What was the last app you used on your phone?
If it wasn’t to check the weather or send an email, my guess is it was one of the ten most popular social media sites.
There are a lot of social network platforms, and there’s a good chance that no matter what demographic your customers are, you’ll find them on these platforms. While you’re probably familiar with the popular ones like Facebook and YouTube, there are so many others you can explore and use for social media marketing campaigns.
First things first, what is social media?
Social media refers to websites and mobile applications that make it easy to share content with others in real time. This type of communication originally happened via websites, but it’s now mainly used through smartphone apps. Currently, the term social media can refer to any type of communication over the internet that engages the public.
Each social media platform is distinct and can be geared to different audiences with various forms of content. Some platforms are best for sharing links, photos, or videos; others are best used for long-form content and ideas.
What makes social media stand out from other forms of content is that even with restrictions based on character limits and content type, it’s often the best – and fastest – way to reach a mass audience.
The five main types of social media all have a different intent, audience, and reach.
Related: Monetize your social media content like a pro—learn the secrets of affiliate marketing success with the help of the best affiliate marketing software.
If you’re someone who works with social media in a professional way, you know that selecting a social networking platform is all about understanding where your customers are and how you’re looking to connect with your target audience. When it comes to digital marketing and building a marketing strategy, each of the 10 most popular social media platforms requires a different approach, so let’s break it down.
The reigning king of social media is Facebook, which rebranded to Meta in 2021.
Facebook was founded in 2004 by current CEO Mark Zuckerberg. He built the social networking platform out of his college dorm room as a platform exclusively for Harvard University students. However, it was such a hit that Zuckerberg quickly offered access to other universities in Boston, then to other Ivy League schools. By 2005, anybody with a .edu email address could register for a profile.
Source: Facebook
In 2006, Facebook opened access to anybody over the age of 13 looking to create a social media account. From there, its user growth has absolutely exploded. The platform crossed 1 billion Facebook users in 2013, 2 billion users in 2017, and is now just shy of 3 billion users every month.
While the social network has introduced dozens of new features over the years, its primary purpose remains the same. Users connect with friends worldwide, post status updates, upload images and videos, and much more. From a professional standpoint, Meta offers Facebook for Business and Facebook Pages, too.
“Facebook can greatly help in promoting business. Personal profiles, groups, and pages can be used to increase visibility and reach online. In these modern times where most people are engaged on social media, Facebook has the widest reach when it comes to online marketing.”
- Facebook Review, Christine E.
“The sheer number of ads that Facebook pushes makes it inconvenient to use now. After every few scrolls, a nonsensical, totally irrelevant ad bugs you. Moreover, Facebook doesn't check the number of scams and misleading ads published daily. A lot of people fall prey to easy money-making ads.”
- Facebook Review, Abhishek K.
Next up is YouTube, a video-sharing social network founded in 2005 by three former PayPal employees. Just 20 months after its inception, Google bought the site for $1.65 billion. Today, it operates as one of Google’s subsidiaries.
Source: YouTube
YouTube is used by two groups of people: those who upload videos for the subscribers and those who watch videos. However, many of the 2.6 billion monthly users fall into both categories. Users upload their own forms of video content marketing, view, rate, share, and comment on videos or subscribe to an entire channel that they like.
The video content on YouTube includes video clips, music videos, short films, video blogging, and how-to videos. Plenty of the content is uploaded by individual contributors. Although in recent times, many major brands and even media corporations have found their way to the video-sharing site.
In 2018, YouTube unveiled its newest service, YouTube TV. The subscription-cable replacement offers live TV for customers to stream on their phones, tablets, and televisions without the typical subscription and contract. In September 2021, YouTube TV hit 4 million subscribers.
“What I like most about YouTube is the variety of content on the platform. YouTube offers a wide range of media to consumers, and this social media giant doesn't restrict itself by encouraging only one/limiting what kind of content can be posted.”
- YouTube Review, Journey W.
“The inability to control the types of advertisements sometimes makes it uncomfortable. While I understand ads are what make it affordable and even free, for the typical viewer, there are some ads we wish were not played while subscribers are watching our sermons or looking through our videos.”
- YouTube Review, Caleb N.
WhatsApp is a free messenger app that you can easily download onto smartphones and other devices. The tool was founded in 2009 by Brian Acton and Jan Koum, both former employees of Yahoo!. Users who sign up with a standard cell phone number can communicate with one another through text messages, voice calls, video calls, and by sending videos, images, and emojis.
Facebook acquired WhatsApp in 2019 for $19 billion. However, the messaging app has been kept separate from Facebook's main social network and its Facebook Messenger app.
The app is popular internationally, with millions of users in Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Germany, Brazil, and Mexico. Its fame is likely because it doesn’t include international calling and messaging fees since the service uses Wi-Fi instead of cellular service to send messages.
Instagram is a social media platform primarily used to share images and videos. Users can create a free profile in the app with a unique Instagram handle where they can share social media posts in the form of photos and videos with their followers. In 2017, Instagram debuted Instagram Stories, a feature that lets users pin a video or image to the top of the main feed that disappears within 24 hours.
