It’s no secret that social media marketing can boost your brand’s reach, forge stronger connections with your audience, and drive sales.

In fact, social media has the highest ROI of any marketing channel. Over 43% of marketers use it, according to HubSpot’s 2024 State of Marketing & Trends report.

But with so many social media channels at your fingertips, how do you decide where to invest your time, money, and creative energy?

This guide will help you decide.

We’ve listed 20 of the most popular social media platforms. Plus, valuable information for each that’ll help you make the right pick. Like monthly active users and audience demographics.

Let’s get started.

1. Facebook

Visit: www.facebook.com

Year founded: 2004

Monthly active users (2024): 3.05 billion

Demographics: 56.8% male, 43.2% female, with the largest age groups being 25-34 (30.6%) and 18-24 (23%). Most popular in the United States, India, and Brazil, according to Semrush’s Traffic Analytics report.

Users come here to: Connect with friends and family members, participate in topic-specific online communities, consume leisure content, and discover brands, products, and services.

Facebook, owned by Meta, is the most popular social media platform, with more than 14 billion monthly website visits (app excluded).

The platform offers several features to grow your business. Like its marketplace. And ads.

Here’s an example of a Facebook ad for Canva, a company that offers an online graphic design platform:

On Facebook, you can also publish posts, stories, and short-form video content. Plus, engage with your followers via comments and messenger to establish your presence organically.

For inspiration, check out Athletic Greens’s Facebook page:

Boost Your Business on Facebook By:

Running Ads

As of April 2024, the total potential reach of Facebook ads is 2.24 billion. This accounts for a whopping 27.7% of the global population.

Make the most of that enormous reach by creating ad campaigns for specific objectives. Like increasing sales, building awareness, driving engagement, and more.

Facebook also lets you narrow down your target audience, so your ads reach the right people. This helps make your campaigns more effective. And ensure you spend your ad budget strategically.

Hosting Live Events

Engage your audience on Facebook by using the platform to invite them to in-person events. Or even to virtual events hosted right on Facebook Live.

Events can boost brand awareness and spread the word about your products or services.

Creating a Facebook Group

More than 1.8 billion people use Facebook Groups every month. This high usage underscores the potential of building a community on this platform.

Bringing people together in a community can nurture a sense of belonging and foster loyalty. And that can drive more sales for your business.

Take Wix, for example, a company that offers website development services. It has a 30,000+ strong Facebook community to support its users. They go there to ask questions, share advice, and network with each other.

2. YouTube

Visit: https://www.youtube.com/

Founded in: 2005

Monthly active users (2024): 2.49 billion

Demographics: 54.4% male, 45.6% female​, with the largest age group being 25-34 (21.5%)​. Most popular in South Korea, the United States, and India, according to Semrush’s Traffic Analytics report.

Users come here to: Consume educational content, follow content creators, learn new skills, and research brands, products, and services. YouTube offers the largest variety of video content compared to any platform, according to 80% of users.

YouTube started as a video-sharing platform. It has evolved into the world’s second-largest search engine after Google, with more than 61 million creators worldwide.

Make engaging videos, and you’ll reach tons of people and grow your YouTube channel. It’s a great way to show off what you do and connect with potential customers. Plus, people love video content, so it’s a win-win.

For inspiration, check out the content on Huckberry’s YouTube channel:

Boost Your Business on YouTube By:

Publishing High-Quality Content

Create high-quality, engaging video content that resonates with your target audience.

The most popular video format is YouTube’s classic: mid-length, feature-free, pre-recorded, and free to watch.

But YouTube also lets you publish:

YouTube Shorts (clips 60 seconds or less)
Shoppable videos
Live streaming videos
Free and paid courses

Collaborating with Creators

Partner with influencers in your niche to expand your reach and drive more sales.

For example, Hershey’s sponsored one of “The Icing Artist’s” videos, which generated over 10,00,000 views, 19,000 likes, and 1,000 comments. By collaborating with creators, Hershey’s has driven a 551% increase in brand search and a 22% increase in purchase intent.

