What Are The Latest Social Media Trends? Digital & Social Media Trends 2021

Many people wonder if social media is dying. Are people just getting tired of platforms as Facebook and Instagram?

The 2021 digital and social media trends show that our digital world and social media usage is significantly increasing. As the world starts to connect more with the internet, social media usage continues to grow. One of the more significant social media growths is Facebook for people over 65 years old. Worldwide, women spend more time on social media than men.

In 2020 many people realized how important digital connectivity and social media were in their lives. 2020 marks the year when many people connected to the Internet for the first time as they were forced to adapt to changes due to the COVID 19 pandemic.

Here are some basic worldwide statistics according to Hootsuite. Hootsuite is a major social media platform, and each year they do a very significant social media report. You can download your own copy of their full report by clicking here.

Internet, Mobile Phones and Digital Trends 2021

How we all connect to the internet has a huge implication on business and how brands will market their products. According to Hootsuite’s data, here are their significant digital and internet usage findngs:

Worldwide social media users increased 13%.

59.5% of the world’s population uses the internet. This is an increase of 7.3%, or a total of 316 million more people have access to the internet this year than they did last year.
66.6% of the world’s population uses mobile phones. This is an increase of 1.8%.
97.1% of the world’s population between ages 16 to 64 use some mobile device; a large part of that (96.8%) uses a smartphone.

The world population is, on average, spending 6 hours and 54 minutes a day using the internet (this includes all kinds of devices). Essentially it means that most people are on the internet as much as they sleep each day.
The top 5 countries that spend the most hours on the internet are:
- Philippines – 10.56 hours per day
- Brazil – 10.08 hours per day
- Columbia – 10.07 hours per day
- South Africa – 10.06 hours per day
- Argentina – 9.39 hours per day.
  - Americans spend on average 7.11 hours per day, which is just over the world average of 6.54 hours per day on the internet.
92.6% of all internet users will use the internet via their mobile phones.

The top 5 places in the world with the total percentage of the population using the internet are:
- U.A.E
- Denmark
- Sweden
- South Korea
- Switzerland
  - America’s percentage of the population using the internet is number 20 in the world.
The top 5 countries in the world with the fastest megabits per second (MBPS) fixed internet speeds are:
- Thailand – 308.5 megabits per second (MBPS)
- Singapore – 245.21 megabits per second (MBPS)
- Hong Kong – 226.80 megabits per second (MBPS)
- Romania – 190.60 megabits per second (MBPS)
- Switzerland – 188.88 megabits per second (MBPS)
  - The United States has the 8th fastest fixed internet speed in the world at 173.67 megabits per second (MBPS)
The countries in the world with the fastest mobile internet connection speeds in megabits per second (MBPS) is:
- Qatar – 178.01 megabits per second (MBPS)
- U.A.E – 177.52 megabits per second (MBPS)
- South Korea – 169-03 megabits per second (MBPS)
- China – 155.89 megabits per second (MBPS)
- Australia – 112.68 megabits per second (MBPS)
  - The United States is not even in the top 10 fastest countries for internet mobile speed connectivity.

The top 5 reasons people in the world use the internet are:
- Finding information
- Staying in touch with family and friends
- Keeping up to date with news and events
- Researching how to do things
- Watching videos, TV shows, and movies.

The Top 5 internet browsers used in the world are:
- Chrome – 63.04%
- Safari – 19.3%
- Firefox – 3.8%
- Samsung Internet – 3.5%
- Microsoft Edge – 3.4%.
  - Most people in the world are using Google Chrome as their internet browser. The number 2 or 3 choices of Safari and Firefox are not even very close to the Google Chrome numbers.
The top 5 Search Engines in the world are:
- Google – 91.4%
- Bing – 2.7%
- Yahoo – 1.5%
- Yandex – 1.5%
- Baidu – 1.4%
  - Google, at 91.4%, is the most widely used search engine in the world. The others are so far behind Google, so Google is really the only major search engine player.
The top 5 most visited websites in the world are:
- Google.com
- YouTube.com
- Facebook.com
- Twitter.com
- Instagram.com
The top 5 languages for viewing the content on the web are:
- English – 60.4%
- Russian – 8.5%
- Spanish – 4.0%
- Turkish – 3.7%
- Persian – 3.0%
  - We can learn from this number that many people worldwide are learning English to view and put content up on the internet in the English language.

The world has also seen a huge increase in social media during 2020. Most people in the world are using the same social media platforms. Here are some statistics by HootSuite to show the 2021 Social Media Trends:

4.2 billion people, or about 53.6% of the world’s population, are using some form of social media. This is an increase of 13.2%
Social media usage has increased by 13.2%, accounting for 490 million more people getting on social media.

4.15 million, or about 98.8% of all social media users, will use their mobile phones to check their social media accounts.
People over age 65 are the fastest-growing audience on Facebook.
Female Facebook users between ages 55-64 years old post on average 10 times per month.

