A Guide to Social Media Statistics in 2020 to Help You Decide the Platform Best For Your Brand

A Guide to Social Media Statistics in 2020 to Help You Decide the Platform Best For Your Brand

Social media marketing is vital to digital branding. Every year though, things change. Updates roll out regularly and consumer demographics are always fluctuating. On a month to month basis, there can be massive changes in how to administrate a social media marketing campaign.

To save your budget, time, and effort only for the platforms that matter, we wanted to accumulate basic social media statistics from 2020 that show you who is using social media and why. After all, if you don’t know who is using a platform, you can’t expect to successfully target the user.

Every platform has user needs and habits. Once we have a grasp on those, it becomes much easier to see whether Twitter or Instagram’s better social platform for your brand. Culled from sources like Hootsuite, here is the latest data on social media sites and where to focus marketing efforts.

Who is using Facebook – age, needs, and habits

Facebook is the largest social media platform there has ever been and will continue to be for a long time to come. It is massively popular in both Canada and the US, with 68 percent of adults registered.


 As of January 2020, Facebook has more than 2.13 billion monthly active users.
 The average age of a Facebook user is 40.5 years old.
 The majority of adults who use Facebook make $75,000/year or above and have a post-secondary degree.
 Facebook is the #1 social media site for targeting Generation X. They spend on average 7 hours a week on the site.
 Facebook has a truly global audience, with users from every country in the world.
 The primary objective of someone on Facebook is to connect with friends.

A lot of controversy has been stirred up around Facebook regarding data collection and privacy. It remains to be seen if the social media site can survive into the future. Not only is Facebook vast but you can launch campaigns that target specific geographic areas and demographics which can be very helpful in winning certain clientele. Facebook marketing struggles with outperforming the competition. Popularity breeds competition.

Who is using LinkedIn – age, needs and habits

LinkedIn is a social media platform designed for professionals, entrepreneurs, and business leaders. A user on LinkedIn can post and seek jobs, share informational content like blogs, connect, and engage.


 The average age of a LinkedIn user is between 25 and 49.
 As of January 2020, there are more than 660 million users and growing on LinkedIn.
 57 percent of LinkedIn users are male and 43 percent are female.
 The primary objective of users on LinkedIn is career success.

If you’re working and selling in professional circles, LinkedIn social media marketing is an excellent place to start. Although LinkedIn has users from more than 200 countries, the vast majority of US-based which means aiming internationally could prove difficult.

Who is using Instagram – age, needs and habits

Instagram is an image-based social media site that’s owned by Facebook but also completely separate. The most common actions a user takes on Instagram is to browse friends’ photos, like pictures, and share one’s own images. Instagram is the best way to target millennials on social media. Instagram digital marketing uses a lot of hashtags and focuses on participating in communities.


 Instagram has 1.1 billion users and is the second most popular social media site, second only to Facebook.
 The average age of an Instagram user is 34 years old, with the vast majority of users being younger compared to other platforms.
 The primary objective of Instagram users is to share photos.

Instagram has a lot of opportunities surrounding it, including a built-in influencer marketing dynamic, ephemeral content options, and is considered the most effective way to build brands that are visual, young, and trendy.

Who is using Twitter – age, needs and habits

Twitter is a social media marketing platform perfect for brands in journalism, politics, and entertainment. Twitter was the original social site that popularized the use of hashtags to communicate and cultivate communities. The big marketing opportunity here is to use these hashtags to reach a wider audience organically than you could through paid campaigns elsewhere.

 Twitter has 330 million users, half of which are active on a daily basis.
 Over 45 percent of North Americans between 18 and 24 use Twitter regularly, skewing demographics towards the younger side.
 The average age of a Twitter user is 40, with the majority of user accounts attributed to persons between 35 and 65.
 The primary objective of the average Twitter account is not to post content. In fact, 54 percent of accounts don’t post anything at all. The aim is to scroll the newsfeed and interact in comments or likes.

Who is using Pinterest – age, needs and habits

Pinterest is a visual-based social media site where users create digital pinboards where images are selected to pin directly to them. It is a sort of online scrapbooking, where a user can have pinboards for celebrities they like, interests, hobbies, and more.


 There are over 320 million people on Pinterest.
 90 percent of users who win something this week will make a purchasing decision solely based on what they’ve seen on Pinterest.
 The average age of a Pinterest user is 40, though the majority of users are below this age.
 Over 50 percent of Pinterest users earn $50,000/year or more.
 Unlike other social sites, Pinterest attracts users almost exclusively in suburban US areas.

eCommerce sites have made a lot of headway on Pinterest where there exist a lot of opportunities to impress users with an image or visual of something cool. If you decide to get involved with Pinterest marketing for eCommerce, always use the highest quality and most engaging images available.

Who is using Snapchat – age, needs and habits

Snapchat’s made time-sensitive ephemeral content popular as well as face filters. Though both features have since been adopted across many other platforms, Snapchat’s the originator. Snapchat’s lost a lot of its luster in the past few years but is still an important social media destination for some.


 Snapchat users are typically between 18 and 34.
 Snapchat has more than 218 million people on its platform regularly.

If you’re looking to attract a younger audience of 25 years old or under, Snapchat marketing works. Many experts have predicted that Snapchat’s user growth is going to level off later this year before beginning to gradually taper off in the years to come. This remains to be seen, however. What’s certain is that it is still a viable marketing channel.

Who is using YouTube – age, needs and habits

Since YouTube launched, it hasn’t really been considered a social media platform but characteristically speaking, it is. In terms of global reach, YouTube has an audience as large as anyone. YouTube is the #1 video marketing platform in the world, delivering high ROI.


 YouTube has more than 2 billion users worldwide, with 79 percent of all Internet users boasting their own channel.
 The average age of a YouTube user is between 18 and 24 although all demographics continue to experience growth.
 More than 2 million videos are viewed on YouTube every minute.

Done wrong, social media marketing is a costly investment. Done right, you get everything you spend returned to you and more. This is about generating awareness, shares, likes, comments, follows, clicks, conversions, and sales. Choose the right platform and yield the best returns. Optimize your presence online with Unlimited Exposure today and set yourself up to maximize your success. The people are out there. They’re waiting for you. Let’s give them something to click on and share!