Social Media Sites Dominating the 21st Century
Over the years, there has been a significant shift in the world’s most popular social networking sites, and they’ll continue to change as time moves forward. Old social networks are bound to transition or fade out of popularity, some will stick around as they evolve, and new multinational technology and social media companies are likely to rise from the imagination of tech-savvy enthusiasts.
Social media is not and never will be limited to sharing personal experiences, and a lot of business entrepreneurs have caught on. Social media plays a significant role in online marketing. It gives marketers a way to communicate with existing customers and prospects through a medium that acts as their voice. It personalizes brands and helps spread messages in a relaxed and conversational way.
In 2017, 71% of internet users were social network users, and the numbers are only expected to grow. But what exactly is everyone using right now? Take a look at this updated roundup of social media sites to see which ones are currently dominating the 21st century.
There’s no question that Facebook is one of the top social networking sites on the web. With more than 1.59 billion users, Facebook dominates with the largest blend of demographics for any social platform. For business entrepreneurs, Facebook provides an extraordinary medium to connect with prospective customers from all over the world. From an advertising perspective, it’s also the easiest platform to manage and allows for the best possible targeting.
Youtube
When it comes to uploading, watching, and sharing online videos, no other website can compete with Youtube. Despite being owned by Google, YouTube is the second largest search engine and is recognized as a separate social network from its parent.
From personal vlogs to music videos and movies — YouTube has it all. Aside from the ads that pop up in almost every video, everyone’s a fan of how Youtube provides a space for internet users to watch quality content for free. YouTube also has a premium subscription option called YouTube Red, which removes all advertisements from videos. More recently, the thriving social media beast also offers YouTubeTV, a separate live streaming subscription service.
Instagram 
Ever since its release in 2010, Instagram has continued to grow as one of the most popular social networking sites for photo sharing, particularly on the mobile web. It is also the ultimate platform for sharing real-time photos and short videos while on the go.
Instagram is also a leading advertising platform for brands and influencers who generate income through the social media site.
Though initially, the app was limited to the iOS platform, it grew in popularity and expanded to Windows and Android, along with the web. In 2012, Instagram was bought for a whopping $1 billion by Facebook.
Twitter is known as a public microblogging network where news breaks first. Most users loved it for its original, iconic 140-character limit (now 280 characters), and unfiltered feed that showed users absolutely everything in the form of tweets or short sentences.
Over the years, Twitter has changed dramatically. Developers have faced critique for altering the platform to look and function almost exactly like Facebook. Besides Twitter Card integration, which makes it easy to share all sorts of multimedia content through tweets, you can also expect to see algorithmic timelines coming to Twitter.
Reddit is one of the few popular sites that never really had the most intricate design. But don’t let that fool you. Reddit has a robust and smart community of users who come together to discuss their topics of choice while sharing links, photos, and videos relevant to the subreddit thread they’re participating in.
Reddit AMAs are another unique feature, which allows users to ask hosting celebrities and other public figures questions. Reddit functions by displaying submitted links that get voted up or down by users and the topics that receive the most upvotes will get pushed to the first page of their subreddits.
Pinterest proves just how significant visual content has become on the internet by becoming a major player and game changer both in social networking and in the search world. As the fastest standalone site to reach 10 million monthly unique visits, Pinterest’s unique and intuitive pinboard-style function is one of the most enticing and helpful resources for collecting the best images, which you can easily categorize into separate boards.
Pinterest is also a growing e-commerce platform by featuring “Buy” buttons on pins of products sold by retailers.
Google+
Google+ became the fastest growing social network on the web when it debuted in the early summer of 2011, but nobody wanted another Facebook, which is why Google+ had been widely criticized for being a social platform that nobody ever uses.
Towards the end of 2015, Google+ had a makeover that aimed to differentiate them from Facebook. Google’s team decided to put more emphasis on their Communities and Collections features, which ultimately gave existing users more of what they wanted.
If you are working in a B2B field, LinkedIn is the social media network for you to focus on. LinkedIn is like an online curriculum vitae, which is the ideal platform for professionals. Anyone who loves making new connections in order to advance their careers should take advantage of its features. Each profile is designed to look like a detailed resume, with sections for work experiences, achievements, certifications, educational attainments, volunteer works, and all sorts of other work-related information.
LinkedIn users can promote themselves and their businesses by establishing connections with other professionals, posting job ads, applying to jobs, interacting in group discussions, publishing articles to LinkedIn pulse, and so much more.
Snapchat
Snapchat is an entirely mobile-based social networking application that thrives on instant messaging. It’s one of the fastest growing apps out there and is the first to introduce something new to the table in a very long time. Building its popularity on the idea of “snaps,” you can send a photo or short video as a message to a friend, which automatically disappears a few seconds after they’ve viewed it. Snapchat also has a one-of-a-kind feature called Stories, which allows users to share snaps publicly whenever they want, but would disappear after an allotted 24 hours.
Unfortunately, when Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel refused to sell the app to Facebook for $3 billion, the concept behind Snapchat was instead integrated into Instagram and Facebook’s systems. Nonetheless, people still love the app because of its originality.
Stand out in social media today.
Social media marketing assists in validating your brand. Your social media presence, when done correctly, tells consumers that your brand focused on thriving communication. If you require assistance in this field, PrimeView can help you strategize and find ways to maximize your social media visibility. Call us today at 480-970-4688 to request a free quote.
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