Trends in American Adults’ Social Networking Use

The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project has released its latest social media update, and the report shows that while some things remain the same (Facebook the leading platform, for example), others are changing.

Indeed, based on a survey of almost 1,600 internet- using adults conducted in September 2014, the study demonstrates that online adults are now more likely to be using multiple platforms — and the appeal of those platforms to different demographic groups are in some cases shifting.

First, some to-level figures (all related to late 2014):

  • 79% of internet users report using at least one of the five sites measured (Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram and Twitter), up a point from a year earlier;
  • Facebook, as expected, remains the top platform by adoption among the five measured, although its 71% penetration rate among online adults is flat from a year earlier;
  • LinkedIn and Pinterest are each used by 28% of the online adult population, up from 22% and 21%, respectively;
  • Instagram has seen the most rapid rate of growth, increasing from 17% in 2013 to 26% last year; and
  • Twitter now sits behind Instagram with a 23% adoption rate, though that’s up from 18% a year earlier.

Translate those figures to the entire adult population (bearing in mind that in the survey , 81% of adults reported using the internet), and some 58% of all US adults use Facebook, with LinkedIn (23%), Pinterest (22%), Instagram (21%) and Twitter (19%) all trailing distantly.

Facebook’s vast adoption is worth taking into account when assessing its slower growth rate relative to the other platforms.

Facebook leads in another important category too: frequency of use.

In fact, seven in 10 Facebook users reported using the site on a daily basis.

The next closest is Facebook-owned Instagram, with 49% of users claiming to use it on a daily basis.

Following the Facebook properties is Twitter (36% using daily) seeing much less activity.

Indeed, most Pinterest and LinkedIn users — 52% and 61%, respectively — are using those platforms less than weekly.

Multiple Site Usage

One of the interesting highlights of the study is its examination of multiple site usage, with this being an area of significant growth.

According to the survey results, 52% of internet users in this latest report use multiple platforms (at least two of the five sites measured), with this being a significant increase from 42% reporting the same in 2013.

Most of the increase comes in the form of respondents using three or more sites, with 28% reportedly doing os in the 2014 survey as opposed to 10% the year earlier.

Following from those results, the study constructs a social media matrix, examining the percentage of users of each site who also use another site.

In this examination, there are some interesting overlaps worth mentioning:

  • Almost six in 10 (58% of) Twitter users also reported using Instagram, up from 53% overlap in the previous years study;but
  • The 52% of Instagram users also using Twitter is actually down a point from last year;
  • Pinterest users are certainly visually incline: they’re more likely to be found also using Instagram (47%) than to be doubling as LinkedIn (40%) or Twitter users (34%); and
  • LinkedIn users are more likely to be doubling as Pinterest (40%) or Twitter (39%) users than Instagram (35%) users.

Compared to last year’s matrix, it’s worth noting that reciprocity is generally up, meaning that users of one site are generally more likely to be users of another, reflecting the overall increase in multi-site use.

Some of the largest changes are for:

  •  The percentage of Pinterest users also using Instagram (47%, up from 31%);
  • The share of Instagram users also using Pinterest (47%, up from 37%);
  • The percentage of LinkedIn users also using Instagram (35%, up from 24%) and Pinterest (40%, up from 28%); and
  • The share of Facebook users also using Instagram(34%, up from 23%).

Because Facebook is easily the dominant platform, the vast majority of Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and LinkedIn users also use the site.

LinkedIn users are the least likely to also use Facebook — with 86% doing so.

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