How motivations to use social media have evolved

Sofia Maddalena

The way people use social media is changing – anyone who works in social media marketing will know this from both a professional and personal perspective. Now, GlobalWebIndex has released research into exactly what these changes are, looking at data from 2014 compared to today’s picture.

Firstly, we can see that social media has become more professional – globally, the biggest increase in motivations to use social is to ‘network for work’, up 27%, followed by ‘to promote my work’, up 17%. In contrast, we’re now less likely to use social media to stay up to date with friends and share personal information on our social channels.

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This research fits with recent figures from tech site The Information, which when looking specifically at Facebook, claimed that the amount of original sharing of personal stories by users on the platform is in decline.  Their particular theory is that as people’s friend collections have now been growing for a decade or so, they may be less likely to share more intimate moments. However, Facebook denied the claim, stating that: “The overall level of sharing has remained not only strong, but similar to levels in prior years”.

GWI’s motivations are of course subject to regional variations, and it’s interesting to see the level of social media FOMO apparent in the UK. There’s a 43% increase in those using social to ‘make sure I don’t miss out on anything’, and 32% increase in using social media because ‘a lot of my friends are on them’, although the decline in personal sharing is fairly consistent with the global picture.

Understanding how and why people use social helps marketers create campaigns that resonate with their target audience, producing the best results for our clients. Social is still a personal space, and research such as this shows that brands need to reflect and complement existing consumer behaviours now more so than ever, instead of interrupting them.