
Why Do People Use Facebook?
As the king of social media, Facebook boasts a whopping 2.9 billion monthly active users. With such a massive user base, it is one of the best social media platforms for businesses to use for marketing.
But before you do that, you need to first understand Facebook users’ activities on the platform. In other words, you must answer the questions: What is Facebook used for and why do people use Facebook?



Top uses of Facebook
According to the latest data on the top uses of Facebook, the two most popular activities on the platform are messaging friends and family and posting or sharing photos or videos. As many as 70.6% of users on Facebook say they use the platform to chat with their loved ones, and 63.6% of them share media, whether that’s on their own profiles or elsewhere.
This is followed by keeping informed. 59.1% of active Facebook users are on the platform to stay up to date with the latest news and events.
Following or researching brands and products is also why people use Facebook, with more than half (54.6%) of active Facebook users doing so.
It should come as no surprise, then, that Facebook is the most popular social media marketing platform for brands. As many as 23.6% of marketers use Facebook to market their business. In comparison, 18.9% use Instagram and 17.6% use WhatsApp—both are owned by the same parent company as Facebook, Meta.
With this in mind, being present and running ads on Facebook should be part of any brand’s social media marketing strategy. This is especially since recent data also shows that ad clicking is one of the top uses of Facebook. The average Facebook user clicks on 12 Facebook ads every month.
There is also a difference in ad-clicking behavior across different countries. While 12 is the global average, Facebook users in the US are much more active on this front with 18 ad clicks per month. Female users there click on ads 21 times while male users click on 15. On the other hand, Facebook users in the United Kingdom click on an average of 19 ads per month.
Being entertained rounds out the list of the top five uses of Facebook. 54.2% of Facebook users say they use the platform to look for amusing content.



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