In 2021 more people will turn to digital channels to discover brands and products.
Close to 45% of all Internet users will go on social media to research products or services. Many Generation Z users are more likely to search about brands on social media instead of search engines.
The top 5 countries with the highest use of social media per population are:
- U.A.E – 99%
- South Korea – 89.3%
- Taiwan – 88.10%
- The Netherlands – 88%
- Malaysia – 86.0%
  - In the United States, about 72.3% of the population uses social media.

98.1% of all Internet users will visit or use their social media account at least once a month.
90.2% of internet users will actively engage or post something over the past month.
The average amount of time spent on social media is 2 hours and 25 minutes per day.

Today a person has an average of 8.4 different social media accounts.
Over 40.4% of the social media users will also use their social media for work purposes.
The top 5 worldwide social media platforms are:
- Facebook – 2,740 million
- YouTube – 2,291 million
- What’s App – 2,000 million
- FB Messenger – 1,300 million
- Instagram – 1,221 million
  - It is interesting to note that Facebook owns 4 out of the 5 top social media platforms (Facebook, Whats App, FB Messenger, and Instagram). The only one that Facebook does not own is YouTube, which Google owns.

Here is a breakdown by gender, age, and amount of average time spent on social media each day:
- 16 -24-year-olds
  - Female – 3:14 hours
  - Males – 2:39 hours
- 25 – 34-year-olds
  - Female – 2:45 hours
  - Males – 2:29 hours
- 35 – 44 years old
  - Females – 2:20 hours
  - Males – 2:14 hours
- 45 -54 years old
  - Females – 2:01 hours
  - Males – 1:47 hours
- 55 – 64 years old
  - Females – 1:35 hours
  - Males 1:21 hours
    - You will notice that, on average, females are on social media longer than males. With each age group, the amount of time per day on social media goes down.
Top 5 countries with the highest average number of social media accounts:
- India – 11.4 social media accounts
- U.A.E – 10.7 social media accounts
- Indonesia – 10.5 social media accounts
- Saudi Arabia – 10.4 social media accounts
- Mexico – 10.2 social media accounts
  - The United States is below the world average with 7.1 accounts.

The 5 top reasons why people around the world are on social media:
- Stay up-to-date on news and current events.
- Find funny or entertaining content.
- Fill up spare time
- Stay in touch with what my friends are doing.
- Share photos or videos with others.

The 10 top hashtags used on Instagram are:
- #love
- #instagood
- #fashion
- #photooftheday
- #art
- #beautiful
- #photography
- #picofday
- #follow
- #happy

Here are things we can learn from this 2021 Digital and Social Media Trends:

America is starting to fall behind in terms of internet speed and mobile internet speed. Many countries in the world have been investing heavily in both of these areas.
Four out of five countries with the highest percentage of internet users are also in the top 10 top innovative countries globally. America is no longer in the top 5 for this list; You can read this article, These are the world’s most innovative countries. The US isn’t even in the top 5 by clicking here.
Most people in the world are using English as their primary language on the internet. This means people who are not native English speakers learn English to use the internet and contribute to the worldwide internet.

Google is the only real major player for search engines and internet browsers; if you are writing a blog, you need to look at what Google is doing.
Facebook is still the most significant worldwide social media platform.
Social Media usage is increasing, so the social media platform is here to stay for a while.

Social media continues to see a lot of growth with baby boomers, predominantly female baby boomers.
In all age groups, women spend more than men on social media. If you are in a field as home decor where many women make the buying decision, home decor brands are very active on social media.
All brands need to have a social media plan. They should not just be on one platform but building their social media presence on several platforms.

Even though Pinterest is not listed in the top 5 social media platforms, we feel like Pinterest is one of the best social media platforms for home decor and home furnishing brands. So many women are social media users on Pinterest. Pinterest has over 200 million users, with over 100 million in the United States. Pinterest increased their social media share with around 6.2 % or 12 million users during 2020. Over 77% of the ad audience is women.

Social Media is very important for home decor companies. Our 4 top social media platforms for the home decor and home furnishings business are 1) Pinterest, 2) Instagram, 3) LinkedIn, and 4) Facebook. We believe each of these can help give you brand recognition for your home decor brand.

You can learn more by reading our blog Our Top 4 Social Media Platforms for the Home Decor Business by clicking here.

What Are Some Reasons Every Home Decor Company Should Use Tailwinds for Pinterest?

Tailwinds is a social media app that is set up to help you schedule and repin your Pinterest pins. With Tailwinds, you also join a tribe with other like-minded individuals or companies. Tailwind tribes agree to collaborate and share each other’s Pinterest pins. Tailwinds and Pinterest is a great platform for the home decor industry.

You can discover more by reading our blog 7 Reasons Every Home Decor Company Should Use Tailwinds for Pinterest by clicking here.