Social media dynamos Instagram and Pinterest nearly doubled their users between 2012 and 2015, according to a new study — and Pinterest is winning.
Pew Research Center, a Washington D.C.-based think tank, surveyed 1,907 adults this spring to learn about their social media habits.
Among the discoveries: 31% of all adults who go online now use Pinterest, versus just 15% three years ago. Meanwhile, 28% of all adults who go online now use Instagram versus a mere 13% in 2012.
Twitter also saw significant user growth over the same period, just not quite on the same level as Instagram and Pinterest. LinkedIn was the only social media platform studied that actually saw its user base decrease slightly from 2014 to 2015.
Facebook, of course, remains far and away the most widely-used social media platform. It snagged 72% of all online adults in the survey, but there are signs that its growth spurt is at an end. That figure is just 5% higher than it was 3 years ago.
The estimate goes hand in hand with Facebook’s own user statistics over the last several quarters, indicating slowing user growth in the U.S.
Still, Facebook’s user base of 1.49 billion is several times larger than any other social media platform out there right now. The social network has achieved a global scale for which Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn still strive.
Facebook users also tend to have the highest engagement. For example, 70% of Facebook users log on every day, followed by Instagram users (59%), then Twitter (21%).
Pew Research’s study also revealed that adults use messaging services such as WhatsApp or Apple’s iMessage, on top of traditional SMS texting, more than ever. In fact, 49% of smartphone owners between the ages of 18 and 29 use messaging apps. The survey did not break out usage by messaging app. Some 41% of the same demographic load up ephemeral message apps such as Snapchat and its more encrypted counterpart, Wickr.
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Source: Mashable.com