While the ship appears to have sailed on Facebook as the leader social platform for the youth, Facebook still has Instagram to retain contact with the youth. Or 'had' - at least that is what the latest survey by research firm Piper Sandler suggests as it too seems to be losing steam with Snapchat and TikTok finding favor among more teen users.

The report draws responses from more than 9,800 US teens, and respondents are almost evenly divided between males and females.
The report covers several factors, but on the favorite social media, respondents said that:
Snapchat is the favorite one, with 34% of respondents saying it is their number one
TikTok came second, and it got 29% of the popular vote
Instagram is the favorite one among 25% of the respondents
Not all that surprising - similar reports have repeatedly indicated that Snapchat is still a teen favorite, even though its total user base is smaller compared to Instagram. But Instagram has also long been the first choice of teens. And now TikTok is cutting in - which will, of course, ruffle Mark Zuck and Co. and scuttle their plan for global domination of social media.

Indeed, reports have shown that the Facebook representatives were keen to highlight the dangers of TikTok to US senators, and The Social Network has worked to develop similar features to negate the popularity of the app. Thus far, none of those measures have necessarily worked-and while TikTok is still embroiled in a controversial takeover push, it remains entirely possible that the app will be able to continue operating, as normal, despite the US Government's ongoing pressure for a sell-off to a US-owned business.

But it's not all bad news for Facebook: according to actual usage data among teen users, not popularity, Instagram still leads the pack (84%), followed by Snapchat (80%) and TikTok (69%). Which is probably enough to keep Facebook happy: people can say what they want, but if they're opening its apps more often, then reality is all that matters.

And that's where Facebook could still be winning. Although various reports have stated that engagement on Facebook's main app is diminishing with time, Facebook hasn't actually reported any of its usage statistics since 2014, when it said users spent 40 minutes per day in the app. In 2016, Facebook further indicated that users spent over 50 minutes a day using Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger. Since then, however, The Social Network has been silent on in-app usage, which might be an indication that the absolute amount of time hasn't actually increased since.
But we don't know, Facebook's not saying, and we have no other way of determining actual time spent - though external estimates have suggested that people are now spending around 37 minutes per day in Facebook's main app.

But if teens are still opening Instagram at high rates, that's a win for The Social Network. That could indicate a variance between what teens think is cool and what they actually use, which is an important consideration for similar studies.
So, what does that mean for your marketing efforts?

Going on the data here, if you are looking to reach teen users, then Snapchat, TikTok and Instagram are obviously your three go-to's, but which will be more valuable will largely come down to experimentation and seeing which helps you gain traction with your focus market.

Snapchat is the most used, but Instagram is actually seeing more usage, while TikTok is rising rapidly. All present great opportunities, and it will come down to your brand and messaging, and which platform best fits, based on your approach.