The overlap among the various social networks is staggering. For instance, did you know that over a billion people have an account on Facebook? 1 in 3 Americans has an account on LinkedIn, and more than 400 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute!
But there’s much more to the world of social media than just these top-tier platforms.
Sure, they’re great for meeting new friends or checking out cat videos, but as a business, you might find yourself needing something with a little more utility. So without further ado, here are some other social media platforms that you should consider using:
| Takeaways |
|---|
| Discover the most important social networks for your online presence. |
| Stay updated on the latest trends and shifts in social media platforms. |
| Focus your efforts on platforms that align with your target audience. |
| Leverage niche social networks that cater to specific interests. |
| Prioritize engagement and interaction to build a strong online community. |
| Experiment with content types that resonate well on each platform. |
| Monitor performance metrics to assess the effectiveness of your efforts. |
| Explore emerging platforms that could become significant in the future. |
| Adapt your strategy based on the evolving landscape of social media. |
| Build a cohesive brand presence across selected social networks. |
| Embrace innovation and creativity in your approach to social media. |
1. LinkedIn
LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network on the Internet. LinkedIn offers an easy way for people to find out about you and get in touch with you, making it a great place to grow your network.
It’s also a great place to get in touch with people you may not have otherwise been able to connect with, but would like to know more about their work or expertise.
LinkedIn is a great place to find a job because it offers many ways of communicating with professionals from around the world:
- The LinkedIn Job Board lets users search for jobs by location or industry
- You can look at companies that are hiring on LinkedIn and apply directly through them
- The Advanced Search feature allows users to narrow down their search results according to as many key criteria as possible
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2. YouTube
With over 1.8 billion monthly users and 80 million channels, YouTube is the world’s largest video-sharing site. It was founded in 2005 by three former PayPal employees who wanted to share their love of video with the world.
In 2006, the company was bought out by Google for 1.65 billion dollars and has since become one of the most visited websites on the planet.
YouTube is available in more than 70 languages (including Icelandic) and countries around the globe. According to Alexa’s rankings, YouTube is currently ranked as:
- The most visited website in every country except China (where it’s blocked)
- The second most visited website in both North America and Europe
3. Instagram
Instagram is a mobile app that allows users to take pictures and videos and apply digital filters to them. It was launched on October 6, 2010, as an iOS exclusive.
In 2012, Instagram introduced hashtags that allowed users to search for images based on specific topics or events. In 2013, it extended the feature with an API for developers.
In 2014, Instagram began rolling out ads in between user feeds as well as in-app advertisements from select companies such as Nike Inc., Adidas AG, and Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc.
Since then, the number of users has risen rapidly with reports indicating that over 600 million active monthly users worldwide in June 2015.
Facebook is a social networking service launched on February 4, 2004, by Mark Zuckerberg with his fellow Harvard College roommates Eduardo Saverin (co-founder), Andrew McCollum (programmer), Dustin Moskovitz (programmer), and Chris Hughes (investor).
The website was originally called “Thefacebook”, derived from the colloquial name given to it by students at Harvard University where Mark Zuckerberg had developed it while studying there
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4. Facebook
Facebook is the world’s largest social network with over 2.2 billion monthly active users. It’s also the most popular social network for businesses, boasting more than 400 million businesses using Facebook Pages and over 1 billion visits to Facebook pages each day.
With such a huge audience for your business, it only makes sense to use Facebook as a way to connect with your customers and prospects.
Facebook has several features that allow you to engage in conversations: comments on posts; photo/video tagging; live streaming video (via Facebook Live); messenger chat function; group messaging functions; events management tools; etc.
These features help you get your message heard by more people, which is crucial when trying to increase brand awareness or improve sales performance!
5. Twitter
Twitter is a social network that lets users post short messages called tweets. Tweets are limited to 140 characters and can include photos, videos, and links.
Twitter has more than 330 million monthly active users, including celebrities and politicians as well as everyday folks like you and me. Twitter is used by celebrities and average users for personal use, business use, or both.
It’s also a popular networking tool for job seekers, recruiters, and anyone in marketing who wants to connect with others online.
6. Snapchat
Snapchat is a photo and video messaging app that was developed in 2011 by Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy.
Users can send videos and photos to friends, who can view them for up to 10 seconds before they disappear from the recipient’s device.[2]
In 2015, Snapchat introduced “Memories”, which allows users to store their snaps in the cloud so that they can be viewed later on different devices.[3]
In May 2017, the company had approximately 158 million active daily users, making it one of the top social media networks on Earth.[4][5]
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7. Pinterest
Pinterest is a visual discovery platform that helps people discover ideas for all of the things they love. In addition to being a social network, Pinterest is also a search engine, social bookmarking site, social news site, and social curation site.