Source: Instagram
Instagram users can follow others who post relevant content, whether it’s their friends or favorite celebrities and influencers. It’s easy to interact with other users’ profiles by liking, commenting, or reacting to their content. Additionally, Instagram offers one-to-one and group messaging between users and the ability to save photos to various collections.
Facebook acquired Instagram in 2012 for $1 billion. Today, Instagram is especially popular among celebrities and influencers. The app's five celebrities and influencers with the most followers are Cristiano Ronaldo, Kylie Jenner, Lionel Messi, Selena Gomez, and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
“Instagram is the hugely popular image – and now video – platform used by everybody for about any reason. From a business standpoint, it allows you to keep engaged with your customers and even post current specials. It crossposts with Facebook for businesses, which is amazing and makes your job significantly easier. It also integrates with Facebook's advertising so you can create your ads and have them displayed on both networks. You don't need a ton of ad spend to get results, either.”
- Instagram Review, Andrew S.
“Instagram's algorithm has focused on videos and reels, which has reduced organic reach for many users who do not feel the need or are not suitable to a TikTok content strategy.”
- Instagram Review, Jessica L.
TikTok (known as Douyin in China) is a short-form video-sharing app. Despite being relatively new to the social media scene, it’s one of the fastest-growing social media apps in the world. It has even overtaken Google as the most visited internet site, likely because it acts as a unique search engine for various topics.
TikTok bills itself as “the leading destination for short-form mobile video” and allows social media users to create and share short videos between 15 and 60 seconds long. The app has a variety of sound effects, music snippets, and filters to enhance the videos and make them more appealing.
From dance challenges and makeup tutorials to simple recipes and viral stories, TikTok has it all! And, it’s certainly struck a chord with a younger demographic of users, as 47.4% of TikTok users in the U.S. are between the ages of 10 and 29.
“TikTok is becoming the leading social media platform with more than a billion downloads. This broadens my audience with an option to select and target my niche market.”
- TikTok Ads Review, Thomas M.
“Targeting options are limited. I'm glad they have opened it up slightly, but could use improvements.”
- Tiktok Ads Review, Renae V.
Pinterest is a free social networking platform that enables users to share and collect pieces of multimedia (primarily images) and save them to a virtual bulletin board. These boards are often devoted to a specific topic, such as cooking, crafting, or fashion. Pinterest is intended to be a source of inspiration and encourages users to “go out and do that thing,” according to former CEO Ben Silbermann.
A user’s main feed on Pinterest is made up of the content the users they follow are pinning or choosing to save. From there, they can either save the content to their own board or continue scrolling. Pinterest Boards can be public (the user’s followers can see them) or private (only the user can see them).
“I find the homepage feed to be the best – when I am having a flat creative day, I open Pinterest for inspiration.”
- Pinterest Review, Jessica S.
“I'm not too fond that my Idea pins don't have more space to add hashtags together with the video tags. And if they can also allow longer videos to be under the Idea pins to help get the idea across.”
- Pinterest Review, Dulaine R.
Reddit, the self-described “front page of the internet,” is an online community and social networking platform that lets users submit links, create content, and discuss topics of interest with other Redditors. The various posts are organized by subject into user-created boards, or forums, called subreddits.
Subreddits cover various topics, including news, TV shows, music, fitness, cooking, and a lot more than you could probably think of. Users can give individual posts a rating, either an upvote or a downvote, which boosts or lowers the post’s position on the site.
“The user interface is quite simple; any new user can use it without hassle. It is very catchy and makes a user interested in the platform. It is a vast platform with many communities to join in. It is amazing how people can connect with like-minded people with similar interests and passions and have a community to discuss things.”
- Reddit Review, Rachel C.
“Reddit sometimes gets unstable when using it on mobile. The sound function of the videos stops working suddenly. The app also needs to improve in order to deal with weak network areas as well. Sometimes, I feel like I always have to use a very high-speed internet in order to use the Reddit app.”
- Reddit Review, Mitali K.
Snapchat is a multimedia messaging app where users send images and videos to friends. It sounds pretty simple, but the defining feature is that these images are only available for a short time before disappearing. Unlike regular texting and sending pictures back and forth, Snapchat more closely mimics an in-person conversation, with a more temporary and natural flow of interaction.
Snapchat has seen its fair share of updates over the years. While the primary focus was one-to-one messaging, it introduced Snapchat Stories in 2013, which allowed users to post a video or photo pinned to the top of the main feed that would disappear in 24 hours. Depending on a user's privacy settings, any of their followers can view a story. On the other hand, users can block specific friends from seeing their story or make it public for anybody to see, even if they aren’t friends on Snapchat.
Additionally, the “Discovery” feature launched in 2015, which showcases short-form content from major media brands like BuzzFeed, Food Network, and Cosmopolitan. Snapchat also introduced Snapchat filters in 2015 for adding special effects to an image or video. Users can also get creative by sending virtual stickers, text, and doodles on their pictures or videos for further customization.
