Whether you are a seasoned social media marketer, exploring this field, or a business owner aiming to harness the power of social media, understanding the current and biggest social media platforms is crucial. Beyond the number of users using different social networking platforms, it is essential to find the right fit for your brand. It’s an integral decision and should be taken purely on a hunch.
You need to consider your target audience and determine how the platforms align with your requirements. This knowledge will help you to extend your brand’s reach, connect with the right audience, and craft an effective social media marketing strategy. So, without further ado, let’s understand the concept of social media and check the top social media sites of 2024.
What is Social Media?
Social media is a digital technology that allows you to share ideas and information. It can be in the form of texts and visuals, among other media formats. You can connect with people from all over the world and engage in virtual communities and networks.
For a business, social media plays a vital role where you can attract customers, connect with your audience, build customer loyalty, and get customer feedback. It helps you increase your market reach and get reliable information to improve your business.
Top Social Media Apps and Platforms
Different social media networking sites are used for different purposes. Here are some of the social media networks that you can leverage for your business:
Monthly Active Users (MAU): 3.05 billion
Monthly Organic Traffic: 18,000,000,000
Facebook is the most popular and biggest social media platform with over 37% of the world using it at least once per month. More than 200 million businesses leverage Facebook’s tools and a variety of advertisers all over the world use this platform to promote their business.
It is very simple to get started on Facebook since all content formats work great. Starting from texts, images, videos, and stories, you can use all the formats to fulfill your marketing or business needs. Facebook Ads are a great way to reach out to your customers. However, your marketing success depends on your understanding of the Facebook algorithm and how you use its ever-evolving news feed.
Moreover, you can also utilize Facebook’s messaging app known as Messenger. It has over 900 million monthly active users. Initially known as Facebook Chat, this feature was launched in 2008 and you can make use of its monetization features with ease to connect with your intended customers.
Monthly Active Users (MAU): 2.78 billion
Monthly Organic Traffic: 2,900,000,000
WhatsApp falls in the list among the top 10 social networking sites. It holds the second position among the popular messaging platforms. This app is intended to show “statuses” next to the names of each entry in the user’s address book. However, it turned it a full-fledged messaging app soon after.
Now part of Meta, Whatsapp is a messaging app that allows users to send text messages, videos, GIFs, documents, and a variety of other media. You can also make voice and video calls through this platform. With end-to-end encryption, WhatsApp focuses on maintaining user privacy and keeps conversations secure and private.
You can use the WhatsApp app or the web version to connect with your potential customers. WhatsApp business allows you to monetize the platform and spread awareness of your business along with its products and services.
- YouTube
Monthly Active Users (MAU): 2.70 billion
Monthly Organic Traffic: 112,200,000,000
YouTube is among the best social media platforms where you can create and share videos. Additionally, YouTube is often called the second largest search engine after Google, its parent company. You can utilize YouTube to promote your business, showcase your products, or spread awareness about your business.
To start using this platform, you need to create a YouTube channel for your brand. You need to have a clear understanding of YouTube SEO and consider advertising on this platform so that your video gets discovered by more people. Here, you can post long-form videos and even conduct YouTube live sessions to connect with your audience.
Monthly Active Users (MAU): 2.35 billion
Monthly Organic Traffic: 7,600,000,000
Instagram is a visual social media channel founded in 2009. In this platform, you can create social media to showcase your products or services. The Instagram app lets you share a wide variety of content starting from photos, videos, stories, reels, and even live videos.
You need to create an Instagram business profile in order to gain additional features. The speed with which Instagram attracts new users is surprisingly high. Follow a consistent pattern and create a unique strategy to bring more people to your page. You can also collaborate with influencers or other brands using this platform. Moreover, schedule your posts using third-party tools to make the process of consistent posting seamless.
- TikTok
Monthly Active Users (MAU): 1.67 billion
Monthly Organic Traffic: 3,600,000,000
TikTok is one of the apps like Instagram where you can post videos. This short-form video-sharing app, launched in 2017, sky-rocketed to one of the fastest-growing apps in the world. In this platform, you can create and share videos of 15 seconds to 10 minutes. You can incorporate different sound effects, music snippets, and filters to enhance the video and make it more engaging for your audience.
In TikTok, you can watch videos for almost everything. Social media users get a highly personalized “For You” feed which makes this app stand apart. From lip-syncing to dancing and a variety of challenges and tutorials, follow the trend to highlight your business.
Monthly Active Users (MAU): 1.67 billion
Monthly Organic Traffic: 8,000,000
WeChat is one of the popular social media apps in China, used by almost 80% of the country’s population. The app was launched by Tencent, one of the biggest tech companies. The app shares similar features with WhatsApp and Messenger as it was originally created to be a messaging app.