Running YouTube Ads

Besides organic video marketing, YouTube is also a great channel for paid campaigns. The platform holds the potential to reach over 2.5 billion people through paid ads.

YouTube Ads can be placed in several key areas:

In-stream ads: These ads play before, during, or after other videos on YouTube. Viewers sometimes have the option to skip the ad after a few seconds.
In-feed ads: These ads appear in places where people discover content. Like on YouTube search results, next to related videos, or on the YouTube homepage.
Bumper ads: These are short ads that last up to 6 seconds. They play before a viewer’s chosen video and cannot be skipped.
Overlay ads: These are semi-transparent ads that appear on the lower 20% of the video you are watching. They are only available on desktop.

3. Instagram

Visit: https://www.instagram.com/

Founded in: 2010

Monthly active users (2024): 2 billion

Demographics: 50.6% male and 49.4% female​. Dominated by users aged 18-24 (31.7%)​. Most popular in the United States, India, and Brazil, according to Semrush’s Traffic Analytics report.

Users come here to: Engage with friends, create content, follow creators and celebrities, and discover and research brands. Increasingly, people also use Instagram for shopping directly from storefronts.

Instagram is much more than a photo- and video-sharing platform. It has become an ideal place for brands and creators to build and grow an audience.

With over 1.1 billion users in the age groups spanning 18-34, the platform can be especially helpful in reaching Gen Z and millennial audiences.

Boost Your Business on Instagram By:

Partnering with Influencers

You can bet on Instagram influencers to expand your brand’s reach. And potentially get your products to go viral.

Brands partner with influencers to create educational content, promote their products, and get on their target buyers’ radar.

For example, a cookware brand, Stahl, frequently posts reels with food creators. Because these reels share a recipe and show the brand’s products in action, they naturally engage buyers.

Tapping into Different Content Formats

Instagram supports a wide range of content formats. You can post single images, carousels of images, long videos, and reels to your feed.

Plus, you can add multiple elements to your stories, like questions, polls, emoji rating scales, quizzes, and more. These elements allow you to deliver more interactive content that helps maximize engagement.

Here are just a few of the optional elements you can add to an Instagram story:

Creating a Broadcast Channel

Broadcast channels give you a dedicated space to share real-time updates with your audience. Send them text messages, video clips, and audio notes. Or, use your broadcast channel to conduct polls and collaborate with other creators.

You can use a broadcast channel to create a sense of exclusivity. For example, you could create a discount coupon for your broadcast audience or offer them early access to a sale.

Broadcast content often looks something like this:

4. WhatsApp

Visit: https://web.whatsapp.com/

Founded in: 2009

Monthly active users (2024): 2 billion

Demographics: 52% male, 48% female. Predominantly used by those aged 18-34 (45.3%). Most popular in Brazil, India, and Mexico per Semrush’s Traffic Analytics report.

Users come here to: Network in communities, connect with customers and colleagues, and buy from small businesses. They also use WhatsApp Payments to send and receive money.

WhatsApp, owned by Meta, is an instant messaging app that attracts nearly 3 billion visits every month.

It offers a dedicated business platform that lets your brand communicate with customers. This makes it possible to provide seamless customer experiences and use conversational marketing on WhatsApp.

Boost Your Business on WhatsApp By:

Setting Up Your Store

Got an ecommerce business? Design and run a full-fledged shop directly within WhatsApp.

Create a catalog of your products and integrate different payment gateways so buyers place orders within the app.

Run Integrated Ads

Create an integrated ad campaign to target users across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

Place “click-to-WhatsApp” ads on Facebook and Instagram to redirect shoppers to a WhatsApp conversation.

Start a Community

With robust moderation capabilities for admins, WhatsApp communities are designed to make it easy to bring people together.

As a business, you can build a community to launch new products, share meaningful advice, announce sales and discounts, and more.

