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Social media faces big changes under new Ofcom rules

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Social media faces big changes under new Ofcom rules

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Stuart Clarkson, Ellen Kirwin and Tom GerkenBBC News

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Online Safety Bill: Social media faces big changes under new Ofcom rules

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Note: This blog is based on the Digital 2023 Global Overview Report - produced in partnership with Meltwater and We Are Social. See Simon Kemp's article about The Changing World of Digital in 2023. Download the Global Digital Report 2023 for free.
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If there's one thing you can count on in social media its that it will be constantly evolving and changing. We recently released our most comprehensive digital trends report to date in partnership with We Are Social and Simon Kemp (world renowned data analyst). With this report, you can find out what your digital strategies are missing and help you make data-led decisions for your campaigns and marketing initiatives going forward.
Table of Contents
In this blog, we feature the key social media insights for the United Kingdom and a deep dive into the social media usage of each platform. Although this blog covers 2023 social media insights for the United Kingdom, you can also compare statistics from 2015 for the UK here. All UK social media usage statistics detailed in this blog are from the start of 2023.

Tip: Take a look at other general social media statistics if you are interested in this topic

OK, ready to dive into the analysis?

UKI Digital 2023: Population Essentials

To understand the statistics for each social media platform, we need to build a foundation of data around the overall usage of the internet compared to the general population:

UK total population was 67.62 million, an increase of 0.3% compared to 2022

UK gender divide: 50.6 percent is female, while 49.4 percent of the population is male*

Geographical factors: 84.5 percent of the United Kingdom's population lived in urban centres, while 15.5 percent lived in rural areas

The median age of the United Kingdom's population is 40.0

Total internet users in the UK was 66.11 million, analysis indicates that internet users in the UK increased by 224 thousand (+0.3 percent) between 2022 and 2023.

*Note: gender data are currently only available for "female" and "male".
While these numbers offer an excellent snapshot of the make up of the UK's population to understand how the adoption of the internet and social media usage is increasing, we need to take a deeper dive into what those statistics actually mean in terms of online behaviours and how it impacts your digital strategies in the UK for 202

There were 57.10 million social media users in the United Kingdom in January 2023.

Compared to previous years, in almost all countries and particularly in the UK, social media use continues to increase.

More broadly, 86.4 percent of the United Kingdom's total internet user base (regardless of age) used at least one social media platform in January 2023. Now that we know the overall internet and social media usage in the UK, let's break it down per social media platform to truly understand where you should be focusing your social media strategies based on your target audience.

There are many reasons why people use social media in the UK.

At the top of the chart is keeping in touch with friends and family, showing us that social media is still a truly "social" experience for most people but one of the most interesting findings is the 4th line representing 22.2% are using social media in the UK to find inspiration for things to do and buy.

Tip: Take a look at our social commerce blog to find out how to leverage these findings for your marketing strategy.

Whatsapp and Facebook lead the pack in terms of the most used social media platforms in the UK.

Surprisingly, TikTok doesn't fall into the top 5 most used social media platforms despite it being the fastest-growing social media platform.

Tip: Learn How To Use WhatsApp for Business, and find out more about WhatsApp Broadcast.

Although TikTok wasn't in the top 5 most-used social media platforms in the UK, the time spent on the platform is staggering.

The report states that UK users, on average, are spending more than 27 hours per month on the platform. While the other 4 platforms experienced a decrease in time spent on the platform per month.

The statistics do show, however, that video-based platforms have the most time spent on them over the more traditional social platforms.

So let's break it down and look into each platform.

Facebook: Advertising audience overview in the UK
Facebook users and statistics in the UK:

34.40 million users

Potential ad reach on the platform decreased by 1.9 percent between 2022 and 2023

54.1 percent of Facebook's ad audience was female, while 45.9 percent was male

However, even though this showed a slight decrease in the ad reach on the platform, Meta has caveated this by stating "Estimated audience size is not a proxy for monthly or daily active users, or for engagement. Estimates aren't designed to match population, census estimates or other sources, and may differ depending on factors such as how many accounts across Meta technologies a person has, how many temporary visitors are in a particular geographic location at a given time, and Meta user-reported demographics."

As a result, changes in ad reach may not necessarily indicate any change in the platform's overall user base. But despite these caveats, Meta's ad reach data still offers valuable insights into how Facebook use is evolving.

Tip: Check out our Facebook Management Guide, learn how to create a Facebook Business Page, and check out some helpful Facebook Marketing Tips

Youtube: Advertising audience overview in the UK
Youtube users and statistics in the UK:
Tip: Check out all the YouTube statistics you need to know.

Instagram: Advertising audience overview in the UK
Instagram users and statistics in the UK:
Tip: Check out more Instagram statistics you need to know.

