More on social media trends: What you need to know

As social media marketers, we always have to stay on top of latest trends, right? Introducing the latest social media report: "Social Media in the US" by GWI.

The report analyzes the latest social media trends in the United States. You can view the full report by clicking here.

To obtain the information, GWI said "Figures in this report are drawn from GWI’s online research among internet users aged 16-64. Please note that we only interview respondents aged 16-64 and our figures are representative of the online populations of each market, not its total population."

The sample size drew "insights from GWI’s Q3 2021 wave of research across 47 countries, with a US sample of 24,692 respondents."

Here are the key insights in the report:

• Social engagement is waving. The report from Q1 2021 showed the highest average figures on record for US social media usage. "While engagement has plateaued for younger consumers, our latest Q4 data shows older consumers have kept social media in favor."
• More TikTokers are scrolling away. "Since Q4 2020, the number of consumers using TikTok monthly has grown by nearly 50%. Despite its youthful reputation, engagement has grown most among Gen X (+79%) and baby boomers (+147%). Its popularity doesn’t show any signs of slowing and older consumers will have a leading role.
• New contenders in the messaging space. "Data privacy is a growing focus, with increasing use of privacy-centered DuckDuckGo and encrypted messaging services. With WhatsApp growing in the last year, and Discord and Telegram making big leaps, their engaged messaging communities are a strong option for marketers.
• Stories provide growing interaction opportunities. "While less stories are being posted, the number of consumers swiping up on Instagram stories is on the rise, and Facebook too. With significant growth among Gen X (+24%) and baby boomers (+33%) on Facebook Marketplace/Instagram Shopping, utilizing the latest story tools will help keep platform users engaged.
• Social commerce is on the rise.

Let's take a deeper look into the data.

According to the report, Americans spend an average of 11 minutes less per day on social media than the global average. Users from the Middle East, Africa and Latin America are the most engaging areas.

Americans average about 2 hours, 18 minutes per day on social media. Globally that average is 2:29. Latin America, as well as Middle East/Africa are at 3:34. Europe is the lowest at 2:05.

The most popular social media platform for all those regions is Facebook/Meta. In addition, more than 2 in 5 social media users have at least five social media services.

During the pandemic, social media saw record-breaking engagement levels. As the pandemic has faded, so has engagement for at least some parts of the population, according to the report. For example, GenZ users (those born between 1997 and 2012) have gone from an average of 3 hours, 16 minutes on social media in Q4 2020 to 3:11 in Q4 2021. On the other hand, millennials, Gen-X and baby boomers also had higher engagement in Q4 2021 compared to Q4 2020. Millennials peaked at 2:47 in Q1 2021. That is now 2:42.

As for what apps appeals to what population segments, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok reign supreme for Gen-Zers. Even Twitter is the most popular app for that age group. Facebook remains popular for those older than 25. LinkedIn is popular for those 25-54.

We've learned TikTok's short-form video model has reset the foundation for what's popular and how to be popular on social media. TikTok has expanded the video uploading options to be as long as 3 minutes. But, data shows there is still some value for videos lasting longer than 4 minutes.

LinkedIn reports growth, record engagement

Microsoft Corp., which owns LinkedIn, announced April 26 its third quarter results.

In the midst of the results report was an update on LinkedIn and the company shared positive results from its third quarter, which ended March 31.

LinkedIn revenue grew 34 percent. The growth, according to the report, was "driven by a strong job market in our Talent Solutions business and strong advertising demand in our Marketing Solutions business."

In addition, LinkedIn sessions grew 22 percent with record engagement.

“Going forward, digital technology will be the key input that powers the world’s economic output,” said Satya Nadella, chairman and chief executive officer of Microsoft, in a press release. “Across the tech stack, we are expanding our opportunity and taking share as we help customers differentiate, build resilience, and do more with less.”

Microsoft didn't release specific information about LinkedIn members, which, at last check, was at 810 million.

LinkedIn has launched new analytics, updates to profile video features and a subscribe bell and enabled creators to feature newsletters on their profiles, as well as a skills-first tool to focus on hiring and developing talent.

If you'd like to dive into more of Microsoft's/LinkedIn's latest report, you can click here.

New report tackles social media metrics

How many times has this question been asked: When is the best time to post on social media? If anyone knows the concrete answer, you'll likely be deemed a hero.

