Mix is a personalized discovery platform. The company purchased popular content aggregator StumbleUpon back in 2018. Users can attach other social sites like Facebook and Twitter to curate their feeds. Before the transition, StumbleUpon had about 35 million active users. However, not all have stuck around. Still, this social media channel can come in handy for small businesses that want to share useful or viral content.
The 7 Top Social Media Sites You Need to Care About in 2022
Should you go all in on Instagram? Maybe place half of your social media budget into Facebook and split the rest between YouTube and LinkedIn? What about Tiktok? These are the kinds of questions plaguing small businesses and marketing teams alike.
Long the home of influencers, brands, bloggers, small business owners, friends and everyone in between, Instagram has topped well over 1 billion monthly users. If you’re wondering whether a meaningful segment of your audience spends time on the platform, the answer is almost surely a resounding yes.
Who’s on Instagram (and Why): Instagram has become one of the most popular social media platforms for teens and young adults, especially in the U.S. Use of the app slowly drops off with age but stays consistent across both men and women, so if your customers are under 40, then Instagram can’t be ignored.
The Content that Works Best on Instagram: Beautiful photography, stunning visuals, unique designs, selfie-style video that speaks directly to your audience and a cohesive theme to your content will help you stand out on Instagram.
Most Popular Social Media Sites
1. Facebook
Facebook is one of the most recognizable social media platforms in the world. With 2.7 billion monthly active users, more than a third of the world’s population uses Facebook. Founded on February 4, 2004, Facebook has consistently evolved through the years to fit the needs of its users and attract new ones. This includes the acquisition of Instagram and WhatsApp. Businesses can create their own pages, groups, and events. Facebook also offers targeted advertising opportunities for those who want to increase visibility to specific consumers. Businesses can also use Facebook Messenger to send personal messages to customers.
2. Twitter
Twitter gained notoriety as a microblogging site that just included text posts of up to 140 characters. Since its launch in 2006, it has raised that character limit and now lets a user share other media like photos and videos. With about 330 million monthly active users, it’s not as ubiquitous as Facebook. However, it is still widely used among general consumers. Additionally, it can be a useful site for interaction, like joining Twitter chats in your industry or responding to customers who have customer service questions.
3. LinkedIn
LinkedIn is the most popular social media site for professional networking. The platform has over 700 million registered users, with about 300 million active each month. Launched in 2003, LinkedIn allows a user to add their resumes, connect with others in their industry, and even post and respond to job listings. In a marketing sense, LinkedIn is often especially useful for B2B businesses. It even offers paid ads and content publishing options.
4. YouTube
YouTube isn’t just the most popular video-sharing website in the world. It’s also the second most popular search engine behind Google. The company was founded in 2005 and was eventually bought by Google. YouTube has over 2 billion logged-in visitors per month. There are even more who visit the site and watch videos without signing into their own account. Basically, any business that wants to use video marketing can use YouTube to reach a wide audience. The site also provides analytics, facilitates interaction between users, and lets you embed videos in other websites.
5. Pinterest
Pinterest is one part social media site, one part search engine. It consists of digital bulletin boards where a user can save products, project ideas, and inspirational images. For businesses, it’s a perfect place to share product images, unique DIY ideas, recipes, and unique visuals. You can also make content on your sites “pinnable” by including pin-it buttons that allow visitors to share your content to their boards. Pinterest launched in 2010 and has since amassed more than 400 million monthly active users.
6. Instagram
Instagram is another social media channel with a heavy emphasis on visuals. The site launched in 2010 and was later purchased by Facebook. It has more than 1 billion monthly active users and is mainly a mobile platform. Like Facebook, Instagram offers targeted advertising options to help business users reach a specific user. Instagram also offers various posting options, including photos, videos, slideshows, stories, and live streams.
