Check Out Some Older Demographics for Instagram, Tumblr and Pinterest and Some New Demographics
Demographics change over time. Hence the specific numeric percentages could be off, but the gist of these measurements remains on target. Part of this has to do with crowds. If a platform already caters to your demographic, you are probably going to be more interested in it than in a platform that does not.
At Agile Impact, Hilary Heino compiled some impressive statistics about who really uses these image-based social media platforms.
Tumblr
First of all, Tumblr reportedly has loyal users highly dedicated to the site. But Tumblr demographics have changed.
2013
In 2013, two-thirds of all users are under the age of 35. In addition, nearly forty percent have not yet seen 25 summers.
Finally, there are about 300 million monthly unique users; the site grew by 74 percent in 2013.
2022
Currently, over 32 million Tumblr bloggers live in the US. The demographics of Tumblr have changed a bit, in that now the number of users under the age of 35 is 2 out of 5 (or, 40%). Its audience is 40% Gen Z and 30% Millennials.
Tumblr’s traffic fell off dramatically in late 2018 when the platform banned adult content. The site still has not recovered. According to Finances Online, Tumblr has 16.74 million monthly users. Reddit, in contrast, has about 3 times as many monthly users. But some of that may be due to it being blocked in China, Iran, and Kazakhstan.
Genders are split nearly 50-50. The site’s usership has continued to decline, and they failed to capitalize on so many people being home at the start of Covid-19. Will Tumblr go the way of MySpace? Or will someone buy it?
Demographics for Pinterest
Let’s look at 2013 and 2022 Pinterest demographics side by side.
2013
First of all, as of July of 2013, there were 46.9 million unique monthly users. And women continue to dominate the platform; around a third of all women online have Pinterest accounts. In addition, two-thirds of all Pinterest users are over the age of 35, making it a near opposite to Tumblr.
Furthermore, a good three-quarters of its traffic comes through mobile apps. Hence if you post to Pinterest, make sure that your content is visible, clear, and comprehensible on smart phones. Finally, 80 percent of total Pinterest pins are repins. It’s probably the sign of a strong community. In addition, the site boasts 2.5 billion monthly pageviews.
2022
According to Omnicore,a good half of all Pinterest users are outside the United States. Just over 77% of all users are female. There are over 478 million monthly users—a ten times as many as in the older demographics of Pinterest, above.
Per 2021 info from Statista, 38% of persons between the ages of 50 and 64 are Pinterest users, making them the most represented cohort. But that number drops dramatically, to 18% for persons aged 65 and up. However, that’s probably explainable, due to generational differences and people just plain getting sicker and otherwise not having time for social media.
Instagram Demographics
Let’s compare Instagram demographics 2013 to 2022. How have things changed in the last 10 or so years?
2013
So with 150 million active users, Instagram reports 1.2 billion daily likes.
And 18% of smartphone users in the 30 – 49 demographic report using it. However, the majority of users are teens and young adults.
Furthermore, the site ties with Facebook as being the second-most popular site for teens. Yet Twitter is the first for that age demographic.
2024
Again, according to Omnicore, Instagram has nearly 2 billion daily users. The ages are now skewing differently.
Just under 2/3 of all users are between the ages of 18 and 34. In the US alone, 22.5% of users are 25 to 24 years old. Also in the US, 73% of teens say Instagram is the best way to reach them about brands or products.
Men slightly outnumber women, 51.6% to 48.4%.
Now let’s add TikTok, which wasn’t around in 2013.
TikTok
Per HubSpot, this platform is dominated by Gen Z in the US. But around the world, the demographics for TikTok skew more millennial. And globally, only about 14% of all persons aged 50 to 64. About 1/4 of Americans aged 12 to 34 have used it. Contrast with only about 3% of American adults over 35 years old.
TikTok users are more engaged and more likely to buy when they are on the platform. There are over 14 million daily users on the Android version of the app, and almost 30 million using the iOS version. About 88% report that sound is vital to their enjoyment.
Social Media Platform Demographics: Takeaways
Savvy social media marketers (and book marketers) will do well to consider the demographics of their ideal customer/buyer persona before starting an account on any of these platforms. Marketing to women over the age of 50? Then Pinterest is important—and you can probably safely ignore TikTok and Tumblr. You may or may not be able to ignore Instagram.
If you’re marketing to teenaged boys, then TikTok is right up your alley, but you shouldn’t ignore Instagram. Pinterest would be a nonstarter for you. As for Tumblr, it may or may not be worth your time.
Since time and energy are finite, focusing like a laser on demographics will save both.
So, know your image-based social platforms. Because they are not the same!