Is Facebook really losing touch with the youth?

Over the past few years, several reports have suggested that Facebook is losing ground to Instagram, Snapchat, and more recently TikTok, as the place where younger audiences are spending their time, but two new studies have shown that The Social Network still holds significant sway, and still keeps Millennials and Gen Zers coming back to the platform daily.

The first report comes from Ofcom in the UK, which recently surveyed more than 2,300 British parents and children aged 5-15 years in regards to their online activity, with a focus on social media use. Their results showed that 69% of older teens (12-15 years) use Facebook, while 68% are active on Snapchat and 66% have an Instagram account. So while Snap and Insta are clearly very popular, Facebook, somewhat surprisingly, remained in the lead.

The second report comes from 5W Public Relations in New York, which surveyed a representative sample of 1,000 US adults aged 18+ as part of its latest survey. Based on its findings, 5W found that Facebook was the most popular network among Millennials, with 77% of them indicating that they're active on the platform every day.

In both surveys, TikTok was highlighted by a minor amount (13% and 28%) of the respective audience as an app that they check in on daily.

It is worth noting that the framing of the specific question here is relevant. 5W, for example, asked participants which platform/s they log into daily, not which they spend more time using - so it may well be that younger users are checking their updates on Facebook every day, but spending more time in Instagram (as previous reports have also suggested). But even so, the numbers underline the market share held by Facebook. The platform has become a must-have for many, a key connector to family and friends, which is ubiquitous in our daily process.

5W have put their results into the below infographic - maybe worth considering in your digital marketing approach.