7. Tumblr
Tumblr is a blogging platform that allows several different post formats. You can include quotes, chats, videos, photos, and even audio content. It originally launched in 2007 and is now owned by Automattic. The user base has decreased a bit in recent years. However, it still has about 400 million monthly visitors. The business population isn’t as high on Tumblr as it is on other platforms like Facebook. However, that could potentially help brands stand out from other sites that are oversaturated . It also offers sponsored posts and lets a user easily re-share content.
8. Flickr
Flickr is a popular platform for sharing photos and videos. Launched in 2004, the site was purchased by Yahoo in 2005 and is now owned by SmugMug. It’s especially popular for photographers or businesses that want to see their images shared around the web. You can also use it to find royalty-free images for use in content. The site has lost some of its industry clout in recent years. However, it still has about 90 million monthly users.
9. Reddit
Reddit is a social news and entertainment website with tons of sub-communities dedicated to specific interests. A registered user can submit content and comment on threads to interact with other users. Launched in 2005, the site has amassed a monthly active user base of 430 million. Reddit isn’t super popular with marketers. However, there are tons of active, targeted communities that make it an attractive option for sites looking to reach a new audience. There are also business-related subreddits for those interested in networking or learning.
What is the Most Widely Used Social Media Site?
Finding the best social networks for your business depends on what you want to accomplish. If you’re looking for the site with the most users, Facebook, YouTube, and WhatsApp are likely the best social media options. Those that want to share quick messages can opt for Twitter. And those who are looking to market to a younger user base may consider sites like Instagram, Snapchat, or TikTok.
Social media sites allow you to interact with customers on a personal level. You can share posts with a wide audience and respond to people one-on-one. Since most of your audience is likely using at least some social media sites, it’s a good option for reaching new target customers and communicating with current customers. Many social media platforms also offer targeted advertising options.
Antony Maina is a Staff Writer for Small Business Trends. His beat includes social media, general business reporting and exploring how people relate to technology. With a background in freelance writing, he is a contributor to other tech websites and can be found at Word4Bloggers.
Before most other social networks even existed, StumbleUpon was my favorite. Early on, they had a page for each keyword phrase that showed all the best content ever shared about that subject and ranked the top people sharing on that topic. I suggested they monetize those pages and give AdWords a run for their money.
Instead, they made them impossible to find and focus on their traffic for pennies that bounces so badly that it is hard to know whether having content go viral on StumbleUpon is even beneficial. Because of the high bounce rate and low time on site, getting traffic from SU could cause you to lose SEO rankings and get lower traffic overall.
I have asked SEOs many times to find out whether we even want traffic from StumbleUpon anymore. No answers so far, but wouldn’t it be sad to invest time on a social network that actually cost you more traffic (from organic SEO), than the value of the bouncing traffic they send?
It is now becoming possible to produce an overview of all of cyberspace’s multifarious life, the first globe of cyberspace.
Cubos is such a globe. It is the first comprehensive and organised eco-system for the powers that increasingly circulate through, and will come to dominate, virtual cities from different zones located worldwide.
Through Cubos social connections, members can create jobs, services, interact, exchange ideas, share information, provide social support, conduct business, direct actions, create artistic media,
connect with like-minded people, engage in political discussion, etc, using this global network .
Cubos Community aims of providing an opportunity to pros who prefer to work remotely.
Hello, Antony!
Social media is the most powerful tool in today’s digital world. Without social media, it is not possible for businesses to promote their brand and reach out globally. There are numbers of social media platforms on which you can promote your brand, but not all have the same value. Thank you for the awesome list of most popular social media websites. We have to focus only on such social media that are relevant to our niche.
Be selective with your social media presence
Regardless of the size of the social media site, consider whether your brand’s target audience is active on those platforms. It’s better to pick two to three sites and do them well rather than create so-so content for five or more different platforms.
P.S. Buffer lets you schedule social media posts to several top social media sites. If you want to manage more than one social media account on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, or TikTok, try Buffer for 14 days to experience what it can do for your business.
