This month’s guest contributor, Jo Edwards, Senior Director at JE Consulting, takes an in-depth look at the growth of social media and how professional service firms can keep up with the latest trends.
Time doesn’t stand still and neither does the growth of social media. The number of users across the various platforms continues to grow annually, as both young and old use their feeds to share information, images, videos and more.
However, in recent years the market share of users between the various sites has shifted. Whilst most sites have continued to see growth in monthly active users (the key metric for how ‘populated’ a platform is) this changes regularly from one quarter to the next – with some platforms such as Twitter and Snapchat even experiencing a decline in active users.
The stalwarts of the social media world, Facebook WhatsApp, Instagram and LinkedIn continue to see strong growth, but it is the new platforms – many of which have sprung up during the pandemic – that are expanding rapidly.
Our infographic below gives some indication of current monthly active users on each platform and their speed of growth:
The unexpected rise of TikTok
Probably one of the fastest-growing platforms out there is TikTok. In a year, the number of monthly active users on this platform has doubled and this number keeps on rising.
To those uninitiated with this app, it was created primarily as an app for teenagers to share video content.
However, since then it has grown considerably, with many of the world’s leading brands, influencers, news sites and politicians launching profiles.
Videos can vary in length from a few seconds to up to three minutes (soon to be 10 minutes).
There are hundreds of millions of users sharing and creating content on this app, ranging from the most obscure hobbies to the latest world developments, with dozens of dances, memes and obscure clips in between.
Initially favoured by younger social media users, it has a growing number of older users who also enjoy the short video content it offers.
Should professional service firms get involved on TikTok?
There are already dozens of solicitors, financial advisers and accountants on TikTok, often acting at a personal level, sharing tips and advice to thousands of followers.
One of the most significant in the UK has been family lawyer, Tracey Moloney, known more commonly as @thelegalueen on TikTok.
She has hundreds of videos covering all types of topics and now has 364.2k followers and more than 1.9m likes.
However, she isn’t alone, and this platform could be a significant area of growth and a great opportunity to educate new audiences for those experts willing to go on camera to share their knowledge.
Need help keeping up with the latest social media trends?
As the world of social media changes and new trends emerge it is important that you have the right advice and assistance to help you reach new audiences.
To find out more about our wide range of social media and digital marketing services, please contact us.