Q4 Social Media Engagement Tracker Indicates Tough Road Ahead In 2017

This year may be a disappointing year for social media and its investors. According to the latest data from Global Equities Research’s new Social Media Industry Tracker, social media may be reaching its peak.

Analyst Trip Chowdhry expects downward pressure on top social media stocks in 2017.

“There are only 24 hours in a day. Time consumed in one social engagement is coming out from time spent on another social engagement,” Chowdhry explained.

The Social Media Industry Tracker tracks the number of followers on top social media platforms of a handful of chosen celebrities.

User Engagement Trends

Despite Chowdhry's negative outlook, the Global Equities Research reported the following year-over-year user engagement trends:

• Alphabet Inc GOOG GOOGL’s YouTube: +39.6 percent.
• Facebook Inc FB: +15.0 percent.
• Instagram: +97.5 percent.
• LinkedIn Corp LNKD: +12.7 percent.
• Pinterest: -1.6 percent.
• Reddit: +427.7 percent.
• Twitter Inc TWTR: +29.6 percent.

In addition to breakdowns by platform, the tracker also looks at engagement trends by region. Not surprisingly, North America had by far the largest overall social media engagement. The largest engagement growth in the past year came from Africa at +75.8 percent. The smallest regional growth came from Russia at only +18.0 percent.

The firm also found that the business category had the most growth in social media engagement at +44.0 percent compared to +42.8 percent for the politics category and +23.1 percent for the entertainment category.