Introduction
Marketing trends have been changing at a remarkably high pace over the last decade. Previously, marketing was reliant only on mainstream media, flyers, banners, and billboards. However, social media marketing has become the new normal and is part of our daily routine now. Besides, COVID-19 has forced many businesses, enterprises and institutions to transform their conventional business playbooks by making online presence and started engaging their customers using online platforms. In 2020, businesses are relying more on social media. Everyone is in rush to gather as much audience as possible to grow their business.
Initially, Social media marketing started with publishing related content. Businesses were sharing their content on social media, resultantly generating traffic to their websites and, hopefully, conversions leading to sales. But social media has evolved far beyond.
Nowadays, businesses use social media for many purposes. For example, businesses are very much concerned about what their audience is saying about their brand. They would check related hashtags, related conversations and respond to mentions to gain trust and business.
Now, businesses are assessed based on their engagement, reach and sales on social platforms using analytics tools. A business that wants to reach a specific set of audience at scale would run highly targeted social media ad campaigns. Therefore, social media management is vital to growing an online presence.
Every year, social media users are growing fast. In 2010, these numbers were not even a billion, but within five years reach up to 2 billion. According to an estimate by Statista, the number of social media users in 2019 was 2.77 billion. In July 2020, this figure has reached 3.96 billion.
In the era of internet and smartphones with better connectivity devices, accessing social media has become cheaper and easier. This shows marketers that there is a tremendous ability to approach a huge and committed audience on social media. However, it isn’t just limited to a few popular social media sites like Instagram, Twitter and Facebook; now, there are many social media platforms that we can consider.
Businesses worldwide are exploring more social media domains to advertise their business, as people around the world are also in search of new platforms to spend their time and interact with others. In the perspective of this, today, we will show you 30 social media site that you should consider for social media marketing in 2020.
List of 30 Social Media Sites You Need to Know in 2020
Twitter is a social media micro-blogging platform that allows users to involve in trending topics and related conversations. Last year, Twitter had more than 330 million monthly active users (MAU). Twitter users send 200 billion tweets annually. Because of having a substantial number of users, it is one of the best platforms for marketers and business owners.
Twitter lets companies advertise their products or services in small message usually known as tweets that give you space of 140 characters and appears on the timeline of people who follow them. Tweets can hold Animated GIF, video, Emoji photo, text, Hashtag, links of business websites and so on.
Companies or business also use twitter to supply customer service. Some companies have quick responsive customer support around the clock and answer at once, hence enhancing brand loyalty and recognition. It is a particularly useful social media site for marketers.
Facebook is the biggest social media platform integrated with an intelligent system that can give you lucrative results to grow your business quickly. In 2020, it has 2.7 billion monthly active users. Everyone around us is on Facebook. With such a large audience, it is the best platform for marketers to advertise their services or products to an enormous audience.
Facebook users can share links, images, text posts and videos with others. Users can also follow influencers, pages, join/create groups and play games. They can also react, comment on posts and so on. It is always improving and has many new features for better user experience. Marketers or companies can also use this platform to advertise their services or products by using Facebook paid ads option.
Facebook pages are more spacious than twitter accounts. They allow marketers to post photos, longer descriptions, videos and links related to their product or services. Where followers can mention others in comments to see.
As of May 2015, 93% of marketers use this platform to advertise their products or services. It will also provide you with various demographic information to target your specific audience. Facebook is the best social media site for marketers to promote their services or products.
Instagram is the most famous social media website. It is an app-based social media platform, but users can access Instagram through the Instagram website version. As in 2019, Instagram claims that they have reached 1 billion monthly active users. Instagram is an extremely visual social media site, where Instagram users can share images and videos. The Instagram Stories and Live features are also available to use. Instagram is quite famous among Gen Zs. According to Statista report, 32 per cent Instagram users are 18 to 24 and 33 per cent are of 25 to 34 years of age.