However, with time, the app evolved and became an all-in-one platform. Apart from messaging, users can use WeChat to do online shopping, pay bills, transfer money, make reservations, and more. As a business owner, you can run ads on your official WeChat account or use WeChat Moments. You can also leverage the help of WeChat-based influencers to reach millions of Chinese consumers.
- Telegram
Monthly Active Users (MAU): 800 million
Monthly Organic Traffic: 326,700,000
Telegram is a free messaging app that works across multiple devices. With distinctive features like end-to-end encryption for chats, groups, and media sharing, this app rose in popularity in recent years. This app gained a significant number of users after WhatsApp announced changes to its privacy policies that would allow the app to share customer information with its parent company, Meta.
You can use Telegram in a variety of ways for your business. Connect with your intended audience, create chatbots for the Telegram platform, and utilize its one-on-one customer support. You can also use the Telegram channel feature to broadcast messages to up to 200,000 people.
- Snapchat
Monthly Active Users (MAU): 750 million
Monthly Organic Traffic: 154,100,100
If you want to know which social media app is similar to Instagram, then the social media platform name is Snapchat. This photo and video-sharing platform became famous for displaying the content of users for a limited time period before it’s deleted.
This immediacy of this app resonated with the younger generation, influencing the popularity of this app. This app also popularized the vertical video format. Check the trending patterns of this app to leverage it for your business.
- Douyin
Monthly Active Users (MAU): 743 million
Monthly Organic Traffic: 43,800,000
Douyin is TikTok for the Chinese audience. Both of the apps have the same parent company with the same core functionality. However, the apps service two separate territories. Douyin offers a variety of user-facing features that are not present in TikTok.
One of the most notable features is the reverse image search function that allows users to find content featuring a product that they might want to purchase. You can utilize this feature to find what users are interested in and strategically use this app for your business.
- Sina Weibo
Monthly Active Users (MAU): 599 million
Monthly Organic Traffic: 63,400,000
Sina Weibo or simply Weibo is one of the popular social networking sites launched by the Chinese technology company known as Sina Corporation in 2009. Weibo means “micro-blog” in Chinese and this platform essentially functions as a microblogging platform. It can be compared to Twitter and Instagram.
Users can post images, videos, and stories, use hashtags in posts, see trending topics, and use the app for instant messaging. When compared to WeChat, Weibo mainly caters to a younger demographic and offers more trending content. You can set up an official and verified social media account for Weibo to communicate with your followers. This allows you to use paid advertising and even do live-streaming sessions.
- Kuaishou
Monthly Active Users (MAU): 580 million
Monthly Organic Traffic: 2,500,000
In the social media world, Kuaishou is the Chinese rival to Douyin or TikTok. This app is the second biggest video-sharing platform in China. With Kuaishou, you can overlay text and stickers to images and videos and add interesting sound effects to your content. You need to create your account to use this platform for your business.
Use the live stream feature or record longer videos for your audience using this. Apart from the similarity between the competitor apps, there are quite a few distinctive features of this app as well. For instance, this app’s unique algorithm helps in garnering a unique audience. Kuaishou caters to the older demographic, between 25-34 years, and is more well known for its lifestyle category content.
Monthly Active Users (MAU): 571 million
Monthly Organic Traffic: 832,200,000
Among the social media apps list, the QQ app is one of the oldest, being released in 1999. Before WeChat was launched, QQ was widely used as a messaging app in China. Apart from this feature, users can play online games, stream music, watch movies, shop online, and make payments.
Although the popularity of this app significantly plummeted after WeChat became the social media market leader in China. However, the app is still in usage and also used in eighty other countries and is available in other languages as well. The biggest advantage of this app is you don’t need a phone number to sign up. You can easily use the desktop version of this app and transfer large files greater than 25 MB which cannot be done in WeChat.
- Spotify
Monthly Active Users (MAU): 600 million
Monthly Organic Traffic: 858,300,000
Spotify is a social networking app which lets you search, discover, and play trending music and podcasts. You can create your own playlists of music or listen to songs from existing playlists. Users can choose songs that suit their current mood.
This application can be used on a wide range of devices and it also allows you to download songs so that you can listen to them later. You can use the all-in podcasting platform to create, distribute, grow, as well as monetize your platform, and spread awareness for your business.
Monthly Active Users (MAU): 450 million
Monthly Organic Traffic: 935,200,000
Pinterest is essentially a one-stop destination for inspiration and discovering new products and ideas. By using the Pinterest app, users can pin the photos or videos. They also have the option to create different boards where they can save different media as per their preference.
