Social Media User Needs and Engagement
Case Study
Published Q1 2023
Over the past two decades, the social media landscape has been changing quickly, reshaping our daily lives. Our exploratory consumer engagement and brand landscape deep-dive illuminates answers to key questions about how users engage with and think about social media platforms today.
Overview
Social media has a profound influence on our daily lives. It has reshaped how companies sell their products, how politicians communicate with constituents, how people receive news and information, and how ordinary people communicate with relatives, friends, and colleagues.
The social media landscape has changed quickly over the last two decades. Legacy players like MySpace have faded in relevance while Facebook has been on a steady march toward world domination. LinkedIn has smartly maintained an arms-length from other competitors, positioning itself as the social network for professionals. Meanwhile, platforms like Pinterest and Reddit have maintained modest success while stickier platforms like TikTok have impressively gained global traction.
We ran this study because we’re curious.
Journalists and Silicon-valley thought-leaders tend to set the tone about social media platforms, but…
what do consumers actually think about these platforms?
how do users engage with them?
are social media platforms solving real consumer needs?
how open are consumers to adopting new social media platforms?
Our exploratory consumer engagement and brand landscape deep-dive illuminates answers to these key questions and more.
Q&A
Q1: What consumer needs exist in the social media space? What needs, if any are unmet?
A: User needs focused on connecting/staying connected with family and friends are the most prevalent among social media users. That said, over half of all consumers are looking for content that helps them laugh and/or feel good. Discovery – such as boosting motivation and inspiration, finding old friends or making new ones, staying up to date with the news – is mid-tier in prevalence.
Implication:
In most consumer markets (e.g., from aviation to apparel, fitness to food), this “needs map” illuminates opportunities to address unsolved/under-served needs. The needs map in the social media space is an extremely unusual case. Social media platforms are meeting consumer needs so well in the space, that most consumers are not only satisfied with existing solutions to meeting their needs, but may even be overwhelmed by them.
The next disruptive social media platform will likely need to create a user need as opposed to address an existing one, which is an approach we have seen time and time again as a new platforms succeed and become the new “it” app or site.
Q2: How healthy are social media brands from a current and expected engagement standpoint?
A: Facebook and YouTube dominate in user engagement.
Tier 1 Engagement Platforms: 8 out of every 10 users who have ever signed up for Facebook or YouTube use the platform weekly (or more).
Tier 2 Engagement Platforms: TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat are in a distant second. While TikTok and Snapchat are relatively aligned with their Wave 1 engagement, Instagram sees a decrease in their conversion, further cementing their Tier 2 status.
Tier 3 Engagement Platforms: Twitter and Reddit are in the middle of the pack when it comes to engagement. Just over half of users who have ever signed up for these platforms use them weekly or more.
Tier 4 Engagement Platforms: LinkedIn and Pinterest have much lower weekly engagement than other platforms. We hypothesize that users go through spurts of using the platforms (e.g. when looking for a new job, renovating their homes, etc.).
Tier 5 Engagement Platforms: Tumblr and MySpace sit at the bottom of the competitive set when it comes to weekly engagement. This makes sense when considering the inactive status of both of these platforms.
Q3: How are social media brands perceived by users and brand familiar non-users?
A: Indexed brand associations tell us where brands stand out relative to competitors. LinkedIn tends to perform best in class on the most positive traits (like “Value-add” and “Informative”) while Twitter scores highest on negative traits (like “Scandal” and “Controversial”).
Twitter’s performance is likely due to its connection to politics (esp. during the Trump era), as well as the Musk takeover.
Interestingly, Instagram does not dramatically “pop” on any one dimension, suggesting that the platform does not truly stand out to the world for any one thing. This makes sense: over time, Instagram has built features to compete with existing platforms, like disappearing messages (Snapchat), a messaging function (Facebook), short reels (TikTok), and status updates (Twitter).
Q4: Do social media brands have permission from consumers to stretch into new categories?
A: In absolute terms, consumer trust is low across the board, indicating that most consumers would be reluctant to trust any platform to enter new categories like Food Delivery, Dating Apps, or Banking/Payments.
Baseline levels of consumer trust have fallen for nearly every brand (with the exception of LinkedIn). Declines in trust are marked by a downward red arrow.
Put simply: social media users today are less likely to trust brands to enter new spaces than they were in our first wave of data.
DISCLAIMER: We base our research, recommendations, and forecasts on techniques, information and sources we believe to be reliable. We cannot guarantee future accuracy and results. The Langston Co. will not be liable for any loss or damage caused by a reader's reliance on our research.
More insights, more data. Download this study to learn more.
In order to conduct unbiased and objective research, this study was privately funded by The Langston Co. We did not receive endorsement or financial support of any kind from any third party.
Thanks for taking time to read our research. With questions, comments, or suggestions about this study, please contact us at contact@thelangstonco.com.