According to the latest studies, it is confirmed that 93% of renown businesses or brands are on Instagram and use this platform for their marketing purpose. When we talk about companies or business, Instagram’s purpose is to aid brands to get access to their audience. Furthermore, it gives a platform where brands and user can interact directly. Instagram is building itself as a suitable stage for marketers to reach their audience.
YouTube
YouTube is an exceptional video-sharing social media platform on the internet. Visual information is always catchy to earthlings and that is the reason YouTube has gained a great interest among people of every age worldwide in no time. It is the most intelligent platform for marketing. Not only paid advertisement, but your content is also shown to the world very smartly and you can grow your organic audience by posting consistent content leading to growing your business quickly.
In 2019, YouTube had 2 billion monthly active users. People spend 40 minutes a day on average watching YouTube videos. It is the most famous platform where advertisements are done in such a way that suits the target viewers. Marketers use that type of language and ideas in commercials to promote the product that matches the people’s taste and style. Usually, the commercials on YouTube are compatible with the video content, which is a huge advantage that YouTube gives to marketers. Some commercials are displayed with specific videos because the content of ad and video is related, and some are given based on the interests of the target audience. Marketers can also avail the promotional opportunities on YouTube such as sponsoring a video. Anyway, YouTube is the most suitable social media site for marketers in the current time.
Tumblr
Tumblr is one of the renowned social media platforms. People here connect based on their interests. Tumblr is one of the best social media platforms used for expressing yourself and very much famous among young generation. In May 2020, Tumblr had 327.5 million users around the world. This social media website started ads on May 29, 2012. Instead of depending on standard advertisements, Tumblr demands advertisers, to make a Tumblr blog, so it can be posted on the website. In only one year four primary ad forms were designed on this blogging website. Now, hundreds of companies are marketing on this blogging website with many sponsored posts. Tumblr is also one of the lucrative platforms for marketers to consider.
LinkedIn is a well-known social media website. It is incredibly famous among professional and a B2B audience. LinkedIn is growing rapidly and currently has 690 million users. LinkedIn allows its members to expand their professional connections, show their portfolios, search and apply for a job. It is also an outstanding social media site to share your skills and abilities. You can also post blogs on this platform. LinkedIn offers its users the opportunity to produce business partners. You can run “company pages” just like Facebook pages to make a platform that will help the marketer to advertise their services or products and enables them to communicate with buyers. LinkedIn is the most reliable platform; renowned companies preferably use this platform for recruitment of workers instead of various jobs portals. It is the most trusted social media site, most suitable for famous brands and professionals to interact.
Pinterest is an image-sharing social media website with a remarkably high number of views. Pinterest allows users to create themed “boards” and attach products and images on them. Companies are also allowed to form “shoppable pins,” so the customer can directly buy through them. Until last year, Pinterest gains 335 million active users. Such a vast number of users formed more than 200 billion pins on over 4 billion boards.
Pinterest allows businesses and retailers to create pages for promoting their services or products online as a “virtual shop front.”
Back in 2013, this famous social media platform launched a tool “Rich Pins” to improve the experience of consumers while browsing by pins offered by sellers or companies. Marketing pages can add multiple topics, information and data such as films ratings, products prices and so on. Pinterest revealed “buyable pins” in June 2015 that can help users to buy products from Pinterest. While in October 2018, these buyable pins option was renewed by “Product Pins”.
In March 2019, this social media website included products lists and customized buying suggestions by the “more from the brand” option. Showing a variety of products from the same company or business. Pinterest has many lucrative tools and ways to target the right audience and get conversions.
Reddit is the most renowned social media website; mostly used as news collection, discussion and web content rating platform. Reddit’s users can present their content to the website such as posts, texts, images and links. which are then upvoted or downvoted by other users. The content is arranged by theme into user-created boards named as “subreddits”. It covers an immense variety of subjects like science, politics, videogames, pets, movies, news, sports, books, music, image sharing and cooking.