5. TikTok

Visit: https://www.tiktok.com/

Founded in: 2016

Monthly active users (2024): 1 billion

Demographics: 52% female​, 48% male, favored by the 18-24 age group (36.6%). Most popular in the United States, Brazil, and Indonesia, according to Semrush’s Traffic Analytics report.

Users come here to: Create and consume content, find products or brands, and discover new trends. TikTokers also participate in viral challenges or duets. And share personal opinions and stories in response to prompts.

TikTok has become synonymous with virality.

It’s also one of the most popular social media platforms known for social commerce opportunities. This is evident looking at the hashtag #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt. People use it to show off their TikTok-inspired purchases. It has over 28 billion views.

Some of the most popular videos have garnered millions of views:

Boost Your Business on TikTok By:

Jumping on Trends

TikTok is the birthplace of most social media trends—from lip-syncing battles to ASMR videos. The key to virality on TikTok is finding a trend early on and adding your spin to it.

For example, Poppi, a soda brand, created a video on the “this or that” trend. It became one of the company’s most-watched TikTok videos.

Creating Viral Contests

TikTok users actively participate in contests, like dance challenges. Capitalize by launching a competition with a catchy hashtag and partnering with a few influencers to spread the word.

That’s how Chipotle created its #GuacDance contest for National Avocado Day. The brand collaborated with influencer Brent Rivera and raked up over 850,000 likes on his reel.

Posting Relatable Content

Building an audience on TikTok boils down to how relatable your content is.

Whether you want to educate or entertain people, you must present your ideas with a touch of storytelling to resonate with your audience.

6. WeChat

Visit: https://www.wechat.com/

Founded in: 2011

Monthly active users (2024): 1.3 billion

Demographics: 52% male and 48% female. Most popular in China, Malaysia, and India.

Users come here to: Chat with friends and family, share personal updates, and make payments. They can also read news articles and engage with brands through their feeds.

WeChat is a multifunctional app for messaging, payments, and social networking.

It supports several business use cases. Like delivering quick customer support, setting up ecommerce stores, and building community.

Boost Your Business on WeChat By:

Creating an Official Service Account

Set up an official service account for your business to chat directly with users. This is ideal for sharing order updates, announcing deals, and delivering instant support.

A service account also allows you to create a self-service menu and post up to eight articles and videos.

Creating an Official Subscription Account

You can also create a subscription account to post content more actively on the platform.

All information shared via this account type goes into the users’ subscriptions folder instead of showing up via push notifications. Users can also search for your brands’ posts in the “Subscriptions” tab.

Unlike a service account, a subscription account lets you publish eight articles and videos daily. It’s ideal for brand promotions and building awareness.

Designing Mini-Programs

WeChat’s mini-programs functionality allows ecommerce brands to create a catalog of their products. Users can browse and order directly from the app.

These stores are searchable within the app, and people can instantly make payments via WeChat.

7. Facebook Messenger

Visit: https://www.messenger.com/

Founded in: 2008

Monthly active users (2024): 1 billion

Demographics: Mostly used by those 25-34 (32.5%). Most popular in the Philippines, the United States, and Vietnam per Semrush’s Traffic Analytics report.

Users come here to: Connect with people through messages and calls (voice and video), interact with brands, and watch content together.

Facebook Messenger, a messaging app integrated with Facebook, is a popular social media platform for keeping in touch with personal contacts. Brands often use it to create chatbots, offer real-time customer support, and send regular updates.

A majority of its visitors (96%) come from desktop.

Boost Your Business on Facebook Messenger By:

Creating a Chat Plugin

Use Messenger as a chat plugin on your brand’s website.

When people click on the messenger icon, it’ll instantly start a conversation with you. This works well for providing customer support and creating an omnichannel experience.

For example, the Facebook Messenger was added as a chatbot on the Blendjet website to offer instant support:

Sending Automated Messages

Messenger allows you to add messages you can use (and re-use) to answer frequently asked questions.

