Mediaboss Marketing

Facebook is still the world's top social network, but it might want to keep an eye on Pinterest and Tumblr.

Facebook is a bit like the whale of the social networking world. It's huge, but it's lumbering along at a much slower growth rate than other social networks.

What's hot in the social networking world? Tumblr, apparently. According to the latest statistics from Globalwebindex, what the research firm defines as Tumblr's active user base grew a whopping 120 percent over the past six months. That's quite a bit more than Facebook's 6 percent growth, and just surpassing Pinterest's 111 percent growth rate to take top honors among the major social networks.

Globalwebindex conducted its research by surveying 41,823 adults in the third quarter of this year using an online questionnaire. Stratified sampling techniques were used to ensure that the queried population was "representative of the Internet population aged 16 to 64 in each country." As you might expect, social media engagement was defined in three different ways: those who own accounts, those who visit the social networks using any device, and those who actively contribute to the social networks on any device.

"Despite its active user number having grown by just 2 percent since the start of 2014, Facebook is still the number one global network and by an appreciable distance," reads Globalwebindex's report.

"Outside of China, 4 in 5 internet users have a Facebook account a figure which peaks in LatAm at 93 percent. What's more, 1 in 2 say they are actively using Facebook each month, giving it about twice as many active users as the three sites which compete for second position: Twitter, YouTube and Google+. More than half of Facebook's active users are also logging in multiple times per day, a figure which is higher than the equivalent for any other network."

That said, Facebook was also the only social network that saw a drop in use among those aged 16-24 in 2014. A "very small one," notes Globalwebindex, but one that "needs to be viewed in the context of all other networks posting substantial increases among this demographic."

According to the firm's questionnaire, Tumblr and Instagram both have the youngest user basesmore than 70 percent are between the ages of 16 and 34. Facebook, in contrast, has the oldest user base, with one-fourth of its users aged 45 years or more.

"Social behaviors are diversifying, with people turning to a range of different platforms to carry out different activities. Smaller networks like Instagram, Pinterest, and Tumblr are thus rising into the mainstream, while bigger players like Facebook are being used more passively," reads the report.

"For most brands, having a presence on just one social network is no longer sufficient. And while Facebook is still the clear number one, it's no longer the catch-all site it once was; in certain countries, and among certain demographics, other services now represent just as effective touchpoints in terms of reaching particular audiences."

See the rest here:
Watch Out, Facebook: Tumblr, Pinterest Pick Up Steam