Social media statistics in the UK
More than two-thirds of the UK’s total population are active on social media, compared to just 45% globally. And, as a mobile-first nation, usage rates are astronomically high - with the latest social media statistics stating that 96% of social media users have been active within the last month and the average user spends close to two hours logged on. This represents a great opportunity and a great challenge in equal measure.
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Clearly, with such a high percentage of the country signed up, there is a good spread across all demographics. Different platforms do, however, attract a different type of person and it’s important, as a brand, to understand where your community gathers.
Social media statistics in the UK
An Overview
We will start at the beginning by taking a quick look at the overall picture of social media usage in the UK, prior to diving deeper into individual platforms and key trends:
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96% of internet users visited a social platform or messaging service in the past month
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77% actively engaged with or contributed to social media in the past month
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The average user spends 1hr50m on social media each day
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The average user has 7.1 social media accounts
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13% of those on social media use it for work purposes
Deeper dive into demographics
Using Talkwalker’s Quick Search, we are able to take a deeper look into the social media stats in the UK related to demographics.
Age distribution on social media in the United Kingdom (2019).
Source: Talkwalker Quick Search
As is to be expected, the vast majority of UK social media users are between the ages of 18-34 - with this age bracket accounting for more than 80% of total users.
Gender distribution on social media in the United Kingdom (2019).
Source: Talkwalker Quick Search
The gender mix is quite balanced, with men accounting for the slightly large proportion - at 58%.
Language distribution on social media in the United Kingdom (2019).
Source: Talkwalker Quick Search
Of course, it is to be expected that English would dominate UK social media, but it’s interesting to see the other languages included in the Top 10 - surprisingly, Arabic and Spanish are in 2nd and 3rd place, respectively.
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Top 10 hashtags
- #Brexit
- #win
- #LoveIsland
- #MUFC
- #competition
- #giveaway
- #GE2019
- #BTS
- #findom
- #PeoplesVote
Top 50 emoji
Top 50 emoji on social media in the United Kingdom (2019).
Source: Talkwalker Quick Search
The top posts per platform
Taking the UK’s three most popular social media platforms, we will now take a look at some of the most popular posts of 2019.
Most popular social media platforms in the UK.
Source: YouGov
According to YouGov, Facebook comes out on top as both the most popular and most famous social media platform in the UK; Instagram is next in terms of popularity, while it’s also 3rd in terms of fame; Twitter is the 3rd most popular and the 2nd most famous.
This is the list when you consider all users, but of course it does vary based on demographics - with the likes of Google+ and Pinterest also making the Top 3 within certain groups.
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Facebook stats
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78% of UK internet users are on Facebook
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There are 35-40m active monthly users
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Average engagement rate for a post is 3.82%, climbing to 5.48% for photos, and 6.96% for videos
Source: Digital 2019
Top 5 Facebook posts in the UK (2019)
Sport dominates the posts with the most engagement on Facebook in 2019.
1. Liverpool FC
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2. Liverpool FC
3. Wimbledon
4. Manchester United
5. Manchester United
Top 10 Facebook influencers in the United Kingdom (ranked by engagement)
The sporting theme continues, with three football clubs taking up the top three spots. In fact, there is a total of six football clubs in the top 10, as well as the Premier League.
Top Facebook influencers in the UK (2019)
Source: Talkwalker Quick Search
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Instagram stats
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There are 22.9m Instagram users in the UK (Hootsuite)
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This puts the country in 8th position globally (Hootsuite)
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54% of UK Instagram users are female (Digital 2019)
Top 10 Instagram influencers in the UK (2019)
The below rankings is based on quality audience and authentic engagement from users within the UK.
1. @kyliejenner
2. @kendalljenner
3. @badgalriri
4. @kimkardashian
5. @selenagomez
6. @ksi
7. @khloekardashian
8. @paulpogba
9. @arianagrande
10. @billieeilish
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UK Twitter stats
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24% of people aged 13+ can be reached with adverts on Twitter (Digital 2019)
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It’s the 8th most popular mobile app in terms of active users (Digital 2019)
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The UK comes 3rd, after the US and Japan, for the number of Twitter users (Hootsuite)
Most engaged Twitter posts in the UK (2019)
The list of the most engaged Tweets provides a clear illustration of how different the platform is from Facebook.
Although there are football teams and celebrities within the top influencers on the platform, the most engaged posts tend to result from a more organic virality - as opposed to being reliant on the number of followers a specific account has.
1.
Guy saves his drone pic.twitter.com/JtBLn9XSoJ
— Best of Aliexpress and China (@coolstuffcheap) August 10, 2019
A virality map of the UK’s most engaged Tweet of 2019
Source: Talkwalker Quick Search
2.
‘We have a system that is fundamentally broken.’ — Rep. @AOC is explaining just how f*cked campaign finance laws really are pic.twitter.com/7rRXf9pD6Z
— NowThis (@nowthisnews) February 7, 2019
3.
My parents do this every time I go back to uni lol this is my fave video EVER the cuties 😭 pic.twitter.com/W4VLaBY2P1
— Holly (@hollyowensxx) October 5, 2019
4.
This punishment is not working... pic.twitter.com/Gky81iQA0q
— Mr. Meowgi (@Mr_Meowwwgi) October 3, 2019
5.
Nah look at the stress on my nephews face 😂😂 pic.twitter.com/mNFox0bJRI
— AmirafromForestGate (@Munyajiri) October 31, 2019
A strategy for each platform
As is apparent from the above results, the type of people, brands, and posts that gain traction vary from platform to platform. It is, therefore, imperative to ensure that you are strategising per platform and communicating to each segment of your audience where they are and in a tone that they are receptive to.
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