You can also set up automatic messages that send as instant replies for when you’re away. Or create a custom greeting to start a new conversation.

Setting Up Click-to-Messenger Ads

Similar to WhatsApp, you can place ads on Facebook and Instagram that direct users to Messenger.

This is a great way to initiate a sales conversation, answer people’s doubts, resolve queries, and support your audiences’ buying process.

8. Telegram

Visit: https://telegram.org/

Founded in: 2013

Monthly active users (2024): 800 million

Demographics: 57% male, 43% female, used mainly by people 25-34(29%). Most popular in Russia, India, and Brazil, according to Semrush’s Traffic Analytics report.

Users come here to: Join interest-based channels, securely message people, and participate in discussions. With the launch of Telegram Business, users can also instantly connect with brands they like.

Telegram is a community-based messaging app.

Use this platform to create broadcast groups and brand communities. You can share content through text messages, voice notes, images, and videos.

Boost Your Business on Telegram By:

Setting Up Automated Replies

One of the many benefits of Telegram Business is the ability to create automated messages.

Add quick replies to send a greeting or answer frequently asked questions. Whenever a user sends a message, the auto-responder can exchange the first few messages to collect information.

For example, this bakery account sends an auto-generated introduction message when a user starts a conversation.

Setting Up a Broadcast Channel

A broadcast channel allows brands to share updates with an engaged audience.

Make announcements, show your product in action, and send different types of messages in your branded channel. Like this:

Creating an AI Chatbot

Design a custom chatbot to offer round-the-clock support to your customers.

Integrate this bot with other tools and train it to chat on your behalf. You can even configure which chats the bot should access and which it shouldn’t.

For example, in the chatbot settings, you can select two options:

All 1-to-1 Chats Except: where you can exclude any chats that the bot shouldn’t access
Only Selected Chats: where the bot can access only specific chats that you’ve selected

9. Snapchat

Visit: https://www.snapchat.com/

Founded in: 2011

Monthly active users (2024): 800 million

Demographics: Mostly used by those 18-24 (37.8%). Most popular in the United States, India, and Saudi Arabia per Semrush’s Traffic Analytics report.

Users come here to: Send photos and videos to contacts throughout the day, use filters and effects, and discover content. The platform reaches 90% of the Gen Z population (13-24 years old) in over 25 countries.

Snapchat is a multimedia messaging app famous for its disappearing message format and interactive filters.

With an average of over 75 million unique monthly visitors, the platform offers many promising avenues for businesses. Like creating sponsored filters, posting fun visual content, and running different ads.

Users can set up their creator profiles and launch their own AR lenses on the app. Like this:

Boost Your Business on Snapchat By:

Launching Ad Campaigns

Snapchat lets you create three different ads types.

Each format is uniquely suited to a specific set of goals. Like, story ads work best to build awareness. And collection ads are great for driving sales.

Here’s what each format looks like:

Another interesting feature of Snapchat advertising?

The ability to include a second ad in your campaign specifically for retargeting people who interacted with the first ad.

Partnering with Creators

Snapchat’s Creator Hub is designed for brands to find relevant creators for collaboration.

Influencers can create sponsored content that leads their audience to your brand profile. It’s labeled as a paid partnership. Or, creators can tag your brand in their ordinary content to maximize discoverability.

For example, this Snapchat creator posted a brand collab story with Levi’s. Notice in this case, the piece includes the paid partnership label. And the creator tagged the brand.

Showcasing Branded Content

Get in front of your audience by creating interesting content that’ll be featured in the Discover section.

This section showcases branded content. Specifically, these are visual stories that Snapchat users can click through to learn more about your product, catch highlights from an event, or find user-generated stories.

10. QQ

Visit: https://im.qq.com/index/

Founded in: 1999

Monthly active users (2024): 554 million

Demographics: Widely popular in China

Users come here to: Engage in interest-based groups, chat through text messages and calls, microblog, and play online games. This app is primarily popular among Gen Z users. People also heavily use it for online shopping.

