Social media. Love it or hate it, there’s no doubt the influence it can have on millions of Americans, and a new report by CrowdTangle and Axios can now show the numbers to back it up.
Instagram leads the pack of social media giants with the most number of interactions (likes and comments) on its platform – 4.8 billion. In second place is Facebook with 922 million engagements (reactions, comments, and shares), and Twitter comes in third with 398 million interactions (retweets and likes).
It makes sense that Instagram garnered the most engagements, as a platform focused on photos and aesthetics, a user usually doesn’t scroll through their feed without seeing something visually appealing. Celebrities and lavish lifestyles reign supreme on the platform, even if the most popular photo is an egg, much to the disdain of Kylie Jenner who clocks in as the second most engaged user on Instagram.
On Facebook, viral content wins out. The top 10 most popular accounts by engagement on Facebook were entertainment accounts, including the ever popular LADbible and its former rival, Unilad.
You would think Twitter would be the same, right? LADBible and 9GAG both have (verified) Twitter accounts, but they don’t even crack the top 10.
On Twitter, politics and rhetoric are king. Eight out of the top 10 most popular accounts are politically related, including President Trump at #1 and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY-14) at #4. Even Kanye West (@Ye) at #8 can be political on Twitter at times, just look at his Tweets about Candace Owens and Brexit or his glowing endorsement of President Trump.
So, what does this tell us about the internet? Users go to different platforms to see different things. Instagram is all about celebrities. Facebook is about entertainment. And Twitter is about politics and news, even if it’s fake.