Credit: The list of top social media sites is compiled by Statista. The respective monthly active users number was taken from the following websites: CNBC (as of December 14, 2021), Statista ( as of December 6, 2021), Statista ( as of November 11, 2021), Statista (as of February 11, 2022), ZDNET (as of January 25, 2022), Semrush (as of October 5, 2021).
Sources:
https://www.adobe.com/express/learn/blog/top-social-media-sites
https://smallbiztrends.com/2016/05/popular-social-media-sites.html
https://buffer.com/library/social-media-sites/
Social media platforms
Most people just take it for granted and start using it in a panic when they have to change jobs. It’s often too late at that point. You are better off learning to use it when you don’t need it. LinkedIn works best when you use it as a career management tool and not just for job hunting.
How to Use Social Media in Your Career
Do you think you should be on social media but don’t know where to start? What should you post, and how often should you post it? What’s more powerful, a like or a retweet? Here’s what you need to know about the most popular social media platforms for professional settings, whether you are looking to expand your network, build a business or find a new gig.
Social media is now a critical part of the way people in most walks of life communicate and a key part of how work gets done — from corporations to government. Reflecting how important social media can be, .
As social media has become more popular — an estimated — there are also more instances of people who have gotten in trouble for their social networking habits. The fact is that it’s impossible to separate the personal use of social from the professional, and everything you say online can and will be used against you. There are ways in which you can try to safeguard your privacy and control who sees particular content, but the onus is on you to be vigilant. So, the more seriously you can take your social media activities, the better.
Social media changes all the time, so it’s important to keep up with the evolution of the platforms and to keep looking for ways to optimize your use of the available the tools. (Twitter and Snapchat, for example, recently announced major changes that are described below.)
A Closer Look at the Top 15 Social Networks
1. Facebook – 2.74 Billion Active Users
While it can’t take credit for getting everything started, that honor goes to SixDegrees (RIP), Facebook is the social media juggernaut that not only showed the world what the internet can be, but also fundamentally changed the way humans interact with each other.
It took Facebook only ten months to reach a million subscribers and only eight years to reach a billion. As of January 2022, Facebook boasts 2.74 billion active users – a number that grows with roughly 500,000 new users every day, or six new users every second.
The Infinite Dial reports that the 58% of survey respondents in this age group who identified Facebook as their favorite social network in 2015 has shrunk to 32% in 2020. The biggest culprit – Instagram. The photo and video-sharing social network saw its share of this demographic go from 15% to 27% in the same time period.
2. YouTube – 2.291 Billion Active Users
Launched in 2005, the video-sharing platform was initially intended to be a dating service, with the founders reportedly publishing ads on Craigslist to entice women into posting videos of themselves talking about their ideal partners.
The company overcame numerous technical and legal obstacles on its way to becoming not only the world’s leading video-sharing platform but also the target of a 800.65 billion acquisition by Google. All of this by November 2006 – only 16 months after its official launch.
Despite its popularity amongst a younger audience, YouTube also boasts some remarkable stats for reaching the adult demographic. Almost three-quarters (74%) of all adults in the US use YouTube. Facebook comes in second at 68% and Instagram is third with 40%.
When it comes to national demographics, more than 30% of all YouTube’s traffic originates from only three countries. At 16.4%, the United States contributes the biggest percentage. India is second with 9.2% and Japan grabs the bronze with 4.8%.
3. WhatsApp – 2.0 Billion Active Users
Founded in 2009 by two former Yahoo! employees, WhatsApp’s original goal wasn’t to be an instant messaging (IM) app, but rather to simply show “statuses” next to the names of each entry in a user’s address book.
WhatsApp is one of only three social networking platforms with a user base of over 2 billion – a milestone they reached in 2020. The app’s recent growth rate has been astonishing, with the last billion users hopping on in only four years!
