Social media is constantly evolving, and it can be hard to keep up with the latest trends and platforms. To help you stay up to date, we've compiled a list of the 10 most popular social media platforms of 2021. From TikTok to Discord, these platforms offer a variety of opportunities for brands and influencers to reach their target market. TikTok has become one of the most popular social media platforms in recent years. With over 800 million monthly active users, it's no surprise that brands and influencers have taken advantage of the platform to market products and build brand followers.
This has also led to purchases on TikTok, which allow users to purchase products without having to leave the application. Discord is another platform that has been gaining traction in recent months. With 150 million monthly active users, it's a great platform for community management and participation. Discord allows you to better control the alert functions for people in your group and assign roles to people so that no one is overwhelmed by notifications.
It has also gone from being a gamer-focused platform to incorporating opportunities for companies. One important thing for marketers and brands to keep in mind is that Discord allows first-party data tracking. Twitch is a live streaming service that originally specialized in video games and e-sports. With 140 million monthly active users, it's another platform that brands should pay attention to in order to take advantage of marketing opportunities.
Twitch content spans many industries and topics, such as games, music, sports, travel, food, beverages and special events, creating a variety of ways for marketers to reach their target market. Brands have started collaborating with Twitch streamers to help promote products and share tips in their live broadcasts. Instagram is already an incredibly popular social media platform with more than 1 billion monthly active users. But within the platform there is a newer feature, Instagram Reels, which allows users to share multi-clip videos of 15 to 60 seconds with audio and different effects, similar to TikTok.
In addition, marketers can use Instagram Reels algorithms to improve their Instagram content strategy. Patreon is another popular platform with more than 8 million monthly active users. Through Patreon, creators offer monthly subscriptions that give people access to different types of content and bonuses, divided into different monthly membership levels. Many freelancers and brands use Patreon to promote and manage their subscriptions to their podcasts and other content. Twitter is a widely used social media platform with more than 229 million daily active users.
A brand's teams can even co-host a live event and add up to 10 additional speakers to create more attractive events. In the case of Twitter Spaces, users can contribute by entering messages or sending emojis, which establishes a more inclusive sense of community. In addition, Twitter Spaces is a great place to inform your followers about upcoming promotions or products. Spotify has a huge monthly active user base of 422 million, making it a strong competitor among emerging platforms. Spotify Greenroom creates a space where followers can listen to live music and podcasts.
In addition, Spotify Greenroom targets listeners with diverse interests, meaning that there are opportunities for a wide range of brands. Clubhouse has 10 million weekly active users around the world. It's an audio-based social network where people can join conversations about various topics or start their own conversations with others who are interested in the same topics. The five most popular social media platforms in the world are Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook Messenger. TikTok comes right after that, but Snapchat is number 11, Twitter is number 15, and LinkedIn isn't even there. Twitter Spaces is the app's most recent audio feature which is still in beta version but open to anyone with an iOS device. This voice chat alternative allows users to have conversations beyond 280-character tweets from the social platform.
Research from HubSpot Blog revealed that 65% of social media marketers ranked live audio chat rooms among the three most effective social media formats. Facebook remains the largest social media platform in the world due its versatility which makes it an ideal choice for just about anything. While 80% of customers interact with brands on social media, not all social media platforms are designed for this use case. Krystal Wu, former director of the social media community at HubSpot said that TikTok is infiltrating brand territory. When asked which social media platforms they feel most secure on to protect their privacy and data, consumers ranked LinkedIn first and Instagram, Twitter, TikTok and Facebook last. As a professional business-based social network LinkedIn is best for B2B marketing but Twitter has the lowest reach of all social media platforms in terms of advertising audience (6.5%, compared to Facebook at 36.7%).It's important for brands and influencers alike to experiment with different platforms in order to find out which ones work best for them.
While TikTok is a great place to experiment and it doesn't seem like it's going away anytime soon, there's always the possibility that a very specialized platform such as Clubhouse will be overshadowed by a larger competitor like Twitter Spaces. Make sure you use your experimentation time wisely and on the right platforms so you can get the most out of your efforts!.