“I'd say I still go back to Snapchat to use its filters. I still like them more than Instagram. I like that it's a sneaky app. And the Bitmojis are pretty cute. Also, the friend locator is creepily accurate."
- Snapchat Review, Ashley F.
“I feel that Snapchat has a rather limited audience, mainly in the age group of 15-32 years. Thus, advertising and marketing certain suitable products for adults aren't viable options. Also, Snapchat doesn't provide analytical information like total viewers, total customers interested, etc., which is provided by other commercial applications.
Furthermore, the Snapchat interface isn't very good. It requires more hand movement, which doesn't seem convenient. Unlike other social media applications like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, adding friends on Snapchat isn't easy as one requires a Snap ID or snapcode.
- Snapchat Review, Shweta D.
Twitter is a social networking platform where users post and interact with 280-character messages known as Tweets. Twitter is similar to Instagram in that the content Twitter users post appears in their followers’ feeds and vice versa. Users can also accompany their tweets with images, hashtags, videos, GIFs, and links.
Since its inception, Twitter has grown into much more than a social networking platform. Today it is considered a relevant online news source to share with others.
Source: Twitter
One of the ways Twitter stands out as a social media platform is that it offers users Twitter Analytics, a data dashboard that tracks the performance of each Twitter account so users can learn more about their social media presence and areas they could potentially improve. It provides insights into social media strategy, identifies loyal followers, and pinpoints the tweets that get the most engagement.
“I love Twitter for its simplicity. As a regular user, I get my news from Twitter. What's trending right now gives me a great glimpse of what's going on in the world, and I feel up-to-date in a matter of minutes. From a business standpoint, Twitter has a compelling way of targeting niche audiences by using proper hashtags and keywords. If you already have a following, you can create content via threads and multiply your engagement and followers.”
- Twitter Review, Bogdan D.
“Unfortunately, there is no edit button which means that you need to proofread properly before submitting each tweet. Would also be nice if fonts were customizable.”
- Twitter Review, Jacqui L.
LinkedIn is a social networking site specifically geared toward the business community. Similar to Facebook, users each create an individual profile where they can post status updates, images, or videos and make professional connections.
These connections make up what is referred to as a user’s network. A user’s LinkedIn profile has been described as the modern résumé, as it features a professional’s work history, education, skills, and references. Users can also search for employment on LinkedIn, and recruiters often use it to seek qualified candidates.
Source: LinkedIn
LinkedIn offers a variety of features that make it great for the business world. For instance, users can endorse people they know or former colleagues for skills like content marketing, creative writing, and public speaking. There’s also a space to highlight licenses and certifications, volunteer work, and languages.
“LinkedIn premium is great when you are job searching. It allows you to directly contact employees in companies you are interested in using YouMail, puts your profile at the top of lists for recruiters, and many other perks.”
- LinkedIn Premium Review, Kristin D.
“I dislike the cost associated with it, but I believe it is worth it to have the benefits for my professional development and career expansion. I also would like to have more features available on the platform.”
- LinkedIn Premium Review, Rachel B.
Unfortunately, the answer here is… it depends on the type of business you have and the goals you’re looking to achieve.
If you’re a smaller, local business, it’s in your best interest to create a Facebook business page with details like:
For e-commerce businesses, Instagram may be the best social media platform. Even though advertising is more expensive on Instagram than on other platforms, purchase intent is high since many users follow brands they’re interested in.
Plus, Instagram boasts shoppable ads, making buying easier than ever. Instagram is also the best platform if your business plans to utilize influencer marketing platforms.
of people say Instagram helps them research or discover new products or services.
Source: Hootsuite
If your company needs to boost its customer service reach, the right platform is Twitter. The fast-paced, direct-connect nature of Twitter makes it the go-to channel for customers to connect with brands, especially when they have an issue or complaint. Whether your brand wants to improve customer service or better interact with its clients, Twitter is a great place to start.
Twitter is also a great place to be if you’re a news anchor or reporter since 59% of users use it regularly to get the news.
Focused primarily on B2B marketing? Opt to put in most of your effort over on LinkedIn. The business-based social media network makes up over half of all social traffic to B2B websites and blogs. Plus, if you’re looking to connect with senior-level influencers and decision-makers, LinkedIn is where you’ll find them. It’s also the platform to choose when posting long-form content since other platforms, like Twitter, have a character limit.
Finally, if your brand wants to connect with a younger crowd or make more entertaining content and advertisements, it’s time to make a TikTok account. In a study by Global Web Index, 60% of users said their main reason for using TikTok is to find funny or entertaining videos.
The rest of the reasons – for self-expression, inspiration, trend updates, and socializing – were each chosen by roughly 25% of users. So if your brand wants to start advertising on TikTok, the entertainment factor needs to be there.
No matter what type of business you have, there’s always a way to make social media work to your advantage. If you’re just starting on social media and are unsure how to be successful, consider these tips, tricks, and social media best practices.
The world of social media is always changing. But one thing is for sure – it’s not going away any time soon. It’s important for companies of all shapes and sizes to pinpoint which platforms to use to their advantage.
Take your knowledge of social media up a notch and check out the best tools for social media monitoring.
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