For many years as social media evolves, the answer that question becomes more complicated. How do you get an understanding of the behavior of more than 4 billion social media users?

There's no doubt that the pandemic shifted how social media is used and consumed. A report by Sprout Social said 71% of consumers found themselves using social more than they have in years past.

Sprout Social also broke that down by generations:

• 78% increase by Generation Z (born between 1997-2012).
• 77% increase by Millennials (born between 1981-1996).
• 75% increase by Generation X (born between 1965-1980).
• 54% increase by Baby Boomers (born between 1955-1964).

In short, consumers are on social media, despite the negative press it's gotten over the years.

In a new report by Sprout Social, it takes another swing at understanding best days/times to post on social media by platform. (You can view full report here)

According to Sprout Social, "We worked closely with our data science team to review findings and trends in social media usage over the past year from Sprout Social’s more than 30,000 customers and understand when their content was most and least frequently engaged with, broken out by platform and industry."

Here is the report broken down:

• Best time to post on social media overall
• Best times to post on social media overall: Tuesdays through Thursdays at 9 a.m. or 10 a.m.
• Best times to post on social media: Tuesdays through Thursdays.
• Worst days to post on social media: Sundays.
• Best times to post on Facebook/Meta
• Best times to post on Facebook: Mondays through Fridays at 3 a.m., Tuesdays at 10 a.m. and noon.
• Best days to post on Facebook: Tuesdays through Fridays.
• Worst days to post on Facebook: Saturdays.
• Best times to post on Instagram
• Best times to post on Instagram: Mondays at 11 a.m., Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 10 a.m.-1 p.m., and Thursdays and Fridays at 10 a.m. and 11 a.m.
• Best days to post on Instagram: Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
• Worst days to post on Instagram: Sundays.
• Best times to post on Twitter
• Best times to post on Twitter: Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 9 a.m.
• Best days to post on Twitter: Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
• Worst days to post on Twitter: Sundays.
• Best times to post on LinkedIn
• Best times to post on LinkedIn: Tuesdays 10 a.m.-noon.
• Best days to post on LinkedIn: Wednesdays and Thursdays.
• Worst days to post on LinkedIn: Saturdays and Sundays.

Understanding email in post MPP

For many years, the data to understanding email success was simple and easy to obtain. One of the core metrics that was seemingly the basis of email success evaluation was open rate. Simply if an email was opened by a recipient, it told you that someone was compelled enough to investigate further. Sounds like a success right?

For the most part, yes. But, that's the old way.

In September 2021, Apple rolled out the Mail Privacy Protection tool. In short, when an email is sent from an ESP or an email service provider, Apple will open the email, masks identifying characteristics of the recipient and then send the email to the inbox.

Since this adoption, the long relied upon metric, the open rate, has suddenly grown to be irrelevant. That's because data will show an email was opened, but not known if it was opened by intended recipient. So now what?

Over the course of the last several months, greater emphasis has been put on measuring clicks within an email, or the calls to action. That data is still trackable.

Just recently released by Litmus was a report about getting a better understanding of email in a digital world more focused on privacy. The report is called "Email Analytics in 2022" (Download it here).

What did Litmus find in its report?

Before MPP went into effect in September 2021, 64% of marketers were concerned with the impact it would have on their email analytics and means of measuring campaigns; 43% were planning to change how they measure email performance; 26% weren't sure.

In April 2022, Litmus reports 53% of Apple Mail has been impacted by MPP. Data such as significant increases in open rates are among the results marketers are seeing. Litmus said Gmail is prefetching images as well, adding to the uncertain reliability (or lack of it) regarding open rates.

So how do you adjust?

• Re-evaluate your email strategy.
• Re-evaluate your email marketing goals.
• Re-evaluate your email templates.
• Re-evaluate what's important to your business.

Here are some metrics Litmus suggests as potential new email analysis metrics:

• Email read rate. This depends on your email tool. But having an email open read equals eight seconds.
• Click-through rate.
• Unsubscribe rate.
• Bounce rate.
• Spam compliant rate.
• Conversion rate.

TikTok leads the way in Q1 2022

TikTok's growth is something we haven't seen since Facebook's introduction nearly 20 years ago. It doesn't appear to be slowing down anytime soon.

The latest app rankings data from Sensor Tower, TikTok was once again the most downloaded app in Q1 2022, beating out a handful of Meta-owned apps.

