The most popular social networks

Social networks are online platforms designed for sharing information and content, for communication and other social interactions. They are used for recreation, work and entertainment. As a rule, they have a large set of diverse features and provide an opportunity to post and consume content, unlike simple messengers. Around the world, social networks are used by billions of people, making them a good internet marketing tool.

Electronic bulletin boards, which developed when there was no Internet yet, in the 1980s, were the forerunners of social networking. In 1988, there were more than 5,000 of them. But the first standard social network is considered to be the Classmates.com service, which began its work in the United States in 1995.

The social media boom took place in the early 2000s with the emergence of well-known platforms such as LinkedIn (2002) and Facebook (2003).

In the article below, we will look at a list of social networks that have gained the most popularity among users.

1. Facebook

Facebook is the largest social network in the world. The number of monthly active users reaches almost 3 billion people (which is about 37% of the world’s population).

The social network began its journey at Harvard in 2004. Its founder, Mark Zuckerberg, quickly made it available to other educational institutions. After some time, it could be used not only by students, but also by absolutely anyone. This is how Facebook began to gather millions of people.

This site is not difficult to get started on as it supports all content formats – text, videos, images, stories – well. Here you can send messages to your friends, post thoughts and opinions on your page and update your current status.

The social network has a very diverse and wide audience – by age, gender, interests, location and occupation. This makes it a very effective platform for promoting goods and services and doing business. There are more than 200 million businesses of all sizes and about 7 million advertisers registered on Facebook.

2. YouTube

This is the world’s most famous and popular video sharing platform, which belongs to Google. The service was launched in 2005, and already in 2006, its audience amounted to about 100 million people. By 2020, the number of its users reached 2 billion. Billions of hours of video are viewed here every day.

By now, everyone knows what YouTube is. It has an audience of all ages, genders and social statuses, and everyone uses it.

This social network can be called an Internet analogue of television, here you can find everything you want:

• news videos and blogs;
• music videos;
• reviews of products, services and content;
• entertainment videos of various kinds;
• feature and documentary series and movies;
• TV shows and other videos.

But today, it’s not just a tool for sharing videos, it’s also a channel for promoting your own brand. So, if you are promoting your business with video, you need to add YouTube to your marketing strategy.

3. Twitter

This social network was created in 2006 and it was planned to be used for news. Today, it is a large and very famous platform for young people, which is mainly used for entertainment and creative purposes.

There are about 380 million monthly active users who post about 500 million tweets in their accounts. The size of these posts should be small – up to 280 characters, but you can attach photos or videos to them.

Many celebrities and world leaders are registered on Twitter, so it is easy for their fans to follow the daily life of their idols.

This social network has also become famous for the fact that it was here that they invented the use of hashtags (# – the most popular symbols for marking an event). Before that, it was used only in phones as a button.

4. Instagram

This popular platform was created in 2010. Now it has more than 300 million active users, who are quite young, as most of them are under 34 years old.

In Instagram you can upload photos and videos, subscribe to other users and communicate with them. You can link your Instagram account to your Facebook and Twitter accounts, and all your posts will automatically appear on these social networks. Such a new concept as selfies (self-portraits taken with a camera or smartphone) was created thanks to the creation of Instagram.

The application allows you to share not only photos and videos, but also post stories, conduct live broadcasts, so it is very suitable for demonstrating various products and services. You can create a profile in this social network, gain active subscribers and promote your business in this way, as users quite often mark favorite brands and share useful content.

5. WhatsApp

It is quite popular and free online messenger, created in 2009. As of today, it is used by more than 1.5 billion people, that is, every fifth inhabitant of the planet. WhatsApp has become the main means of electronic communication in many countries.

The application allows you to exchange text messages, documents, photos, videos and audio messages. You can also make calls using the Internet.

It’s very easy to start using it – you just need to answer a few questions on the form, confirm your phone number and set your photo. That’s all – the profile setup is complete. If you wish, you can also customize notifications, set chat settings or change account data.

6. TikTok

A Chinese, relatively young social network. It was launched in 2018 and was designed to share short videos. To date, the number of monthly active audience is more than 1 billion people. The service is especially popular among young people aged 16 to 24. Not long ago, TikTok surpassed Google as the most visited site.

The app allows you to create and post videos from 15 to 60 seconds in length. Moreover, it has a wide range of music filters and various sound effects that can be used to enhance the video and make it more attractive. It is also possible to broadcast live using a special app for this purpose.

The “Recommendations” page shows recommended videos (based on previous user actions, likes and comments).

7. Linkedin

The social network was launched in 2003 to bring good employees and good jobs together in one place.

The service is available in twenty different languages and currently has more than 420 million active users. LinkedIn is no longer just a job search site, but a professional platform where professionals from every industry share useful content, build their brand and communicate. Businesses can attract the best talents here.

This social network allows users to create a profile so that they can build professional relationships with employers and experts in their field.

You can find a job here. And when you register, you can specify the jobs you are interested in. You can also see who other users have visited your page.

8. Telegram

This is a free messenger for exchanging text, video and voice messages, as well as photos, stickers and documents of various formats. It’s also possible to make video and audio calls, broadcast in groups and channels, organize multi-user channels, groups and conferences. But the app continues to be updated regularly with new features.

Telegram was created in 2013. At the moment, the number of active users exceeds the 700 million marks.

The social network differs from others in that it has end-to-end encryption of all activities, including groups, chats and media files shared by users.

In addition to the basic functions, there is an opportunity to hide your phone number; save to “Favorites” the necessary information; use the application from several devices at once; instantly send data up to 2 GB; have a reliable protection of information; edit your messages within 2 days after sending and delete correspondence from both participants of the chat.

9. Pinterest

It is a social network where you can bring your creativity and ideas to life. It was launched in 2010, but with closed registration, and only in 2012 open registration was available. Now this site has more than 440 million monthly active users.

This service is designed for searching images. Here you can add them, sort them into collections, share them with other users and watch other people’s collections.

On Pinterest, you can:

• find inspiration (see a photo that will help in the development of your project);
• Plan your shopping (save photos of things you want to buy);
• create a moodboard (a selection of mood photos);
• grow the business (promote the product and post useful content).

The items that you save on a page are called “pins”. If you need to save some information on the page, you just need to click on “Pin” and everything will happen automatically. You can also pin another user’s page and then you can see what they are interested in. You can make your board (the place where your pins are saved) public or secret.

10. Reddit

It is a platform that combines the features of a forum and a social network. It was founded in 2005 and currently has about 430 million active users every month.

On Reddit, users have the opportunity to post links to any information from the Internet that they like and discuss it. There is a voting system for favorite posts – the most popular ones end up on the main page of the site.

The homepage contains subreddits (specialized forums for everything in the world). You can sort them by novelty, popularity and other filters. You can also create your own subreddit by following the rules of the social network. If you’re looking for something, you can type a query into the search box, so you’ll find the right post or subreddit.

To summarize

In the article, we have considered what social networks are and briefly described them. It is important to note that these are universal platforms that help to close a variety of goals, tasks and needs not only for the average user, but also for the expert or entrepreneur.

Note that this list of social networks can transform as they are constantly changing and improving to follow new trends and forms of content.

Olha Tyshchenko

Editor

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