If you spend any time reading about the digital marketing industry online, you’ve undoubtedly seen those “X social media statistics that might surprise you” posts. They’re littered across the web. I come across them usually when researching certain topics for building blog posts or decks for class at the University of St. Thomas.

However, I’ve always thought those posts could use a little more oomph. Sure, the stats are great. But, what is the stat telling us? Give me some context! Give me some opinion behind what you think the stat means. That’s what these posts are typically missing.

So, I thought I’d generate my own “X social media stats that might surprise you” post–but, in this case, I also thought I’d add what I believe those other posts are missing. Editorial perspective.

• #1 – Is BeReal for real? BeReal now has 50 million-plus downloads in the app store–up from just 756,000 in Jan. 2022. It’s not time for most brands to hop on BeReal, but it IS time to pay attention to this growth as a potential platform of the future. Just start an account personally to play around with it for a bit to see how it works–that’s the prudent first step right now.
• #2 – Video attention spans are waning even more. People are spending just 1.7 seconds with a piece of video content on Facebook in 2022. My takeaway from this stat: I wouldn’t read too much into this. People are still spending oodles of time watching video on TikTok. I think this speaks more to the increasing irrelevance of Facebook than anything else.
• #3 – Many people think the “Meh”-taverse is a ways off. 39% of Americans said the Metaverse was “not interesting to me”. Additionally, 25% said it was “just for gamers” and 20% said it was “a lot of hype.” Translation: The metaverse and the tech that it involves is definitely coming for us all–just not in 2022-23
• #4- TikTok as a search engine? 21% of respondents say TikTok is a destination for starting their search when they shop for a product online. This is a relatively new, and very interesting development that Google is definitely paying attention to. Younger folks are searching much differently for info than their Gen X and Boomer counterparts.
• #5 – The sneaky rise of Snapchat. 59% of U.S. teens said they ever used Snapchat in 2022–up from 41% in 2014-2015. Probably not *that* surprising, but Snapchat has become a top 3 platform for U.S. teens, which actually is a little surprising based on where we were with the platform just a few years ago. If you’re trying to reach anyone between the ages of 12-25 I don’t see how you can ignore Snapchat right now.
• #6 – Mainstream media’s days may be numbered. 43% of Gen Z adults said they have never heard of the Associated Press. What’s more, 20% said they have never heard of the Wall Street Journal, and 37% have never heard of Bloomberg. We already knew Gen Z had different media consumption habits than older generations, but these stats are pretty shocking–and damning for MSM. Mainstream media relations might be a thing in 2022, but its shelf life may be shorter than we even thought.
• # 7 – Maybe video quality does matter, after all. 36% of people say video production is “somewhat important” when choosing to watch a video online. 28% say it’s “very important.” This flies in the face of most things we’ve heard recently about video content not being formally produced.
• # 8 – TikTok dominant when it comes to time spent in app. Users spent an average of 95 minutes on TikTok in Q2 this year. The next closest app–YouTube–saw 74 minutes per user. In case you’re wondering, Facebook: 49 minutes. This isn’t to say your brand needs to be on TikTok right now–but it’s more proof that TikTok is THE social media monster right now, kinda like where we were with Facebook 4-5 years ago.
• #9 – Brands not as responsive on social as we may think. 19% of social media users say brands take more than 24 hours to respond to messages posted on social media channels. 20% said it takes brands 24 hours to do so. I’ve been talking about this for a couple years now, but brands need to recommit to responding to their customers in the feeds. I think we’ll get closer in 2023, but this is a huge opportunity for most brands.