The report, which is called "Global App Revenue Growth Was Flat in Q1 2022, While Usage Grew Nearly 5%," also revealed medical, navigation, travel, business, and shopping apps saw the most usage growth year-over-year in Q1 2022.

According to the report, "TikTok saw the most downloads across both marketplaces combined as well as on Apple’s platform, while Meta maintained its grasp on the top of the Google Play chart. In 2021, Facebook was the most downloaded app on Google Play, while this past quarter, that distinction went to Instagram, which saw 125.8 million first-time installs. Across the App Store and Google Play, TikTok saw more than 186 million installs globally."

Facebook/Meta still have a strong presence in the digital/social media world. However, some data is showing slowing growth and even decline in some areas.

The company's monthly active users data shows growth. But, as noted previously, the growth is showing.

Here's a concerning statistic for Facebook/Meta. For the first time, there was a decline in daily active users. Facebook did add users in the Asia Pacific and European regions, but overall, it lost a million actives.

It's early to tell what that potentially means for the company. But, it does show users are open to going to different apps to engage on social media. For the full report, click here.

While revenue stayed relatively flat, there is still high revenue in apps and social media.

According to the report, "

TikTok, including Douyin on iOS in China (the Chinese version of TikTok), maintained its position as the top grossing non-game app overall as well as on the App Store. Across both stores, TikTok generated $821 million in consumer spending this quarter. On Google Play, it came second to Google One, which topped the chart with nearly $250 million."

TikTok launches marketing education tool

TikTok has launched a tool to help marketers understand and utilize the various platform features to reach and engage the TikTok audience.

Called Creative Agency Partnerships University, the program will guide agencies and freelancers through all aspects of effective TikTok creation.

TikTok continues to grow at a rapid pace. Therefore it's necessary for companies, brands and the like to continue to pay close attention to TikTok and see if it is the right platform to reach their audience. When that decision is made, it'll be a learning curve. The goal for this latest tool from TikTok is to flatten the curve and simplify the app for all users.

The new program will be another way to brush up on your TikTok knowledge, with input from the platform’s creative team.

What are your site's keywords?

Sticking out in a crowded space is hard. There's no denying that. But it's not impossible.

Keywords are an important piece of any search engine optimization, or SEO, puzzle. However, a word to the wise says what you think are the keywords for your organization or business may not what searchers think. Therefore, it's important to see what queries searchers are using and how your website lands within that search.

Here is a great tool to help you with that. It's called an Ngram chart. To check it out, click here.

This is what it looks like after you've completed your keyword research.

This chart shows keywords in search queries that garnered the best position and clicks for your company/organization. The bigger the block, the more often the term appeared in a search with your company/organization as a result.

How do you find this out?

First is you log into your Google Search Console.

Once on the home page of GSC, go to "performance" on the left-hand side.

Set date range for "past 12 months."

You'll see your results below. Go to the upper right-hand corner and click on "export". For this example, click to download to Excel.

Open the downloaded file. There you will see all the search queries where your company/organization appeared as a result in the previous 12 months. If you click on the other tabs, you'll get other great information such as URLs, countries, etc.

The next step is now think of what you think the keywords are for your business or organization. In this example, it's for an organization that specializes in disability support services. So, I'll use disability as a keyword here.

So go to the filters across the top and click on the "+". It'll open a filter menu. Click on "query".

 Then click on "queries containing." Then type in the keyword you'd like to explore.

You'll get the results of all queries that contain that query. Then export the file like you did earlier.

Open the newly downloaded Excel file. Then highlight and copy all the queries data (including clicks, CTR, position). Once copied, paste them to the bottom of the first search queries document you created.

Repeat this process but change the queries filter to "queries not containing."

Export this new file and open the newly downloaded Excel file. Then highlight and copy all the queries data (including clicks, CTR, position). Once copied, paste them to the bottom of the first search queries document you created.

Then open the Ngram website: https://seodataviz.com/ngram.php#

Once on the site, click "clear form" for each section. Copy all the keyword queries from the initial Excel document and paste them into the top window.

Change the settings at the above to 4 for Min Ngram Occurance and 2 for Min Term Length. Click "submit."

You now have your keyword data chart!

You can hover over each term and gives you data about the search query, such as the percentage it's used.

You can also download the data and it'll give a numerical value for that query. The higher the value, the more relevant the query is in terms of a keyword.