instagram has 1.28 million active users.
Since the pandemic, a significant rise in WeChat and TikTok users was observed, with 1.22 million and 732 million active users, respectively.
54% of social media browsers use the platform in researching products.
Millennials stay on social media for 2 hours and 38 minutes a day while Gen Z logs in for an average of 2 hours and 55 minutes.
90% of internet users use social media.
The following countries added the most social media users in 2020: China with +110 million, India with +78 million, the Philippines with +16 million, and Mexico with +11 million.
The Philippines gains the top spot in social media consumption, where people average 4 hours and 15 minutes per day. Meanwhile, Japan uses social media the least, with only 51 minutes per day.
An average user is said to have an account on at least 8.4 different platforms.
About 40.4% of users are on social media for work purposes.

Social Media Platform Statistics

Since the advent of the internet, web developers have created various social media platforms and websites. Thanks to the development, marketers have many platform choices now. You may ask, “what is the most used social media in 2021?” Check out the statistics below:

Facebook Statistics

71% of teens claimed to use the social platform in 2015. However, the figure currently dropped to 67%.
Since 2019, Facebook’s engagement rate per post’s all-industry median benchmark remains at 0.09%.
In Q2 of 2020, the platform claimed to have 9 million active advertisers, and 92% of its total revenue is accounted for by mobile.
The percentage of adult Facebook users from the US is 69%.
The average of Facebook users who access the platform through their mobile devices is 98.3%.
In Facebook advertising, videos drive the most number of ad clicks.
81% of brands prefer video marketing over other social media marketing types.
44.2% of brand posts contain links, and it’s the most commonly used type of content.
Only 16% of Facebook profiles are duplicates or fakes. Hence, the chances of wasting your ads on Facebook are somehow low.
Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 9 AM to 1 PM are the best times to post on Facebook.
Saturday is the worst day to post.
The most viewed genre on Facebook Stories is politics.
Facebook Stories have over 500 million viewers daily.
By the end of 2021, Facebook has projected a revenue of $85 billion.
56% of Facebook visitors check the site to collect information.
The low CPC of Facebook video ads is at $1.86.
Compared to other paid ads channels, Facebook Ads provide the highest ROI.
In Q4 of 2020, Facebook ad impressions increased to 25%, while the average ad price increased to 5%.

Twitter Statistics

In the Q3 of 2020, Twitter’s revenue was $936 million.
In the same quarter of the mentioned year, the platform nearly reached 200 million daily active users who were possibly monetizable.
During the Q1 of 2019, the platform’s monthly active users were over 300 million, then dropped significantly during the Q3 of 2020.
92% of Twitter interactions come from link clicks.
Like Facebook, the best posting schedule on Twitter is on Wednesdays and Fridays at 9 AM, while Saturday has the most limited engagement.
Tweets with hashtags achieve 100% more engagement than those without any hashtags.
Compared to standard ads, socially responsible ads perform better on Twitter by 12%.
93% of Twitter community members approve of brands getting involved in conversations, such as giving help and support.

TikTok Statistics

As of January 2021, the number of global active users on TikTok is a whopping 689 million.
In 2020, the most downloaded app was TikTok. Users made it a quarantine or lockdown pastime.
Beating Facebook and Instagram downloads in app stores, TikTok hit 1 billion downloads in February 2019.
Globally speaking, 41% of TikTok users are aged 16 to 24.
In the US, 58.8% of the TikTok population are females.
A majority of the US TikTok users are in the age range of 10 to 19.
The average engagement rate of the platform is high at all levels of followers.
US TikTok users spent more time in the app than other social media sites in 2019.

Instagram Statistics

The platform has about 67% of Gen Z users.
57% of the users are Millennials.
Only 38% of the total platform users are Gen X.
Instagram users under the age of 34 comprise 64% of the total population.
90% of users follow business accounts.
Like Facebook and Twitter, the best posting schedule on Instagram is Wednesdays and Fridays from around 10 to 11 AM. However, Sundays are the worst schedule for engagement.
98% of marketing professionals claim that Instagram is the best and most influential platform for influencer marketing. This figure is 44% higher than that of Facebook. Check out this VAMP review to get connected with highly talented social media creators.
On Instagram, videos receive more interactions by 21.2% than images and 18.6% more than carousels.
83% of users utilize Instagram to check out new products and services, and 87% say they take action like purchasing or availing of services after seeing the information.
Between 2016-2019, the platform has added about 26.9 million users. Instagram ads have also reached at least 928.5 million people, with 665.8 million people aged between 13 and 34.

