Though we may not like to admit it, social media has become an integral part of our life, whether you’re a small business updating your marketing strategy or an individual seeking to maintain a vibrant social network. With so many new platforms and apps sprouting up every year, it can be hard to keep track of the best choices for your life or business. It’s more relevant than ever to understand the demographics of each platform as well as their similarities and differences. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest are some of the original players in this space and are still the biggest in the market. Here we take a look at each outlet and their target audience.

Facebook

Recently, the media has been awash with news that Facebook’s user base is shrinking because young people are moving to newer platforms like Snapchat. Though that may be the case, Facebook is still currently king, according to a recent Pew study. 71% of American adults used Facebook as recently as 2014. On a global scale, there are over 1.55 billion monthly active users on this platform. Though there are some countries that are not active Facebook users (notoriously, China), Facebook is still your best bet for reaching internet users around the world.

 

Target audience

As with all of the other social media platforms, Facebook’s demographic skews young. Their reach with the younger demographic is huge, with 82% of online young adults from 18-29 using the site. Interestingly, the platform has seen a recent increase in older users with 56% of all online adults 65 and older using Facebook.

Twitter

Though Twitter has been hugely influential from its inception, particularly with distributing news and trending topics, some claim that it is now entering its “twilight zone” because of its slowly stagnating growth. Although the total number of registered Twitter is 1.3 billion, only 305 million of those are monthly active users. In relation to other platforms, they’re currently in 5th place for most widely-used platform, trailing behind newer arrivals like Instagram.

 

Target audience

Their biggest age group demographic skews younger, with 18-29 year olds making up 32% of their user base. Slightly more men (25%) use Twitter than women (23%) and internet users in urban areas are more likely to be active on Twitter than those in rural areas with a difference of 30% vs 15%.

Instagram

Facebook’s prodigal son, Instagram, has been a rising social media star from its beginnings. Out of Internet using young adults (aged 18-29), over half (53%) use Instagram. And no, Instagram users aren’t only checking in once a week to upload the odd #TBT. 49% of all Instagram users are reported to check the app daily.

 

Target audience

Interestingly, Instagram’s biggest racial demographic comes from Blacks and Non-Hispanics at 47%, with Hispanic users following at 38% and White users coming in last at 21%. This information might be particularly relevant if you’re seeking to target diverse racial groups, or specific racial groups. Over half of Instagram’s users (55%) are 18-29%, so this is a platform that is disproportionately used by the youth. In fact, some of the younger users even use Instagram in place of Facebook and not in conjunction with it.

Pinterest

Similar to Instagram, Pinterest is an image-oriented platform. Interestingly enough, Pinterest’s mission goes beyond just sharing pictures of seemingly impossible crafts. They want to change the nature of search, from text to images. They’ve already seen progress with this goal, with Pinterest becoming the 4th largest traffic source in the world as early as 2012. In a similar vein, Pinterest has already shown huge potential for businesses because it's proven itself as an excellent way to reach shoppers without using advertising techniques that are intrusive or expensive.

 

Target audience

Though the stereotype of Pinterest as being a congregating place for aspiring wedding planners and mommy bloggers is limiting, Pinterest does have the greatest gender difference out of these 5 platforms: 44% of online women use Pinterest with online men lagging far behind at 16%. In terms of age, Pinterest is popular with middle-aged internet users as well, with their 18-29 user base almost identical to their 30-49-year-old user base (37% vs 36%). This is interesting given that most of the other platforms mentioned skew more heavily to the youth. If you’re trying to reach middle-aged internet users (particularly women), Pinterest is the perfect way to begin.

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