It’s the place where you go when you see something on Facebook or Twitter that sparks your interest and want more information about it plus things related to those topics as well.
In some ways, Pinterest is similar to Google but with a different focus (Pinterest = images/visual content; Google = text/words).
8. Tumblr
We all know Tumblr as the microblogging and social network that’s home to a lot of nerdy content and some really good memes. It’s also a blogging platform that allows users to post multimedia and other content to a short-form blog, or “dashboard.”
In addition to being able to post text, links, and images on your dashboard, you can follow other users’ dashboards as well as reblog their posts (share them across your dashboard).
And since it’s built on top of the same codebase as Twitter, sharing your posts through both platforms is super simple.
9. Reddit
Reddit is a social news website where users can post links to content on the web. The site’s registered community members can then vote for the postings, called “links”, that they think are best, and the most popular links appear on the front page or at the top of a category.[4]
The submitted links are organized by areas of interest called “subreddits”, which cover a variety of topics including news, science, and politics.
Reddit’s registered users select one or more subreddits to subscribe to, which enables them to receive new posts in those subreddits via their user profile page.
The word ‘Reddit’ may be a play-on-words with its emphasis on ‘read it’, reflecting an early slogan: “What is Reddit?”.
This pun was intended as a joke about using this name as an easily recognizable acronym for reading it.[5] However, some people have taken this literally, claiming that ‘redding’ is actually derived from ‘reading’.
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10. Vine
You should pay attention to Vine, a mobile app that allows users to capture and share short looping videos. Vine was launched in 2013 by Dom Hofmann, Rus Yusupov, and Colin Kroll.
The three had previously worked together at another social media company called Burbn, which they sold to Facebook for more than $7 million.
After selling their original business, Hofmann and Yusupov went on to create Vine as an offshoot of Twitter’s video offerings and it has since exploded into one of the most important platforms for online video sharing.
Vine is based in San Francisco, California, and has over 200 million users worldwide (as of April 2018).
11. StumbleUpon
StumbleUpon is the discovery engine that uses a personalized recommendation system to help you find the best web content. It’s a great way to discover new websites and Internet content, and it also helps you rediscover your old favorites.
StumbleUpon users can “stumble” into pages with interesting ideas, images, and videos that match their interests.
The more you use StumbleUpon, the better it will be able to predict what type of content you’ll like in the future so there’s no limit on what kind of cool stuff you might find!
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Conclusion
Our list of 11 social networks is not meant to be comprehensive, but rather a snapshot of the most popular platforms. We hope that it will provide you with an overview of what’s out there so you can make better decisions about which social networks are worth your time.
And if you’re looking to create your social network, check out our article on the 5 best software tools for building a social network like Facebook or Twitter.
Further Reading
Check out these additional resources to expand your understanding of social media platforms:
The Biggest Social Media Sites of 2023
Stay updated with the latest statistics and trends of the most prominent social media platforms around the world.
Top 15 Most Popular Social Networking Sites
Discover the top social networking sites that are gaining traction and driving engagement among users.
Top 10 Social Platforms for Business
Explore a list of social platforms specifically geared toward businesses and learn how to leverage them effectively.
FAQs
What are the benefits of using social media for businesses?
Using social media for businesses offers numerous advantages, including increased brand awareness, targeted audience engagement, customer interaction, and the potential to drive traffic to your website.
Which social media platforms are best suited for B2B marketing?
Several social media platforms are effective for B2B marketing, with LinkedIn often considered the top choice due to its professional networking focus. Twitter and Facebook can also be valuable for B2B businesses to share content and connect with potential clients.
How do I choose the right social media platforms for my business?
Selecting the right social media platforms for your business depends on your target audience, goals, and the type of content you want to share. Research your audience demographics and preferences to make informed choices.
What strategies can help increase engagement on social media?
Engagement can be boosted by posting relevant and valuable content, using visually appealing graphics and videos, interacting with your audience through comments and messages, running contests and giveaways, and staying consistent with your posting schedule.
How can I measure the effectiveness of my social media marketing efforts?
You can measure the effectiveness of your social media marketing through key performance indicators (KPIs) such as engagement rates, click-through rates, website traffic from social media, conversion rates, and follower growth. Utilizing analytics tools provided by platforms can help track these metrics.
Costantine Edward is a digital marketing expert, freelance writer, and entrepreneur who helps people attain financial freedom. I’ve been working in marketing since I was 18 years old and have managed to build a successful career doing what I love.