Synthesio’s Social Media Usage Series Part 7 (Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6) Are your social media accounts set at private or public? Today, private vs. public use matters now more than ever, especially for marketers. Knowing these numbers helps companies understand an audience’s overall attitudes towards social media, as well as the extent to which social media intelligence can go. To help you get the big picture at a glance, we’ve organized our findings into social media usage graphs and charts below.
Social Media Usage Graph: A Summary for Marketers
To get the most accurate data on social media usage, Ipsos, our parent company, collected survey data from over 9,000 participants in 10 countries. Here are some of our top findings.
Global Averages of Private Usage by Platform
Worldwide, people use private settings on Facebook and Instagram the most. On the other end of the spectrum, WeChat and Weibo users display the lowest amount of private posting.
Next, let’s take an in-depth look at how people in different countries use these platforms.
Social Media Usage Graph: Privacy on Facebook
Around the world, Facebook is the platform with the highest rate of private posting. However, social media users in Russia are an exception. Rather, only 9 % of these users post privately, while 57% post publicly.
Social Media Usage Graph: Privacy on Instagram
With the increasing prevalence of Instagram influencers, we were curious about the rate of public posting on the photo-sharing app.
In Russia, we see a similarly high rate of public posting on Instagram as Facebook. On the other hand, Instagram users in Germany and Australia have the lowest rate of public sharing.
Social Media Usage Graph: Public Content
So which country’s users are most public with their content? Overall, those in China and Russia display the highest rates of public content.
For example, in China, 82% of respondents post publicly or mostly publicly on both WeChat and Weibo! From this information alone, we can safely conclude that social listening in Chinese markets can easily surface insights about what consumers like and dislike and how companies can grab their attention.
Privacy on Social Media
Above all, companies with a global reach need this data to create the best marketing strategy. Understanding social media and how to use it for your company’s benefit begins with the basics, like knowing private and public usage rates in different areas. In markets where public usage is high, social media intelligence allows companies to analyze the honest opinions or preferences of consumers. In markets where public usage is low, a combination of social media intelligence and market research is necessary to understand the consumer. Brush up on social media usage around the world in our comprehensive report to finetune your marketing strategies today.
