By fneedle@hubspot.com (Flori Needle)

Are people still using Facebook? Is BeReal still next big thing? And is TikTok still just for Gen Z?

If you’re looking for answers to those questions, I’ve got ‘em.

We asked 700+ U.S. adults about the social media platforms they use in May 2023 and again in January 2024 to find out which apps are growing and which are slowing down. Here’s what I gathered from the data.

Table of Contents

• Social Media Usage in 2023 vs. 2024
• The Fastest Growing Social Media Platforms
• What platforms are losing steam?

Social Media Usage in 2023 vs. 2024

Unsurprisingly, 87% of US adults use social media. But what platforms are they using most?

Here are a few fast facts about the top platforms US consumers use in 2024, keeping in mind that this list might be different in other countries.

• Facebook (71%), YouTube (61%), and Instagram (42%) are the most popular social media apps.
• Lemon8 (+200%), Tumblr (+20%), and TikTok (+9%) saw the most growth since 2023.
• The greatest declines in usage were seen on Reddit (28%), X/Twitter (23%), and LinkedIn (22%).
• While Facebook is the most popular social media platform for people over 28, Gen Z’s favorite platform is TikTok.

It’s interesting to compare these growth stats to social media marketers’ predictions for 2024. In 2023, social media marketers rated Instagram as having the highest growth potential, followed by TikTok and Facebook. At that time, Instagram was used by 65% of marketers, TikTok by 36%, and Facebook by 67%.

On the consumer side, out of those three apps, TikTok experienced the most growth (+9% YoY), then Instagram (+5% YoY) then Facebook (+4% YoY).

Social media marketers’ usage of the apps they predicted to have the most growth actually fell YoY: Instagram usage fell -20% YoY, TikTok by -5% YoY, and Facebook by -7% YoY.

With that, let’s take a deeper dive into the fastest-growing platforms.

The Fastest Growing Social Media Platforms

1. Lemon8

Lemon8 saw +200% YoY growth in usage from consumers we polled in our 2024 Consumer Trends Survey. It’s a photo-sharing app (owned by ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company) and is described as an Instagram-Pinterest hybrid.

It has only been available in the U.S. for a year and a half, so, why’s it so popular?

For starters, Lemon8 is more of a platform for consumers. It’s centered around user-generated and organic content, which is a welcome respite to consumers who might feel that the most popular social media platforms are brand-forward and too salesy.

Consumers also care that the content they see on social media is authentic and relatable, so the content they see from other users speaks directly to that interest. A majority of people who use the app say they do so to get ideas and inspiration and to share their own pictures/videos.

As with all emerging platforms, there’s no …read more

Source:: HubSpot Blog

Author: Aaron