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Most Popular Social App by State in 2019
Last Updated on April 9, 2019 by hilary bird
Out of the 11 hours a day the average American spends interacting with electronic media, we dedicate around 45 minutes of that time to social media apps. But the way each American spends their hour or so connecting with friends, reading the news, and watching the most recent viral video differs from person to person and state to state.
In last year’s report on each state’s social media usage, the CenturyLinkQuote data team found (to our immense surprise) that Google Plus was still one of the top-searched social media apps in the US. This year, when we checked out last year’s Google Trends data on the most-searched apps, Google Plus wasn’t even on the map.
Curious to see which app took the lead and compare your social media habits to the way your state searches, snaps, and connects? Check out our map!
First Place: Snapchat
Snapchat tied with Google Plus for first place in our 2018 social media report, but this year, Google Plus searches fell off completely while Snapchat outpaced all competition. While Snapchat’s growth slowed in 2018—due in part to a redesign and backlash against algorithmic rather than chronological story sorting—it’s still the most popular app by state.
North Dakotans searched Snapchat more than anyone else, but the app came in first in ten other states too:
- Arizona
- Illinois
- Kansas
- Michigan
- Nebraska
- New Mexico
- Oklahoma
- South Dakota
- Texas
- Wisconsin
Second Place: Pinterest
As the top-searched app in ten states (Snapchat came in first with 11), Pinterest narrowly took second place this year—the same ranking it got in last year’s report.
While many other social media apps have spent the last few years tangled in controversy (Snapchat struggles to moderate NSFW content; Facebook’s data leaks make front-page news), Pinterest does its best to steer clear of drama. The company is going public in 2019, so stay tuned to see if Pinterest’s place on Wall Street impacts next year’s ranking.
Pinterest is most popular in picturesque Montana, whose residents searched for it more than anyone else. These nine states also love the platform:
- Arkansas
- Idaho
- Iowa
- Minnesota
- Missouri
- New Hampshire
- Utah
- Vermont
- Wyoming
Third Place: Instagram
In a reversal of last year, Instagram beat its parent company, Facebook, for third place. Thanks to the swap, this year’s top three apps are image-based, not news- or text-based. Sunny, scenic California surpassed Hawaii this year as the state with the most Instagram-related searches, but Instagram still takes the cake in eight more states:
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- Florida
- Hawaii
- Maryland
- Nevada
- New Jersey
- New York
Fourth Place: Facebook
Even though Facebook has around 1.5 billion active daily users, it’s only fourth in our list, taking first in just eight states. Maybe Facebook’s long list of 2018 scandals kept it from the top and knocked it down a rank, but it still placed first in West Virginia, where residents searched for the app more than any other state.
The platform also came in first in these states:
- Alabama
- Indiana
- Kentucky
- Maine
- Ohio
- South Carolina
- Tennessee
Fifth Place: Reddit/Youtube
Youtube and Reddit are older than most of the platforms on this list, but they’re still growing in popularity: neither social media platform appeared on our list last year.
Unlike the apps above, neither Reddit nor Youtube aims to connect users with friends. Reddit lets like-minded strangers create communities on practically any topic. Meanwhile, Youtube is one of the only sites that pays its influencers directly; it’s also the only one on our list with a premium paid streaming service.
Out of everyone searching for Reddit, Washingtonians gave it the most hits. Other states that prefer the platform include:
- Colorado
- Massachusetts
- Oregon
- Rhode Island
- Virginia
Mississippi tunes in to Youtube more than any other state. The 14-year-old app also placed first in these areas:
- Alaska
- Georgia
- Louisiana
- North Carolina
- Pennsylvania
Sixth Place: Twitter
Twitter took first in just one part of the country: Washington, D.C. The most likely explanation for the app’s regional popularity seems obvious: the current president’s proclivity for late-night tweeting. With over 41,000 tweets—a number that increases daily—@realdonaldtrump is a crucial follow for the thousands of federal employees who call the nation’s capital home.
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