TikTok: Advertising audience overview in the UK
TikTok users and statistics in the UK:

19.66 million TikTok users in the UK
TikTok's ad reach was equivalent to 29.7 percent of the local internet user base (regardless of age)

53.5 percent of TikTok's ad audience was female, while 46.5 percent was male

TikTok's potential ad reach in the United Kingdom decreased by 9.9 percent between the start of 2022 and early 2023. However, figures indicate that the potential reach of ads on TikTok in the United Kingdom actually increased by 1.9 million (+10.9 percent) between October 2022 and January 2023, suggesting that reach may have fallen between January 2022 and October 2022.

Tip: Check out more TikTok statistics you need to know and stay on top of TikTok trends.
Linkedin users and statistics in the UK:
Tip: Check out our full guide to LinkedIn management to make the most out of this channel.

Snapchat: Advertising audience overview in the UK
Snapchat users and statistics in the UK:
Twitter: Advertising audience overview in the UK
Twitter users and statistics in the UK:
Worth noting here is the apparent distortions that frequently appear in Twitter's inferred gender data may be due in large part to the high number of "non-human" accounts that feature in Twitter's active user data (e.g. accounts that represent businesses, animals, musicians, etc.), especially because Twitter doesn't currently separate these accounts out from "real" human individuals in the ways that Facebook and Instagram do.

Tip: Check out these Twitter stats you need to know.

Pinterest: Advertising audience overview in the UK
Pinterest users and statistics in the UK:
However, for all of the social media platforms it's important to stress that these advertising reach figures do not represent monthly active user figures, and there may be meaningful differences between the size of social platforms' ad audience and its total active user base.

Sources of Brand Discovery in the UK

So, how are people in the UK finding brands?

Although the report focusses on digital trends in the UK, its important to remember that digital marketing social media play an integral part in the omnichannel marketing strategy and should be used a tools that compliment each other. Coming out on top for brand discovery in the UK are Search Engines (36%) and Ads on Tv (35%).

Main channels for online brand research in the UK

The main channels for online brand research in the UK are the following:

1. Search engines: 57.3%

2. Consumer reviews: 37.4%

3. Product or brand sites: 34.0%

4. Price comparison sites: 31.2%

5. Social networks: 28.3%

6. Specialist review sites: 18.4%

7. Discount coupon sites: 17.9%

8. Mobile apps: 16.3%

9. Q&A sites (e.g. Quora): 15.5%

10. Forums of message boards: 12.5%

11. Video sites: 11.4%

12. Brand blogs: 9.5%

13. Messaging services: 9.0%

14. Vlogs: 7.2%

15. Online Pinboards: 6.8%

Digital advertising spend in the UK

Even though the global economic climate is in turmoil, spend on digital advertising is showing no signs of slowing.

Overall, total spend on digital ads of all types has increased by 13%.

The biggest increase in spend is on online influencer marketing (+18%) with nearly $1b spent in this area alone.

Followed closely by annual spend on digital video ads with over $9b spent and a YOY increase of 18%.

Notably, spend on digital audio ads has also increased significantly, with a YOY increase of 178%.

Summary: Outstanding insights into the UK digital landscape

People in the UK use around 6 platforms on average, which each represent an opportunity for marketing. Companies that do not mobilise the opportunities provided by the use of these platforms, miss out on important market opportunities.

Social media is here to stay. But the ebb and flow of usage per platform is constantly evolving as the population becomes more digitally-savvy and it becomes an integral part of our personal and professional lives. In terms of social media marketing, integrating these insights into your campaigns will ensure you stand out among your competitors.
Insights that stand out to us:

Youtube had the most amount of users in the UK at 57m

Average time spent per user per month on TikTok was over 27 hours

The Twitter statistics show that although it may have had a turbulent time recently, twitter's ad reach increased the most out of all the platforms at 25%

Pinterest's audience is heavily dominated by females

Influencer marketing had the biggest YOY increase in spend

Predictions for the UK digital landscape

So what does this mean for 2023 and beyond? Identifying who your target audience is and where they are connecting is invaluable. Using this information you can match your priorities with this data and make informed decisions on your marketing campaigns. Whether it be more short-form video TikTok or creating a Pinterest account for your brand. Content creators should be investing more time in video on social media and think more strategically when it comes to what content your putting on each platform, think about gender, trending themes and mobile consumption. Finally, if you're not investing in paid advertising (especially on the video platforms, you're already behind. These facts and stats are all in the service of building the case for supporting a robust social media program.

Tip: Learn more about the UK media landscape

The full Digital 2023 report

You'll find the complete report in the embed below ( you can download the full Digital Report 2023 here), but continue reading past that to find our comprehensive analysis of what all these numbers mean for you and your work.
Disclosure: Simon Kemp is a brand ambassador for GWI and for data.ai.

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UK Social Media Statistics [Updated 2023]

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Check out the most important UK social media statistics. Here you find an in-depth analysis of the 2023 UK Digital Report, by report author Simon Kemp.

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