Social Media Use Trends and Insights for Marketing Professionals

Why It Matters

The findings compel marketers to reallocate budgets toward fast‑growing, demographically targeted platforms, ensuring reach and engagement across fragmented audience segments and mitigating the risk of over‑reliance on static, mature networks.

Summary

A new Marketing Tech News study shows YouTube (84%) and Facebook (71%) remain the dominant U.S. social platforms, while Instagram reaches half of adults and TikTok, WhatsApp, Reddit and Snapchat have modest but growing user bases. TikTok usage jumped from 21% in 2021 to 37% in 2025, and WhatsApp and Reddit also posted double‑digit gains, whereas YouTube and Facebook are stable but not expanding. Age, gender, ethnicity and political affiliation drive platform choice: under‑30s favor Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat and Reddit; women lean toward Instagram and TikTok; Hispanic, Asian and Black users favor Instagram, TikTok and WhatsApp; left‑leaning users gravitate to TikTok, Reddit and WhatsApp, while Republicans prefer X and Truth Social. Marketers are advised to keep YouTube and Facebook as core paid channels, boost spend on TikTok and Instagram for younger audiences, and experiment with niche communities like Reddit and WhatsApp for segmented, conversational campaigns.