Popular in China, you can send messages, have voice and video calls, play games, and more.

Brands use this app to create branded promotional campaigns and offer support through 1:1 conversations.

Boost Your Business on QQ By:

Creating a Verified Account

An official QQ account allows you to share branded content, like promotional notifications and updates. You can also repost your content from other platforms like Facebook and Instagram.

Here, users can conveniently search for any brand to shop online or chat with support.

Integrating a Business Wallet

Integrating your wallet on QQ allows you to create an ecommerce store and seamlessly accept payments.

Setting Up Group Chats

A QQ group acts like a community where users can interact with each other.

Invite people to these groups. Then, send regular updates, answer people’s questions, and facilitate users interacting with one another.

11. X (Formerly Twitter)

Visit: https://twitter.com/ or www.x.com

Founded in: 2006

Monthly active users (2024): 500 million

Demographics: 60.9% male, 39.1% female​, largest age group is 25-34 (36.6%)​. Most popular in the United States, Japan, and Brazil.

Users come here to: Share ideas and thoughts, find trending news and events, and host or join audio-based events. X is also a popular destination for exchanging memes.

X (formerly Twitter) became popular as a microblogging platform. It has since evolved into a multi-functional social media app with advanced premium features, like a built-in AI assistant, a job search tool, and interest-based communities.

The platform attracts 1 billion average monthly visits, a majority of which come from desktop users.

Boost Your Business on X By:

Running Targeted Ads

X has a reach of 373 million users. You have 14 targeting filters to ensure your ads reach the right audience. And the platform offers five ad formats: website, app, vertical, carousel, and collection.

These formats work well for different use cases.

For example, you can use app ads to nudge users to install your mobile app. Or, use video ads to show a compelling video with a strong CTA.

Promoting User-Generated Content (UGC)

X is a great place to launch a UGC campaign. Encourage customers to leave a review or share their experiences using a hashtag. Then, retweet their tweets to build social proof.

Here, see how Rare Beauty, a beauty and skincare brand, engages customers by retweeting their content.

Creating Spaces

Spaces are live audio conversations. Invite specific people as hosts or let every participant chime in. Either way, these audio events are great for conducting discussions on meaningful topics.

You can even download the recording of your Spaces conversation. And use the file to create a podcast.

12. Reddit

Visit: https://www.reddit.com/

Founded in: 2005

Monthly active users (2024): 1.2 billion

Demographics: 63.6% male, 35.1% female, popular among those 18-25 (44%). Most popular in the United States, United Kingdom, and Canadal.

Users come here to: Join interest-based groups, ask questions, and share advice and recommendations. Since the platform promotes anonymity, people also share personal experiences and stories.

Reddit is a community-based platform where people join topic-specific groups (subreddits) and participate in discussions.

On average, the platform attracts over 5 billion monthly visitors and offers various features to moderate a group. As a business, you can create a subreddit for your brand and use conversations there to foster an active community of loyal customers.

Boost Your Business on Reddit By:

Contributing to Relevant Conversations

One of the best ways to win at Reddit is by actively participating in communities relevant to your business. You want to give value to get something in return.

For example, the CoFounder of Supademo, an interactive demo tool, offered free demos to the first 50 commenters in the r/SaaS subreddit. This is a great example of delivering value for free. This post received over 70 comments.

Create an Active Subreddit

Once your brand gains popularity, build a branded subreddit and invite customers to join.

This public forum can be great for consolidating user-generated content and collecting firsthand customer feedback.

For example, this post in Glossier’s subreddit shows how your community can help your brand reputation.

13. Pinterest

Visit: https://www.pinterest.com/

Founded in: 2009

Monthly active users (2024): 498 million

Demographics: 69.4% female, 22.6% male​, largest age group is 18-24 (28.6%)​. Most popular in the United States, India, and Brazil, according to Semrush’s Traffic Analytics tool.