Reddit is a social media platform for people to communicate with other users on any relevant subject. It has an exceptionally considerable number of users, which is more than 430 million monthly active users. It gets vast numbers of visitors from the USA, Canada and the UK. With such a huge audience, Reddit is an ideal place for marketers to work on.
Viber
Viber is a simple calling and messaging app just like other famous social media messaging apps like Messenger, WhatsApp and so on. It enables users to send multimedia messages to share stickers, GIFs and calls. Viber has more than 260 million monthly active users. By having such a huge audience, it is one of the best platforms for marketers to target their audience. Viber offers many opportunities for brands and businesses. As a marketer, you can display your products in the shopping section, can also buy ads, engage your community, promote your product or services by using stickers. You can also supply customer service to your customers. As this platform has a huge audience and fair marketing options, is an ideal place for marketers.
Snapchat
Snapchat is another one of the most famous social media platforms that allow users to share videos and photos that will remain posted for 24 hours. It has the stories feature, which become extremely popular and finally proliferated on other social sites. This social media platform is ideal for marketers. As this platform has 187 million daily active users. Also, it is the best place to target the specific niche-based audience as this social media app is very much popular among teenagers worldwide. Marketers can use Snapchat for advertising by covering prompt events like a concert, conference or a new product launching ceremony. Snapchat growth and advertisers interested in using this platform to advertise their product is increasing generally. This platform also allows advertisers to create custom, branded geotags to advertise unique events in particular locations during a certain period. A Snapchat is growing rapidly by the time so it can be a good platform for marketers to consider for marketing.
Mix – Previously, StumbleUpon
Previously StumbleUpon that is now called Mix is a unique platform of its kind. Unlike other social websites that focus on demography and relative contacts, Mix is a unique platform as it works on favourite content on randomly accessed webpages for the users. Mix helps its users to find interesting websites depending upon their interest. It has more than 25 million registered users. Mix is also a suitable platform for marketers. It may not help you in targeting the audience, but it might be immensely helpful for marketers to increase their e-commerce store or websites traffic. You must create videos, infographics and research pieces and post all this content on this platform to attract customers. Furthermore, if you want more audience for a specific page, then Mix also offers affordable paid discovery tools.
Medium
Medium is one of the most famous blogging websites that have some social media network components to it. It is free for all. Anyone can publish their content on this website, and it is also free to read them. But some articles are for only those members who pay for it. Medium is the most renowned content publishing website with 60 million monthly active users. So, it is an excellent place for marketers to target the specific audience on this platform. On the Medium, not only original content is published but companies and brands also republish their blogs on this platform to increase their customers reach. In the present time, Medium is the most ideal platform for marketers.
Telegram
In recent times, Messaging apps earned more users than social media websites. Telegram is one of the newest messaging apps gaining popularity worldwide. It is a messaging app, which is quite like WhatsApp, as you can use it to send free messages. All messages shared on this app are encrypted. In terms of security, Telegram is the best app to use for messaging. It allows its users to create a group of 200,000 individuals, which is the highest numbers than any other messaging platform. Telegram has 400 million-plus monthly active users. Its popularity provides advertisers with a new way to distribute content related to their product or brand. There are many ways marketers can make use of Telegram. They can make chatbots for the Telegram app or use Telegram’s channel feature to spread the message to a huge audience.
In the present time, WhatsApp is the most renowned messaging app. It allows its users to share videos, images, text messages, audio files, voice notes and documents. Over the years, WhatsApp has expanded exceptionally as it has 2 billion monthly active users.
Besides its increasing users, the WhatsApp has also launched many new options to make communications easier between users.
Now, it has many new features like group calling, a status feature that lets the user update video, photo or text statuses that disappeared after 24 hours.
Initially, WhatsApp is used to communicate with friends and family but gradually, people began to do business through WhatsApp.
So, WhatsApp started developing its business platform to enable businesses to own a decent business profile. To share updates with the buyer and to supply customers’ support. WhatsApp Business App is suitable for small businesses while for large businesses, you can use WhatsApp Business API.
