Like everywhere in the world, social media is ingrained in Latin American society. WhatsApp is everywhere, and not only a means to communicate with friends, but also a critical tool for doing business. Restaurants and shops use WhatsApp to take and deliver orders. Hospitals use WhatsApp to schedule appointments. But it’s not only WhatsApp. Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are all indispensable tools for Latin Americans. Here, we’ll go over some of the most important social media trends in Latin America and what that means for doing business.

The Most Popular Platforms

As already mentioned, WhatsApp is the standard bearer of social in Latin America. But other platforms are also widely used and extremely important for commerce. According to ,La Republica, Facebook is the most popular social media platform in Latin America, with Mexico being number one among Spanish-speaking countries (i.e. excluding Brazil). However, Instagram is a very close second.

According to ,Statistica, around 43% of Latin Americans aged 15 to 25 used Instagram in 2020 and around 28% of people aged 26 to 40 report being active on the platform that year. And, interestingly, one ,digital marketing agency found that the majority of Instagram users in Latin America identify as female.

How Are People Accessing Social Media?

In Latin America, the overwhelming majority of people access social media from smart phones or mobile devices. There are many reasons for this, the two most common being economics and infrastructure.

While the economies of most Latin American countries are growing strong, economic hurdles still adversely affect a great many. This means that at-home internet, laptops and PCs are out of reach for the majority of people. However smartphones are more affordable than computers and public wifi networks allow people to access the internet even without a cellular connection.

Infrastructure is another hurdle to internet access in Latin America. Most big cities have world-class internet options, including fiber optic, but in poorer areas, internet access can be hard to come by. Extreme rural areas may only have access to a satellite connection at best, while others may be more connected, but at painfully slow speeds and in very few places.

Both economics and infrastructure tructure make smartphones an invaluable tool for accessing social media for most people in Latin America.

The Top Users of Social Media in Latin America

According to a ,report by Comscore, 82% of Latin Americans accessed social media in 2020, spending an average of 11 minutes per visit. The same report found that Brazil, Mexico and Argentina are the three countries with the most social media users. In fact, Comscore found that 92.3% of Mexicans reported using social media in 2020.

Social media is an important tool for reaching audiences in Latin America. The demographics and how it’s accessed do make it different than social media in the U.S. If you’re interested in learning more about how to grow your presence on social media media in Latin America, get in touch with us today for more information.