Social media is B.I.G. big. There’s now a bunch of networks and platforms that boast over 100,000,000 active users.
One of the things I’ve been really reflecting upon recently is how people are using the social web today vs just recently. Things have changed overnight. Or at least so much in the last 12, 24, an 36 months for sure!
The Social Media Landscape should be measured in dog years, IMHO! Share on XWe all know Google is king of the web and YouTube is the #2 search engine. But what about when we look at social media usage?
USAGE OF SOCIAL NETWORKS TODAY
| 1,790,000,000 | |
| YouTube | 1,000,000,000 |
| 500,000,000 | |
| 313,000,000 | |
| 234,000,000 | |
| Vine (R.I.P. soon) | 200,000,000 |
| Ask.fm | 160,000,000 |
| Tumblr | 115,000,000 |
| Flickr | 112,000,000 |
| Google+ | 111,000,000 |
| 106,000,000 | |
| 100,000,000 | |
| VK | 90,000,000 |
| ClassMates | 57,000,000 |
| Meetup | 27,500,000 |
It was a little surprising to me that Reddit and Tumblr outpaces Google+, LinkedIn and Pinterest. And I wonder where all those Vine viewer will go to as it dies a quick death in 2017. That’s surely to change the landscape a bit.
Here’s a visual representation to help put things into perspective:
This graph basically answers the question: “Which social media platform should our church be on if we had to choose just one?”
It also points out the missing factor in almost every church’s communications strategy I know: YouTube. This graph shows you just why oh why you really need to start thinking about how your church can start to engage with people on this video sharing site. BTW YouTube also has a chance of eclipsing FB for the #1 position according to some voices in the industry.
One of the best tips I can share today: Don't ignore YouTube again in 2017. Share on XAnd for those church communications teams that have a decent presence already on the Interwebs, or for the huge crowd of church leaders that either are snubbing or writing off SnapChat and Instagram as kiddie apps, here’s a different cut of the data that should give you some pause.
As you know, people are increasingly using their phones and not their laptops or desktops on a daily basis. There are days that I don’t ever open up my Macbook at all because I get all of my work done on the go on my iPhone 6S Plus. Just meditate on these stats regarding mobile vs laptop usage:
- 97% of Milliennials (18-34 years old) are mobile users
- 20% of 18-34 year olds don’t use a desktop computer at all. ever.
- We’ve already had mobile users eclipse desktop computing a couple of years ago back in 2014
Source: ComScore
SOCIAL MEDIA APP USAGE
| WhatsApp (Facebook) | 1,000,000,000 |
| Messenger (Facebook) | 1,000,000,000 |
| QQ Chat | 899,000,000 |
| 806,000,000 | |
| QZone | 652,000,000 |
| Instagram (Facebook) | 500,000,000 |
| Viber | 249,000,000 |
| LINE | 218,000,000 |
| Snapchat | 200,000,000 |
Source: DreamGrow
Of the top 10 social media apps people are using on their phones, it is Instagram and Snapchat that are winning the mobile app battle amongst social media networks.
These are the publishing platforms your church really
(A) needs to keep an eye on
(B) wake up and start embracing them
. . .because the people out there in your community already are. It’s just your church that’s being left out.
I’ve talked about the rise of Instagram several times before.
SnapChat is probably going to win in the end too. Don’t believe me? Here are some cold hard numbers to persuade you better about SnapChat:
- The number of Snapchat users aged 25+ is GROWING TWO TIMES FASTER than users under 25
- 50% of all new SnapChat user accounts belong to people OVER the age of 25
- 60% of Americans 13-38 years old are on SnapChat
SOURCE: MediaKix
SnapChat ain't just your tweenie's social network anymore. It's time to wake up and pay attention. Share on X