Line
Line is a famous social messaging app that enables users to share stickers, messages, play games, shop online, make payments and request for vehicles. It is popular among many countries in Asia. This year, it has 84 million monthly active users. Due to having such a large audience, it is a favourite platform for marketers to create an official account to advertise and share news about their product or services, that will appear on their followers’ timeline.
If your business has a potential audience in China and other parts of Asia, WeChat is a must-have choice to consider. It started as a messaging app, just like WhatsApp, but has evolved enormously and is integrated into all-in-one app. WeChat users are now able to shop online, transfer money, hire vehicles and make payments. It is particularly useful for marketers for the advertisement for their products in those regions where Facebook and other social media websites are banned. As of 2019 report, it has1 billion monthly active users. WeChat has a ridiculously huge audience and that is why it can be an ideal platform for marketers to use for advertisement of their product or services.
Wattpad
Wattpad is another social media blogging platform for writers and readers, which has considerable potential to grow your business visibility to the next level. Wattpad users generated a substantial number of stories over many different genres like humour, poetry, fanfiction and fiction. This platform has currently 80 million monthly active users. It is also an ideal platform for marketers to make a blog post about their products and gain huge traffic on their website.
Twitch
Twitch is a video streaming website. It is mostly used by gamers or games enthusiast to strum their gameplay or to watch other gamers who play the game. Twitch users can communicate with live videos from gamers and can leave a comment on their videos. Twitch has about 15 million daily active users.
It is the best place for marketers or businesses related to the gaming industry. Because the huge audience of Twitch users are gaming enthusiast, so it is the best place to target that specific audience by sponsoring videos.
DeviantArt
DeviantArt is the world’s largest social media platform for artists and art lovers. On this famous platform, user can share their artwork, can interact with other artists, and see the artwork of other artists. It has currently 48 million registered members. It is also the best stage for related business marketers to target the relevant niche audience on this platform. DeviantArt has evolved over a period and you can provide services to artists who want to expand their businesses in other domains.
ReverbNation
ReverbNation was set up in 2006. It is one of the most famous social media sites for musicians. ReverbNation allows them to promote their music on this platform and get a large audience. Musicians on this website can earn money by selling their music to the fans or by giving them to major digital platforms. Furthermore, this social media platform also provides you with some features and tools to help musicians to strengthen their careers. This website has more than 3.8 million users. ReverbNation is a huge market for musicians to buy music enthusiasts and get a huge audience of related niche.
Influenster
Have you ever gotten double minded while buying a certain product online as you don’t know how the product would be when you get it? This is the issue that Influenster can sort it out for you. Influenster is the best socialising website of its kind. It is a product discovery and review platform where you can see honest reviews about the specific product from other customers. There is a wide variety of products reviews ranging from electronics to beauty and makeup. You can also present your review of the products you have used. Or as a marketer, ask about your product and services you offer and use the feedback to make your products and services better.
Influenster could measure every user’s impact on others by gathering data from famous social media websites. Based on this report or analysis, users can become a part of influencer marketing campaigns in their related field. Influenster has more than 4 million users. So, it is a terrific opportunity for marketers, businesses, and brands to target their specific audience.
TikTok
TikTok is the most famous short video sharing platform. It was launched in 2016 and become exceedingly popular within a brief time.
TikTok is very much popular for its lip-sync videos and has more than 800 million monthly active users that makes it in the list of top social media platforms in the world in terms of absolute user figures.
50% of the TikTok audience is below the age of 35 in the United States. This is the best platform for marketers also to promote their brand and reach their targeted audience. These brands can make their channel on TikTok and upload related videos. You can also work with an influencer to advertise their content on a wider level.
Quora
Quora is another one of the greatest social networking websites. This is a huge platform for people to ask questions and can give the answer to the questions about the various subjects and categories.
Quora covers everything from career and mythology to marketing and language.
