Since its inception in 1996, half of the world’s 7.7 billion people has been infiltrated by social media. The number of social network platforms in July 2021 has almost quadrupled over the last decade, from 970 million in 2010 to 4,48 billion users.

However, the phenomenal adoption on platforms by new users year after year has slowed. It is currently based on the ongoing development, particularly in developing nations, of the number of individuals with internet access and cellphones.

So, how big is social media and how has it changed in the last several years?

If you want to understand the latest social media platform updates and maximise your own social media marketing efforts, you should take a broader view of consumption trends and consider how people are looking to use social apps to connect in various ways over time. Understanding such trends will give you a better idea of what people expect from your brand.

Facebook, the world’s most popular social networking platform, has 2.4 billion users. Youtube and Whatsapp, two other social media services, each has over one billion subscribers.

These are massive numbers: the world’s population is 7.7 billion people, with at least 3.5 billion of us online. This means that one out of every three people on the planet uses social media platforms, accounting for more than two-thirds of all internet users.

As a result of social media, the world has transformed. The rapid and widespread adoption of these technologies is altering how we find partners, access news information, and organise to demand political change.

The proportion of US adults who use social media has risen from 5% in 2005 to 79% in 2019. Even on a global scale, the rate of diffusion is remarkable: Facebook grew from covering approximately 1.5 per cent of the world population in 2008 to approximately 30 per cent in 2018.

The majority of social media networks have grown to become more visually appealing and tailored to their users. This reflects how social media users enjoy communicating with friends, reading fast-paced feeds containing useful information, and watching or seeing a highly visual video or photo-based content.

If your marketing strategy hasn’t yet evolved to accommodate these strategies, you should be focusing on tactics that will allow you to connect and communicate with your audience on these platforms. You should also start focusing on creating shareable multimedia content, such as informative blog posts with photos, marketing graphics, or high-quality video content.

Check out The Social Lions, a digital marketing agency in Mumbai, to learn more about how you can leverage major social media platforms.