YouTube Statistics

The second largest search engine around the globe is YouTube.
It is also the second most popular social media platform for brands and businesses sharing video content.
YouTube reaches more adults (aged 18-24) than any TV network on mobile devices alone.
25% of total worldwide mobile traffic comes from the platform.
54% of people want more video content, and YouTube is the best place to start.
The 3rd quarter of 2020 showed that men and women in the US use the platform equally.
The most popular content on YouTube is related to fashion and beauty, such as clothing hauls, product recommendations, makeup and skincare tutorials, and first impressions of products.

Read “YouTube SEO: How to Optimize YouTube Videos for Search” to learn more about YouTube marketing facts and strategies.

Consumer Behavior Statistics

Now that you know “how many people have social media accounts in 2021,” you must study the consumers’ behavior to get them on the hook. Fine-tune your audience profiling and targeting according to the following statistics:

57% of consumers follow a brand to learn about new services and products.
Meanwhile, 47% follow to stay updated on company news.
After following a business profile on social media, 85% recommend the brand to their family and friends, 89% avail of the products and services, and 91% visit the business’ app or website.
49% of consumers unfollow a brand due to poor product quality and customer service.
Furthermore, social media marketing statistics reported that 45% unfollow because the brand has too many ads or irrelevant content.
68% of consumers are more likely to engage with images, 50% are leaning towards videos, and 30% engage with text-based posts.

Social Media Marketer Statistics

Without the people who run and operate social media, marketing on the platform would be nothing. In a constantly changing landscape, social media marketers should master the art of formulating novel strategies and juggling the challenges along the way.

According to marketers, the three most challenging aspects of their work are identifying and reaching their target audience, measuring ROIs, and supporting the brand’s overall goals.
The top two factors that contribute to the success of B2B content marketers are content value (83%) and website updates (60%).
81% of organizations use analytics or social media publishing tools.
In 2020, the availability of content creation tools like the one in this Socialfluence review increased by 10%.
The percentage of the technologies that B2B organizations utilized for their content marketing are as follows:
- Analytics tools at 88%
- Social media publishing at 81%
- Email marketing software at 78%
- Content creation or collaboration at 58%
- Customer relationship management systems at 56%
- Content management system at 53%
- Marketing automation system at 39%
- Content distribution platform at 24%
- Content performance and recommendation analytics at 20%
- Other tools at 2%

Social Media Marketing Statistics

Standing out from a sea of brands is challenging. Hence, having a good strategy for your marketing efforts helps you control your ad spend and expectations. Here are significant social media marketing statistics for 2021:

Social media advertising is utilized by 83% of marketing professionals. It’s also ranked second with a success rate of 29%, just a little behind search engine marketing with an average success rate of 33%.
What percentage of marketing is social media? This year, 91.9% of marketers in the US utilize social media for marketing purposes.
70% of users don’t trust brands that prioritize profits over people during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The ratio of social media users who expect brands to market and advertise in safe and positive spaces is 2:3.
42.7% of worldwide internet users use ad blockers.
Furthermore, recent social media marketing statistics revealed that 22.3% of Adblock users complain that some websites and social media platforms contain many annoying and irrelevant ads.
The percentage of online brand discovery that takes place in public social feeds is 52%.
13% of internet users claimed that a “buy” button increases the likelihood of pushing through with an online purchase.
Addressing complaints on social media increases customer advocacy by 25%.
As further shown by social media marketing statistics, user-generated content on social networks impacts the purchasing decisions of 79% of people.
79% of consumers anticipate that brands respond within a day of reaching out. However, the average rate of brand responses across various industries is lower than 25%.

How to Leverage These Statistics

Social media marketing goals — These are common goals in social media marketing. When you know your goals, you can better market online. | **Source**: EngageBay

Social media marketing entails thoughtful planning and strategizing. By checking out the various social media statistics worldwide and top trends for 2021, marketers can benchmark and formulate plans and strategies to improve their marketing efforts.

Want to discover more online trends and significant data? Check these influencer marketing statistics for 2021.

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