Because WhatsApp has resisted integrating traditional advertising into their revenue model, the platform doesn’t offer the width of marketing options that many other social networks do. But that doesn’t mean that the app doesn’t offer enormous marketing value for businesses who use it as a communications tool.
Despite a recent PR catastrophe surrounding an ill-advised update to their privacy policy, WhatsApp is still the most popular mobile messaging app on earth, beating Facebook Messenger, WeChat, QQ, Telegram, and Snapchat to the title.
4. Facebook Messenger – 1.3 Billion Active Users
Messenger’s initial incarnation was “Facebook Chat” – a simple IM feature that was launched into the Facebook environment in 2008. Noting Chat’s potential as a standalone app with its own unique commercial ecosystem, Facebook overhauled the service and rebranded it as “Facebook Messenger” two years later.
Unlike WhatsApp, Messenger’s proprietors had no issue with introducing monetization features into the app’s core functionality. As a result, Messenger offers businesses an unparalleled level of contact with their customers and prospects.
There are more ways to interact with your leads on Messenger than you can shake a stick at. From automated chatbots that field incoming queries and promote products, to advertisements displayed in the user’s inbox, Messenger is a B2C marketer’s dream.
5. Instagram – 1.221 Billion Active Users
An early round of seed funding allowed Systrom to pivot the app, which initially focused on attracting whiskey and bourbon aficionados, into something broader. Something with industry-defining image manipulation tech and a far more immersive social experience than any other image-sharing service at the time.
Snapchat is the most popular social media platform for…
Video ads
One of the most common Facebook video ad tips is to optimize for muted viewing, as 85% of Facebook videos are watched with the sound off. With Snapchat, however, 64% of video ads are watched with the sound on—a great opportunity to use music in your ads and create more immersive experiences.
Location-based marketing
Snapchat is also a great platform for location-based marketing. In addition to geofilters, it offers Snap Map—a location-sharing feature that users to find nearby users and businesses (30 million businesses and counting). According to Snap Inc., 250+ million users access Snap Map on a monthly basis, an increase from 200+ million users in Q2 2020.
App marketing
Feel-good content
According to a 2018 study commissioned by Snapchat, the social media platform that inspires the most positive emotions is Snapchat. Users were asked how often they feel particular emotions on each platform, and here are the results:
Sources:
https://www.nytimes.com/guides/business/social-media-for-career-and-business
https://www.dreamgrow.com/top-15-most-popular-social-networking-sites/
https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2022/01/11/most-popular-social-media-platforms
Social media platforms
If communication with the audience during the live stream goes in a different direction than you planned, that’s totally ok, but it’s important to have a plan in case the audience just watches and doesn’t give you a chance to change the subject.
15 Most Popular Social Media Networks that will rule 2021
Social media channels have become an important part of the marketing strategies for businesses. New age networking, professional and personal is all about social media. A strong presence on social media channels is very important today. Businesses need to be where the people are. And everyone is on social media!
In this blog, we will discuss the most popular social media channels today, that are here to stay. Find out if your favorite platform is a part of the most popular social media list and check out the best online platform that you can use. Who knows you may find the inspiration to create your own social media website as well!
World Map of Social Networks
The world is divided in 3 major socio-economic blocks: China controlled by Tencent with WeChat/Weixin (tied to Chinese government), ex USSR countries controlled by Megafon with VK (tied to Russian government) and the rest of the world under the Meta influence.
Facebook has 2,9 billion monthly active and is the leading social network in 156 out of 167 countries (93%). WeChat, the super app, reigns in China with 1,26 billion monthly active users. VK is the leader in Russian territories with around 100 million active users.
If we consider Instant Messenger usage we will end up with a different map, but with the same kind of fragmentation: Meta and Tencent remain the main antagonists, with South Korea mostly ticking to KakaoTalk (developed by Kakao) and Japan preferring LINE (made by Z Holdings, controlled by Softbank Group and Naver Corporation).