If you have any question and you search it on Google, but you didn’t get a satisfactory answer, you can post it on the Quora website in a related category. You can also give answers to anyone on a specific topic. It had 300 million monthly active users. With such a huge audience it will be an incredibly attractive place for marketers to increase the circle of their audience.
We Heart It
We Heart It was launched in 2008. It is another most renowned images-sharing social media platform. Here people can find and select their ideal images to add them into their collection. The platform allows you to create a channel of your relating field. There are several channels on it of distinct categories like music, art, quotes, school, and many more. Users can visit these channels to look for their required image. It has approximately 45 million users. It almost works like Pinterest, also has a huge audience. Marketers can also consider it, as a fast-growing marketing place to get customers.
Ravelry
As there are different social media websites for every field and interest. Ravelry is a social media website dedicated to those people who are an enthusiast of crocheting and knitting. By this website, they can communicate with other people who are equally interested in the same field. They can talk about ideas, interest, inspiration, and partnership. Also, connect with other people to expand their work. Ravelry is also the best platform for those marketers who are somehow related to this field. As of March 2020, this social media platform has 1 million monthly active users. So, it is the best platform for specific niche-based businesses to target a huge audience of interest. You can also offer services to the users that are interested in expanding their businesses. For example, someone wants to sell products online, you can offer services by recommending them different companies that can help them through it in the process.
Ello
Ello is a social media platform for the community of artists. It is the best platform to connect with creators from around the world. You can use this platform to present your work and you can see other artists masterpiece and can communicate with them. If you aren’t an artist, don’t despair, you can still check out the excellent work done by the others on this platform. Ello currently has 1,000,000 users. It is a great platform for artists to display their work to the entire world. For marketers, it is also an excellent place to offer niche-based services.
Vimeo
Vimeo is also a video-sharing social media website. It is a little bit like Twitch and YouTube. On this platform, you can post videos or do live video sessions, just like you can do on other video sharing websites. But there is a difference between Vimeo and other video-sharing platforms; it is a paid video-sharing website and its plans start from $7/month. Vimeo currently has 240 million monthly active users. So, for marketers sharing content on this platform can give them a good conversion rate.
Viadeo
Viadeo is a web professional social media networking website. Mostly its members include entrepreneurs, business owners and managers that can connect with one another. It is very much famous in Europe and the United States. Main language is French, though It is also available in other languages like German, English and Portuguese. In 2014, this platform had 65 million users. It is a great platform for businesses in Europe and American Continents.
Xing is a career-oriented social platform that helps people to expand their professional contacts. It can be extremely useful for a person looking for a job and for those who are looking for hiring a person for a job. XING helps people to search for a job, and help people to find professional events like seminars, webinars, trade shows and conferences. It has currently 16 million members and is growing quite fast.
Meetup
Meetup is a social media platform where you can connect with people based on the interest and location. As from name you can connect with people in-person or virtually. Virtual meetups started recently in perspective to ongoing pandemic. This step has made meetup a more attractive platform for meetups as people who are of similar interests but living in different part of the world can interact in webinars more conveniently. For marketers, this is a fantastic opportunity as they can catch up with the audience of their niche that can lead to conversions at a larger scale.
Bottomline
Being a marketer using these platforms would help you grow your organic audience conveniently at much larger scale in lesser time. Many people worldwide are switching to online businesses, and many of us have joined online world as a necessity of time, which is definitely outcome of the ongoing pandemic.
For marketing your first step is to figure out who is your audience? What they need from you and how can you engage them. Then, you have to choose multiple social media platforms from those we have discussed. And the final thing that is pivotal, is to engage them by telling them how much you know about the services and products that you are offering and how much value it has for your audience. This can be achieved by posting consistent, engaging and informative content based on proper market research and your expertise in that specific niche. The more valuable your information is, the more organic audience you will get leading to conversions.
If you want to grow your online presence, feel free to contact us here and one of the experts will catch up with you and can help you through the process.