Users come here to: Browse through a collection of visuals on different topics, find inspiration for projects, and create a library of images and videos. With an average visit duration of 11 minutes and 23 seconds, users also discover products and have the option to shop directly on Pinterest.

Pinterest is a visual discovery platform for people to pin (save) images, videos, and GIFs to virtual pin boards.

Businesses can build a presence on Pinterest to gain visibility among their target audience. And, because the images pinned on Pinterest link back to whatever URL you associate with them, the platform can also help businesses get more referral traffic to their site.

Boost Your Business on Pinterest By:

Setting Up Your Online Store

You might be surprised to learn that 80% of weekly Pinterest users say they feel inspired by the shopping experience on the app.

Ramp up sales by allowing people to conveniently shop for the products they like on Pinterest. You just have to create your ecommerce store and add popular products to the catalog.

Create Interesting Pins

Another way to become discoverable on this platform is to publish content here. Upload images and videos using your pins. Remember to make the pins search-friendly using the keywords in the title, description, and tags.

Here’s an example of how Made In, a cookware brand, uploads video recipes featuring its products:

Curate Theme-Based Boards

Most Pinterest users aren’t actively looking for your brand. Get on their radar by curating boards on themes they might be interested in.

Etsy’s Pinterest boards are a perfect example of this. The artsy marketplace has boards for every topic. People discover Etsy-purchasable products as they peruse the boards. Like this:

14. LinkedIn

Visit: https://www.linkedin.com/

Founded in: 2002

Monthly active users (2024): Undisclosed

Demographics: 56.4% male, 43.6% female, most users are 25-34 years old (50.6%)​. Most popular in the United States, India, and the United Kingdom.

Users come here to: Share and consume industry-centric content, search and apply for jobs, stay connected with colleagues and peers, and discover updates from brands they follow. Besides sharing career updates, users engage with each other’s posts, attend events, and subscribe to newsletters.

LinkedIn is a social media platform for professionals.

Over the last few years, LinkedIn has become popular among content creators who go there to share industry expertise and offer nuanced knowledge.

The platform is ideal if you’re a B2B business, to create your brand identity and reach the right audience.

For example, here’s how VEED, a B2B SaaS company, has set up its LinkedIn page:

Boost Your Business on LinkedIn By:

Building a Personal Brand

Rather than focusing all efforts on your business page, a more effective way to win at LinkedIn is to build your personal brand. This allows you to leverage your own individual influence to drive stronger results for any business goal.

Establish a personal brand by sharing content that feels authentic and relatable coming from you. Do so regularly and in multiple formats, like text, documents, video, polls, and more.

Here’s Brian’s LinkedIn profile with over 91,000 followers—more than many big businesses.

Running Thought-Leadership Ads

While LinkedIn offers multiple ad formats, its thought leadership ads are unique.

You can sponsor and boost any employee’s post with an ad campaign. This is great for getting visibility on insightful posts, company announcements, and more.

Thought leadership ads look like this:

Hosting Live Events

Hosting live events is a great way to engage your audience on LinkedIn.

Don’t want to use the LinkedIn platform directly? Integrating your account with a streaming app like Airmeet or Riverside is another option.

However you host them, live events make your audience part of the conversation and allow you to share meaningful insights.

Here’s a live event by Hootsuite taking place on LinkedIn:

15. Discord

Visit: https://discord.com/

Founded in: 2015

Monthly active users (2024): 200 million

Demographic: 66.6% male, 32.2% female, favored by those 25-34 years old (53.4%). Most popular in the United States, Brazil, and India.

Users come here to: Connect through voice and video calls, participate in community events, and discover like-minded people to connect with.

Discord is another community-based social media platform. It boasts an average visit duration of 17 minutes, 38 seconds. It’s popular among gamers for text, voice, and video messaging.

You can use Discord to facilitate interactive discussions, share multimedia content, and host live streams.

Boost Your Business on Discord By:

Creating a Dedicated Server for Your Customers

Create a Discord server for your brand. Invite your target buyers to follow you there so they can be first to get updates from you.

