The 7 Most popular social media sites are:
1. Facebook
2. YouTube
3. Instagram
4. Twitter
5. Snapchat
6. Pinterest
7. LinkedIn
The minor sites at the moment are Quora, G+ (also known as Google Plus), Periscope, and Musically.
One of the best ways to learn about the 7 major social media platforms is to actually hear how they describe themselves. Let’s look at their descriptions in Google…
Facebook
Connect with friends, family and other people you know. Share photos and videos, send messages and get updates.
YouTube
Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.
Instagram
Instagram is a simple way to capture and share the world’s moments. Follow your friends and family to see what they’re up to.
Twitter
From breaking news and entertainment to sports and politics, get the full story with all the live commentary.
Snapchat
Snapchat lets you easily talk with friends, view Live Stories from around the world, and explore news in Discover. Life’s more fun when you live in the moment!
Pinterest
A content sharing service that allows members to “pin” images, videos and other objects to their pinboard. Also includes standard social networking features.
LinkedIn
400 million+ members | Manage your professional identity. Build and engage with your professional network. Access knowledge, insights and opportunities.
So those are the official descriptions. How would a user (namely me!) describe these social media sites?
- Facebook is for keeping up to date with friends and family through updates, images, and private messages.
- YouTube is great for learning and being entertained through video.
- Instagram is for keeping up to date with friends, family, and brands through images.
- Twitter is for learning about current events, connecting with like-minded individuals, and discussing things in 140 characters or less.
- Snapchat is for sharing quick snippets of your daily life.
- Pinterest is an online collage where you collect and organize images that interest you.
- LinkedIn is for professional networking.
The internet is an ecosystem, and each social media platform serves a purpose. So if I wanted to know about current events, I go to Twitter. That’s where I go when I want to know if a website is down, or if a celebrity has died or if it’s just a rumor. But if I wanted to keep updated with the life events of my friends and family, I’d go to Facebook.
So that’s how each of these platforms are described. But how popular are they? The monthly active users for each of these sites are:
1. Facebook – 1.55 Billion
2. YouTube – 1 Billion
3. Instagram – 400 million
4. Twitter – 320 million
5. Snapchat – 300 million
6. Pinterest – 100 million
7. LinkedIn – 100 million
Source
And in terms of age demographics, the largest age bracket for each social media site is:
- 28 percent of U.S. Facebook users are between 20 and 29 years old.
- YouTube’s largest age demographic of users is 25 to 34
- 53 percent of Instagram users are aged 18 to 29
- Twitter: 37 percent of Twitter users are aged 18 to 29
- 45 percent of Snapchat users are between 13 and 24
- 34 percent of Pinterest users are aged 18 to 29
- 31 percent of LinkedIn users are 30 to 49
So as you can see, Instagram and Snapchat lean quite heavily towards the younger generations, Facebook has a very broad user base, and 30 to 49 year olds are a slight majority of LInkedIn users.
That’s the seven (currently) most popular social media platforms in a nutshell. Who knows what it will look like tomorrow, but that’s the exciting thing about social media, it’s always changing and evolving.
If you’re in need of some guidance when it comes to picking which social media sites you devote your time to, book a complementary deep dive session with me.
