Social media usage and social media marketing are both increasing at a rapid pace. As a marketer, your preference must be to use a social media app that’s used by your primary target audience. Or you must go with social media apps that are used extensively such as Facebook (the most used social media app globally). You must know what are the top 10 social media apps to make sure you are using the right platforms to reach your target audience.
This article explores the top 10 social media apps that you must consider using for social media marketing. Here is a list of the top social media apps with global users as of August 2021:
- Facebook (2.85 billion)
- YouTube (2.29 billion)
- Instagram (1.38 billion)
- TikTok (732 million)
- Telegram (550 million)
- Snapchat (514 million)
- Pinterest (478 million)
- Twitter (397 million)
- Quora (300 million)
- WeChat (1.24 billion).
1. Facebook
Facebook is the most used social media app in the world. A whopping 2.85 billion people around the world use Facebook monthly. Facebook ad network offers you a lot of opportunities to reach your target audience. Facebook Business Suite is where you can manage pages, ads, and other business activities.
2. YouTube
YouTube is the world’s leading online streaming platform that has 2.23 billion monthly active global users. The YouTube app is pre-downloaded in almost all android smartphones as it is a Google product. You can run online video ads on YouTube to promote pretty much anything or you can use video marketing to reach and connect your target audience via your YouTube channel.
Read this guide to repurposing content and create professional YouTube videos from blog posts.
3. Instagram
Instagram has more than 1.38 billion monthly active users globally and it is the most used mobile app in the world on Android with 28.84 million downloads. If android users are your primary audience, Instagram turns out to be the best social media app to reach them.
You can run ads on Instagram via Facebook Business Suite. You can run and manage both Facebook and Instagram accounts and ads from a single dashboard. This is a huge plus for social media marketers.
Here is a guide on how to create an Instagram content strategy that you must check to get started with Instagram marketing.
4. TikTok
TikTok is a leading social media app that is famous among teens. It is a video-sharing app that focuses on short videos. It is the 5th most downloaded app on the Google Play Store with more than 20 million downloads.
You can use TikTok to engage with your audience on the platform. Besides, you can use TikTok for business to reach its audience via ads.
5. Telegram
Telegram is a messaging app that’s used by more than 550 million monthly active users. It is a free, open-source, and encrypted messaging app that’s available on Mac, Windows, and Google. Telegram is the 9th most used app on the Google Play Store with 17.37 million active downloads.
If you want to use a messaging app for marketing, nothing will work better than Telegram as it is growing rapidly. Though it doesn’t beat WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger in terms of active users, it is worth a try.
6. Snapchat
With 514 million active users, Snapchat is the 3rd most downloaded app in the Google Play store. Statistics show that 6 in 10 US users between 13 and 24 use Snapchat. If you want to target youngsters, Snapchat is the best social media app to use.
You can use Snapchat Ads to run cost-effective ads to promote anything on the platform.
7. Pinterest
Pinterest is the best social media app for image marketing. If you want to reach your audience via images and graphics, you must use Pinterest. It has 478 million active users worldwide and is famous among people of all ages.
The best thing about Pinterest is that its images perform very well in Google SERPs. Your images will start ranking and driving traffic. This makes Pinterest a must-have for image-focused businesses such as designing, infographics, etc.
8. Twitter
Twitter is a goldmine for B2B marketing. It has 397 million active global users making it one of the top social media apps. Twitter is all about short text posts and this makes it an idea for businesses, customer support, and sharing news and updates.
It isn’t as popular among teens as some of the other social media apps. Twitter also lets businesses run ads on Twitter that you can access here.
9. Quora
Quora isn’t specifically a social media app but since I’m its big fan, I have included it in this list.
And here is why…
It has more than 300 million active users all over the world and is the most famous question-answer platform in the world. You can run ads on Quora to engage with its users and you can use it for content marketing. Here is a guide on how to use Quora for content marketing.
10. WeChat
WeChat is the 6th most popular social media network in the world with 1.24 billion active users. It is mostly used by the Chinese (being a China-based messaging app) so it doesn’t get love from marketers in the US.
However, it is a must-have if you are targeting China. It is a multi-purpose social media app that supports calls, chats, mobile payments, and much more. Don’t miss it if you are interested in reaching Chinese markets.
What’s the Right Social Media App for Your Business?
It’s a million-dollar question with no answer, unfortunately.
You know what are the top 10 social media apps but it doesn’t tell you how to be successful on these apps. The effectiveness of a social media app is based on two key factors: How you use it for marketing and does your target audience use the app.
If you’ll publish promotional videos of t-shirts for teens on Twitter, the probability of failing your campaign is significantly higher as opposed to running the same video on YouTube (a platform that’s famous among teens.
Choose the social media app smartly. You know where to begin, right?
Featured Image: Pexels