Building Communities

Use Discord to create a niche community for your brand. Similar to other community-based platforms like Reddit and Telegram, Discord gives you access to buyers that fit specific personas. Like people who enjoy participating in voice chat or live events.

Other Social Media Platforms Worth Exploring

We’ve talked about 15 of the most popular social media platforms.

Those are excellent for creating a broad, general reach.

Now, let’s look at five, slightly more niche-oriented social media channels you can explore to reach your audience.

16. Twitch

Twitch is a live-streaming platform specifically for gamers.

Expand your reach on this platform by hosting interactive Q&A sessions and creating a gameplay channel. You also have the option to conduct live tournaments or stream new launches.

Twitch is a good social media platform for gaming and art brands that want to target younger generations.

17. Quora

Quora is a Q&A platform where people ask questions and share their knowledge.

The platform curates questions based on topic categories. Like politics, travel, sports, and more. You can also search for spaces where you’ll find discussions around specific topics—similar to a subreddit.

You can build your presence on Quora by actively responding to relevant questions with value-added information. And create a community around themes aligned with your business.

Here’s how Coinbase, a cryptocurrency exchange platform, uses its Quora profile to answer questions and build an audience on the app.

18. Tumblr

Tumblr is a multimedia-based microblogging platform popular among creatives. Users generally share posts about art, poetry, fandoms, and niche interests.

For businesses, Tumblr is useful for reaching audiences interested in very specific types of content.

For example, Frank Body, a skincare brand, shares body positivity posts and thoughts on Tumblr. This is a great way to influence people’s perceptions of your brand.

19. Threads

Threads by Meta is another microblogging platform designed as an alternative to X. Use this platform to share quick updates and connect with a select group of people.

Win at Threads by frequently posting quick messages for your audience. These can be quirky one-liners or punchlines that people find relatable.

20. Mastodon

Mastodon is a decentralized social network that focuses on user privacy. It has more than two million monthly active users.

Mastodon is most popular in the United States, South Korea, and Brazil, according to Semrush’s Traffic Analytics tool.

The platform contains several independent communities called Instances. You can take a community-first approach here by sharing meaningful content, starting interesting discussions, and keeping your community engaged.

Mastodon’s interface is similar to X and Tumblr. Here’s a look at individual user profiles and posts appearing on your feed:

How to Choose from the Most Popular Social Media Platforms

4.95 billion people use social media today. Which makes social media marketing an excellent way to reach your customers.

Naturally, with so many popular social media platforms, narrowing down the best ones for your brand can be difficult.

Let’s break down some factors to keep in mind when picking the ideal social media channels for your business.

Audience Research

Identify who you want to reach and prioritize that before everything else. Note demographics like age, gender, interests, and content preferences.

Then, explore where that audience spends their time online. This will help you map your target audience to their most preferred platforms.

Brand Personality

One way to differentiate your brand from the crowd is to create a unique personality for your business.

To do this, define some core traits that describe your brand and choose platforms that best align with these traits. For instance, a fun and quirky brand will do better on Instagram and TikTok than on Mastodon, WhatsApp, or Reddit.

Platform Relevance

Before finalizing your options, evaluate each platform’s user intent to understand why people use each particular app. For example, LinkedIn is a more networking platform, while TikTok is more entertainment-based.

If the platform’s intent matches your goals and messaging, it may fit your social media marketing strategy well.

Engagement Style

Some social channels are community-led, some are content-driven, and still others focus on instant messaging. Your choice will depend on the audience engagement you can handle well with your resources.

Budget & Resources

Factor in the budget you have available for investing in your social media marketing strategy. And the manpower on your team. Keep these logistic elements in mind when considering your options. Pick the right channels based on your available capacity.

Another helpful way to choose the right social media platforms for you?

Review what’s working well for your competitors. A quick competitor analysis can also help in making an informed decision.

The post 20 Popular Social Media Sites Where Your Brand Can Shine appeared first on Backlinko.