Pinterest can be considered a great platform to drive traffic to your website. By using engaging pictures and videos, you can attract your potential audience base. Link the media to your website, so whenever any user clicks on them, they are redirected to your website. Some of the popular topics on this platform are fashion, beauty, home, gardening, and DIY, among others.
Monthly Active Users (MAU): 430 million
Monthly Organic Traffic: 7,200,000,000
In the social media platforms list, Reddit is known as the “front page of the internet.” This is because this app provides users with diverse content including current events, and in-depth discussions of various topics. In this social news and discussion platform, users can share content, vote, and comment on posts.
Reddit is organized into different communities or subreddits which comprises niche topics and helps in connecting users with similar interests. Subreddits have a significant level of engagement. Simply find your category and join the subreddit. Although these do not allow self-promotion, you can engage with members by asking and answering questions, sharing tips and resources, and by participating in discussions.
- X
Monthly Active Users (MAU): 368.4 million
Monthly Organic Traffic: 9,100,000,000
X, formerly known as Twitter, is a microblogging platform. This platform provides the audience with the scope to post about news, sports, entertainment, politics, and more. You can even post pictures and videos. One of the distinctive features of this platform is that you only get 280 characters to post your message.
Twitter was bought by Elon Musk in 2022, it underwent numerous changes with a positive inclination to its increase in web traffic. Therefore, leverage this platform to identify trending topics and audience requirements and use it to gain traffic to your website. Post snippets of your products and gradually increase audience engagement.
Monthly Active Users (MAU): 310 million
Monthly Organic Traffic: 1,600,000,000
LinkedIn is currently one of the most used social networking sites. This platform evolved from a simple job search engine to a platform where you can do professional networking and connect with industry experts.
Make use of the social networking features of LinkedIn to create and share content about your brand. Share about your business, how you function, what sets you apart, and establish thought leadership in your industry. Create a LinkedIn Business Page and use its diverse advertising opportunities including the ability to send users personalized messages. You can also leverage this platform to attract top talents for your business.
- Quora
Monthly Active Users (MAU): 305 million
Monthly Organic Traffic: 1,700,000,000
Quora is one of the top websites where users can post content using the Q&A format. This community-based social media platform helps users find information on a variety of topics which are user-ranked based on views, votes, reviews, and shares.
Create a Quora page for your business or you can opt for employee advocates to answer questions about products or services or topics relevant to your industry. This platform also provides you with an ads platform that you can use to advertise your business and fast-track the process of reaching your potential customers.
- Skype
Monthly Active Users (MAU): 300 million
Monthly Organic Traffic: 50,200,000
Skype is essentially a software that allows people from all over the world to connect via this platform. As a business, you can make free video and voice calls, send instant messages, and even share files and documents. You can use social media platforms on different devices and connect with coworkers, business partners, and customers.
- Microsoft Teams
Monthly Active Users (MAU): 280 million
Monthly Organic Traffic: 1,700,000,000
Microsoft Teams is a tool that makes it easier to connect with people for business. You can use this platform for messaging, doing voice and video calls, host meetings, as well as group discussions.
This tool provides significant opportunities for collaboration with co-workers and clients and you can improve your communication process by staying connected, anytime, anywhere. Moreover, you can conduct online meetings which allows real-time collaboration. This can also increase your productivity, save time as well as help people stay engaged.
- Line
Monthly Active Users (MAU): 230 million
Monthly Organic Traffic: 459,600,000
Line, available for both mobile and desktop, is an instant messaging application. Here, you can message your contacts as well as make voice and video calls. As compared to WhatsApp, Line provides more features. It has a variety of free stickers and functions like a social network and includes a timeline. You can use this app to call any cell or landline number and even conduct group calls with up to 200 participants.
You can create a Line official account and pass the verification process to become verified. YOu can create up to 100 accounts (verified or unverified) with your Line Business ID. Although this option is available in only a select few countries like Indonesia, Japan, Thailand, and Taiwan, you can use this application to connect with potential contacts and make them your customers.
- SoundCloud
Monthly Active Users (MAU): 175 million
Monthly Organic Traffic: 187,600,000
SoundCloud allows users to discover and play music. This platform comprises the largest communities of artists, bands, DJs, as well as audio creators. You can upload, stream, promote, and share music and podcasts for free and paid subscriptions.
Available as an app as well as a desktop version, you can utilize the audio platform and create podcasts about your business. Talk about the important features of your products or services, share industry-related news and updates, and more to attract relevant audiences to drive traffic to your website.