WhatsApp, totaling 2 billion users, is the most used app in 37 out of 61 nations analysed (West Europe, Russia, Latin America, India, Africa). Facebook leads the way in 7 (including USA and Cananda) and Messenger in 13 (including Australia and East Europe).
Facebook has 2,6 billion monthly active users and is still growing mostly in Asia Pacific. My analysis shows that it is the leading social network in 154 out of 167 countries (92%). During the last year Russian territories were conquered by VKontakte. WeChat reigns in China.
Facebook has 2,5 billion monthly active users and is still growing mostly in Asia Pacific. My analysis shows that it is the leading social network in 151 out of 167 countries (90%). But in the last year has lost Azerbaijan and Georgia, conquered by Odnoklassniki. Ok.ru also won Kyrgyzstan, Moldova and Tajikistan.
January 2019: a new edition of my World Map of Social Networks, showing the most popular social networking sites by country, according to Alexa & SimilarWeb traffic data (caveat: it’s hard to understand the impact of Google+ because it is part of Google domain traffic).
I’ve increasead map coverage to add more African countries and, as a result, Facebook appears stronger than ever. Now it is the leading social network in 153 out of 167 countries analyzed (92% of the planet). Zuckerberg has only three antagonists: VK (VKontakte) and Odnoklassniki (part of the same group Mail.ru) in Russian territories, and QZone in China. In Iran, following the state censorship towards Facebook, there’s a chance for Instagram.
But what’s going on behind the first place? Which are the Facebook runner-ups? What would the world be like without Facebook?
Here’s the map showing the second ranked social networks in 58 nations analyzed with SimilarWeb and Alexa.
January 2018: a new edition of my World Map of Social Networks, showing the most popular social networking sites by country, according to Alexa & SimilarWeb traffic data (caveat: it’s hard to understand the impact of Google+ because it is part of Google domain traffic).
I’ve increasead map coverage to add more African countries and, as a result, Facebook appears stronger than ever. Now it is the leading social network in 152 out of 167 countries analyzed (91% of the planet). Zuckerberg has only three antagonists: VK (VKontakte) and Odnoklassniki (part of the same group Mail.ru) in Russian territories, and QZone in China. In Iran, following the state censorship towards Facebook, there’s a chance for Instagram.
But what’s going on behind the first place? Which are the Facebook runner-ups? What would the world be like without Facebook?
Here’s the map showing the second ranked social networks in 57 nations analyzed with SimilarWeb and Alexa.
Instagram is the runner-up social network in 23 countries, but in the past 12 months Twitter has gained traction in 22 nations.
Reddit is growing, expecially in the Northern Europe, and this year it has conquered the 2nd place in 7 territories.
TikTok strategy for 2021
Hashtags
Make sure you use relevant hashtags on your video. But it’s also important to know that you shouldn’t use a lot of hashtags like on Instagram and Facebook, because you’ll ruin the look of your TikTok video. So you have to pay special attention to which hashtag to use.
Tutorials
Recording a tutorial video for TikTok is more demanding, since you have little time at your disposal, so you have to say everything in a short period of time. Of course, don’t skip the essential steps during the tutorial, just be less detailed than when making a YouTube tutorial video.
Content for those with disabilities
Cross-posting
Conclusion
Some say that TikTok is redefining the definition of social media platforms. They’re putting the focus on short and fun content, instead of chatting and posting heavily edited images. Whether they’re truly redefining something or not, the success of this social media platform is undeniable, and it’s breaking all the records when it comes to downloads (and it’s not lacking in the active user department, as well).
TikTok content is easy to create and discover, and the feature of someone taking your video and combining it with their own is great for views. It allows their followers to see you, and when a second person takes that video and combines it with their own, even more people can discover your account.
Sources:
https://www.appypie.com/top-most-popular-social-media-sites
https://vincos.it/world-map-of-social-networks/
https://w3-lab.com/is-tiktok-the-fastest-growing-social-media-platform-in-2021/