How many social media platforms are there? The short answer is a lot more than you have probably even imagined. As of January 2022, more than four billion people are using social media. So, if you are not utilizing a wide variety of social media platforms in your marketing strategy, you are missing out. In this article, you will learn how many social media platforms there are and how you can use them to shape your social media marketing strategy.
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Most Common Social Media Platforms
The most common social media platforms are the platforms you have likely already heard of. This list of the most common social media platforms includes platforms with at least a billion monthly users. So, how many social media platforms are there that can boast over one billion active users a month? Only six can spout this achievement.
Out of how many social media platforms there are, Facebook is by far the most commonly used social media platform. It is the most popular social media platform by almost half a billion active users. 2.91 billion monthly users log onto Facebook to explore what their friends have shared and share content that has struck their interest. Facebook offers the opportunity to market your business to a lot of people. Create engaging written posts, pictures, and videos for your customers to share and comment on. Use Facebook paid ads to target new customers in your target market.
YouTube
YouTube comes closest to Facebook with 2.562 billion active monthly users. It is the largest video content sharing platform mostly focused on long-form videos. Although, with competition from short-form video platforms like TikTok, they have introduced a YouTube Shorts section on their platform just for short videos. As a business, you can utilize Youtube either by creating your videos, running paid ads on other users’ videos or through YouTube Discovery ads. If you choose to run paid ads on other users’ videos, be sure that they are engaging and informative in the first few seconds. Most users will skip ads when they get a chance, so getting the right message out in a short amount of time will be invaluable.
Whatsapp has around 2 billion active users a month and continues to grow. The messaging platform is very popular in countries like India and Brazil, but can also be used to reach a significant number of users in the United States. You can send promotions directly to the users who will most likely take action with a little nudging through the app. You can use this popular social media platform to stay in contact with your users as well. Answer their questions and listen to their concerns. Open lines of communication between businesses and their customers help build trust between the two.
Of all the most common social media platforms, Instagram is probably the best for still images and short video ads. Instagram is a platform of visuals. You can post multiple pictures or short videos in one post. You can also add to your Instagram story or go live on this platform. Sponsored ads can appear in both the user’s feed and within Instagram’s stories. Over 60% of users are between the ages of 18 and 34. If you are trying to reach a younger audience, advertising on Instagram will be an essential part of your social media marketing strategy.
WeChat is another popular messaging app like WhatsApp. It was created and is very popular in China. What makes WeChat unique is that it offers its customers a large degree of anonymity while talking to strangers. You can send texts, make voice calls, and video calls with users from all over the world. WeChat offers paid advertising in the form of banner ads, sponsored posts on WeChat Moments, the part of the platform where users usually see posts from friends, and mini programs ads.
TikTok
TikTok is a short-form video-sharing platform and one of the fastest-growing social media platforms to date. You can post videos up to three minutes long and there are a variety of in-app editing tools to make your videos as visually appealing as possible. TikTok is most popular amongst the 16 to 30 year old demographic. TikTok is the perfect platform to reach the younger generation.
You can create videos to give your business a unique voice. They will likely end up on the For You Page of those who are most likely to enjoy and interact with your content. It does not even need to seem like marketing. The less it seems like you are trying to sell TikTok users your product, the more likely they are to want to eventually want to buy your product. The Gen Z users on TikTok do not want to be advertised to. They want a community.
You can also pay to have your video promoted. In-feed ads will show up for users as they scroll through their For You Pages. They blend in well with the rest of the page and users can interact with them as they would other videos. Brand Takeover ads will pop up right as the user opens the app. They can be videos, images, or gifs. Top View ads are similar to Brand Takeover ads, but will only show up after about three seconds of using the app. It is a full-screen video that is up to sixty seconds. Another Tik Tok advertising option is branded hashtags. You can create a challenge centered around your business and encourage users to participate using your hashtag. This encourages brand awareness while also building a sense of community surrounding your business.
Newest Social Media Platforms
The internet landscape is ever-evolving. New social media platforms are popping up all the time. Here are some of the newest social media platforms with the most promise. It’s time to start gathering an audience and integrating the newest social media platforms into your social media marketing strategy.
Discord
Discord works by creating servers based on specific interests. Within these servers, you can chat through text, audio, or video. Create a server for your business. Answer questions and address concerns from customers quickly. Share exciting news about your company in a setting more intimate than Facebook and Instagram can offer. Discord does not offer paid ads and as such offers a feeling of community and the opportunity to build trust in an organic way that most other platforms do not.
Clubhouse
Launched in 2020, Clubhouse boasts ten million active weekly users. While the app was once invite-only, it has recently opened up for the general public. Unlike other social media platforms where interaction occurs between users online at different times, Clubhouse requires users to be online at the same time to interact. Clubhouse is an audio-only communication platform. How many social media platforms are there that can say they encourage real-time interaction between users and users or users and brands? Many have live features, but this isn’t their focus like it is with Clubhouse. With Clubhouse, you can promote your business by speaking directly to potential customers in real-time.
Caffeine
Caffeine is a social media platform that allows you to create live broadcasts. It is similar to the platform Twitch where you can stream live videos. A popular type of content on both platforms is video game streams. You can also stream a large number of other types of content to reach your target audience. For marketers, Caffeine can be used to show off your business with behind the scenes or Q and A streams.
NextDoor
NextDoor is a hyperlocal social media platform that allows people to share information with people near them. The app can suggest local businesses to users, so getting your business seen on the app can increase your sales. It is a great way to update people in the vicinity of your business. If you have a physical business, this will be invaluable for awareness and getting people into your business so they can make purchases.
How Many Social Media Platforms Are There That You Should Use to Advertise?
The number of social media platforms you utilize in your marketing strategy will depend on what your business is, what audience you are targeting, and what kind of media you want to post. One thing that you need to do to make your social media marketing strategy as successful as it can be is to use multiple social media platforms. Use a mix of the most common platforms as well as some of the newest social media platforms to reach your goals.
The popular, common social media platforms will help you reach the largest audience possible. They have algorithms to help target your ads at the people most likely to take action from them but with so many users it’s impossible to reach all the best people. Smaller and newer social media platforms can be used to reach a specific niche of users. They also offer a unique opportunity to shape a platform that hasn’t quite become large enough to become stuck in its ways ideologically to swarm it with your target audience. You can set the trends for the platform.
Choose an array of platforms that will work best for your business and post specialized content for each platform. After taking the first step to ask how many social media platforms are there, getting an answer, and deciding on which ones will work for your social media marketing strategy you will hopefully see a community build around your business that translates into an increase in sales.
FAQ:
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