- Vimeo
Monthly Active Users (MAU): 170 million
Monthly Organic Traffic:141,400,000
Vimeo is a video creation platform that allows users to create, edit, and broadcast videos. This platform is essentially used for hosting and distributing movies where users can watch, share, and even post their content. You can find high-quality videos, resizable video players as well as innovative video analytics that help create and present their work in the best possible format.
There are a variety of video-sharing apps on social media. However, Vimeo Creates provides you with a template library that you can use to create your business videos and showcase your brand story to increase your audience reach. You can also share the video on different social platforms like Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram, among others.
- Discord
Monthly Active Users (MAU): 154 million
Monthly Organic Traffic: 771,000,000
Are you a gamer and want to know what social media platform can connect you with other gamers? If you answer yes, then Discord is the communication platform developed primarily for gamers. On this social site, you can create and join different servers and communities to connect with gamers from all over the world. This platform allows you to voice chat and text with other people in real-time.
Discord has a great user interface due to which it is easy for anybody to use it. You can use its customizable features which are compatible with various devices. In the present time, this platform has expanded beyond gaming and is used by businesses, and educational institutions, among others. Therefore, you can use this platform to connect with communities or groups relevant to your business.
- Twitch
Monthly Active Users (MAU): 140 million
Monthly Organic Traffic: 1,700,000,000
Another big social media name in the gaming community is Twitch, a live-streaming platform for gamers. Here, you can find content related to video games as well as other forms of entertainment. Users can create their own channel and stream their live gameplay. They also have the opportunity to interact with their audience through the chat feature.
This platform is even used by professional gamers and teams to broadcast their tournaments. So, if you are a gamer or a game developer, you can significantly leverage this platform to get more information out about your game. As a community-driven app, you can use it to create awareness about your products and even earn money through subscriptions, donations, and sponsorships.
- Tumblr
Monthly Active Users (MAU): 135 million
Monthly Organic Traffic: 363,500,000
Tumber is one of the popular social media websites where you can do microblogging. Users are allowed to share a diverse range of content in different formats such as text, photos, videos, GIFs, links, audio clips, and more.
Users can also share content on a wide variety of topics, niches, or of any interest. You can create and customize your blog design and promote your products. Post relatable content to attract your potential audience base so that you can drive traffic to your website.
- Threads
Monthly Active Users (MAU): 100 million
Monthly Organic Traffic: 84,400,000
If you are a social media person who likes microblogging sites, then you can opt for Threads. This app was launched by Meta in 2023 and is a great alternative to X (Twitter). It even has the scope to become more popular than X. This app from Instagram gained millions of sign-ups within days.
You can use this app to post threads, reply to others, and follow other profiles that you are interested in. In this app, your posts and replies can include short pieces of text, links, photos, videos, or any combination of these media. Use this application and stay on top of the trends to attract an audience for your business.
- VK (Vkontakte)
Monthly Active Users (MAU): 80 million
Monthly Organic Traffic: 1,200,000,000
The VK app is the largest among the European social networks where you can connect with people from all over the world. Similar to Facebook, this platform is so much more. You can watch videos, listen to music, share updates, play games and shop online.
This application provides unlimited features when it comes to communicating, sharing news, business, and entertainment, among others. Therefore, leverage this platform to spread awareness about your products and services. You can also use its corporate messenger app to connect with your clients and co-workers along with getting access to calendars, mail, and other essential services.
- Rumble
Monthly Active Users (MAU): 78 million
Monthly Organic Traffic: 134,300,000
Rumble is an “alt-tech” online video-sharing platform. Similar to YouTube, you can use this application to create and share videos and also begin immediate monetization. This app allows you to share high-quality videos and you can even do live podcasts or streams. If you are a small content creator, then this app can prove to be a great alternative to YouTube.
- Mastodon
Monthly Active Users (MAU): 1.7 million
Monthly Organic Traffic: 1,400,000
Mastodon was launched in 2022 and gained significant popularity within two years. It is essentially a decentralized and open-source software where users can set up servers to communicate with each other.
Users are also allowed to create posts of up to 5000 characters and include images, audio, as well as videos. You can use this app to engage with your target audience by creating accounts, posting relevant content, and by joining servers relevant to your business or industry.
Conclusion
Thus, this concludes our popular social media sites list. Understand the functionality of all the social media apps and identify which apps or platforms are the most suitable for your business. Keep an eye on the latest trends and create engaging content to attract the attention of customers. List down the target audience for your brand and pick a few sites where you can spread awareness for your business and connect with your audience.