Nowadays, we are surrounded by different types of social media platforms. No matter where we look, we can always observe everyone using their smartphone. Do you know what they are doing? Sharing content with different social media outlets. They are sharing videos, pictures and images, and important events in their lives.
Yet, do you know that there are different types of social media? It is not Facebook and Instagram only. In this case, we will tell you its types, platforms, and the most used social media community. We will also share with you what kind of media fits best for each community.
What is Social Media?
Social media is a web-based application that allows its user to efficiently communicate with anyone, to share different types of content, and information electronically in real-time.
The most common social media today are Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok, Youtube, LinkedIn, etc. These social media allow everybody who is interested to use their platforms for free. However, some of them have premium subscriptions to unlock premium subscriptions.
You can share whatever content you want to on their platform as long as it doesn’t violate their regulations and policies.
Types of Social Media Platforms
Social Networking Sites
This platform focuses on connecting with others.
The most common application nowadays that fits the category of Social Networking Sites are Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
These web applications are platforms to share different contents. Also, as stated, it allows the users to communicate with other people in real-time and seamlessly.
Furthermore, marketers also find the potential sales from these social media platforms. These help them to showcase their products, boost brand awareness, relationship building and increase their revenues.
Among the three networking sites, Facebook has the advantage of having 2.7 billion monthly users across the globe. Making it the best platform for marketers to show ads.
On the other hand, Twitter and LinkedIn, remain the best platforms to connect with professionals, and other known personalities and individuals.
Photo Sharing Sites
Today, the best way for digital marketing to excel on this platform is thru visual content. This means the posting of images and photos has become the best option for brands to promote business.
With this in mind, web applications such as Snapchat, Instagram, and Pinterest have emerged.
Not only these sites focus on image sharing, but you can also upload and share video content. The # one web application in this category is Instagram, with 1.22 billion users around the globe. Then followed by these two behemoth applications, Pinterest and Snapchat.
What makes them great for digital marketing is their ability to promote brands, thru hashtags. Aside from that, it allows brands to capture photos of their products, and show them off on the platform, without using the traditional way of blogging and writing length content.
Video Sharing Networking Sites
Static content is not the only way to promote a product and increase brand awareness, but also showcasing it via video, and using video sharing platforms.
Widely know platforms in this category are YouTube and Tiktok. YouTube has 2.27 billion users, making it the second widely used social media platform, and first in video sharing criteria.
Video contents attract individuals who are into video tutorials and reviews. It makes the viewers act effortlessly because it doesn’t require them to read or scroll, but just watch the entire video. These characteristics made it to be a massive community for content creators.
YouTube has become the number 1 source of educational videos. How-to’s and tutorials are some of its highlights that make it the number 2 platform of social media networking sites.
Both video-sharing applications can provide marketers the chance to show off their brands. Also, this method allows them to teach on how to use their brands, and sell more products.
Blogging Websites
Many people are cynical about traditional blogging. They are telling that it is dead, that image and video contents are the new norms. However, it is not the case with Medium. They still believe that blogging or written content is still a popular way to connect with professionals, brands, and people.
One way to attract potential customers is through SEO or Search Engine Optimization. The ability to write a blog that ranks on the first page of search engines like Google can benefit marketers.
Your consistent publication in Medium builds your authority in a specific niche, making you the go-to of readers and viewers.
It is consisting of almost all niches around the globe. Making it the best space for bloggers to publish. You know what, you can monetize your own page in Medium. Just build your space, authority, and write frequently.
If you are somehow a tech-savvy person, you can build your own website, and start your own blog. There might be some technical process to do before publishing your first content, but building this portfolio will help you build portfolio, authority, and expertise on a specific topic.
Unlike Medium where you’ll only publish your content, in WordPress, you have to pay for hosting services, and domain name hosting to get going. There is a free plan in WordPress, but we don’t recommend you to use it.
Either way, you can use both of them simultaneously for optimal reach and engagements.
Discussion Networks
If you are looking for opinions, public forums, share news and information, discussion networks should be your go-to platform. Popular names in this category include Quora and Reddit.
If you are not satisfied with the video content on YouTube, you might want to read expert reviews and answers on Quora and Reddit.
Basically, Quora is a community that answers relatively any questions posted on its newsfeed by any person who is looking for a definitive answer. If you like the answer of a person and find it valuable, you can upvote his answer making it the best recommendation for that question.
Reddit on the other hand, with 430 million active users, offers great answers related to science and technology researches. But, that’s not the only niche it can solve, but also, finance, memes, debates, entertaining and interesting discussions
Quora and Reddit allow their users to express their thinking and opinions, making it popular to connect with other brands, and professionals as well.
Final Thoughts
We are all blown off by the different types of social media platforms. These platforms have become entertainment sites that help to relieve stress, communicate with other people, showcase brands and products, and place to get ideas and information.
The downside of using these applications is that they gather some of our personal information, invading our privacy rights. Did you know that these organizations keep some of your data?
Your privacy matters. You should be vigilant always when browsing the web.
If you are using web browsers to use these social media platforms, make sure to follow our instructions on how to keep your privacy secure, and how to clean your browsers as well.
