List of Top Social Media Platforms in 2021

The impact of social media cannot be disputed. It is a huge force that not only drives social change but holds a huge potential in leading financial benefits. Whether you are a business owner or digital marketer, your ultimate goal is to get your product to the right audience. Even individuals are not left out of the mix. One can easily make friends and build lasting connections in the right community. Social media platforms connect their users from different parts of the world, hence, driving community building.

As a business owner, leveraging on social media platforms can be daunting if you have no clue about the right platform to find your customers. Even as a digital marketer who wants to delve into social media marketing, you must have a good idea of what each social media has in store. This will help you tailor your approach and meet your marketing objectives.

This article contains all you must know about different social media platforms. Here is a list of top social media platforms in 2021 – in no exact order- that will help you meet your business objectives. Your marketing strategy also stands to get improved results. And if you are in for the fun, then your socializing level is about to hit the next level.

The list of top social media platforms in 2021

1. Facebook

2. Instagram

3. YouTube

4. Whatsapp

5. Twitter

6. Messenger

7. SnapChat

8. TikTok

9. Pinterest

10. Reddit

11. WeChat

Now, let us jump right in and see why you must leverage on these social media platforms.

1.) Facebook

Having above 2.7 billion monthly users actively visiting this social media site, Facebook remains the biggest social media site in the whole world. As the stats suggest, almost one-third of the earth makes use of this social media website each month. Facebook makes it easy to share videos, photos, etc., with people. And many have found it entertaining. This makes it a daily stop for many persons. Facebook is available on desktop, android as well as iOS. Here are a few of its many features that makes it popular:

• Photos

One way Facebook draws people to itself is through the use of its photo feature. Users like to post various kinds of pictures on their social media pages. This is why users have found interest in the different types of Facebook photos.

One of them is the profile picture. This is a small picture to represent each user. Users can often change this picture as often as they would want.

The cover photo is another photo feature on Facebook. It is a large photo space at the top of a user's page. The photo that occupies that space is the cover picture. The user can also change the cover photo. The photo albums are a collection of different photos. It can be re-organized, captioned, and published to your friend's news feed.

Other photo features include the status and profile picture.

• Newsfeed

Facebook newsfeed is the basic way content is usually exposed to other users. It shows information like upcoming events, profile changes, and some other updates. It chooses various updates to display to users. It does this when they visit their newsfeed. Facebook's newsfeed is widely viewed and remains a great area to leverage to further your marketing efforts. This is largely because over two billion persons make use of Facebook every month.

• Facebook Live

This is another great Facebook feature. It employs the camera on a mobile device to broadcast live videos to Facebook.

• Facebook Portal

This is Facebook's video messaging gadgets. There are two of these gadgets and they differ in screen size. The first is the Facebook portal. It has a screen size of 10.1 inches. The second is the Facebook portal plus. It has a screen size of 15.6 inches. The major goal of the portal is to connect with Facebook contacts. And this is usually done through video calls. Facebook Portal can play music, display pictures, and play videos. It is an exciting feature of Facebook.

Many persons have found Facebook useful in different ways. Apart from helping people keep in touch with distant families and friends. It remains a platform for making new friends and getting updated news. And for business owners, Facebook is a place to expand their business.

2.) Instagram

As the name suggests, Instagram is an instant picture and video sharing social media platform. With over a billion active users in a month spending an average of 28 minutes daily, Instagram remains a top social media platform in 2021. Like Facebook, you can promote your products on Instagram and socialize. Recently, Instagram produced IGTV. IGTV video is usually used alongside Instagram. It has found its use in sharing long videos.

Instagram enables users to upload and edit photos as well as videos through a mobile app on android, iOS, or via desktop. Users can use hashtags and add captions to each post for easy navigation. Even though Instagram is available to the iPhone device, the iPad has no Instagram app. But you can still get Instagram on your pad. To do this, Download Instagram from the app store. Ignore the fact that it is an iPhone version. As you are using the iPhone version, you must put your device in portrait mode. That is the key to using Instagram on iPads.

3.) YouTube

YouTube has over 1.3 billion users who spend 300 hours watching videos on its platform each minute. Every single day users watch about 5 billion videos. You can imagine the massive audience you can show your strategic video marketing content on YouTube. Potential customers of your business are likely here, especially if they fall under the demographic for video lovers.

To cut the chase, YouTube focuses on sharing videos. This popular video site is one of the largest social media platforms in the world. YouTube is also the biggest search engine second only to Google.

YouTube can be accessed through desktop browsers and mobile apps on android and iOS.

4.) WhatsApp

Whatsapp is owned by Facebook with more than 150 billion monthly users in over 180 countries. This chatting or messaging app connects users with families and friends. But over time, it has found great use in business. Leading to the birth of other apps. Such as the WhatsApp Business app and the WhatsApp Business API. The WhatsApp Business app was initially designed for small businesses. While the WhatsApp Business API was designed for larger businesses.

WhatsApp is one of the social media sites available on the desktop. The desktop version works only on a computer with the recent Windows and MacOS. To install this version on your computer, download it from the WhatsApp website. You can also download it from Apple Store and Microsoft Store respectively. WhatsApp is also available on android and iOS. You can download the Whatsapp application on the Google Play Store. WhatsApp possesses many wonderful features including:

• Group Chat

You can create groups using this feature. You can chat with over 200 people at a time. Groups can consist of friends, family, workmates, and schoolmates. The title of the group will depend on the administrator. Several businesses are also leveraging on groups to create a mini-community to reach out to their customers. Here, they can update customers on the latest innovation and trend, offer promotions as well as host webinars.

• Video and voice calls

These are beneficial when texts might not be enough. Unlike your regular calls, WhatsApp calls make use of mobile data. And this will incur internet charges from the service provider.

• Voice message

Sometimes typing might be stressful. Especially when you want to say a lot. That is why users have found voice messages helpful. With a tap, you can say even more.

• Document

Sharing of documents and pdf files is possible with WhatsApp. This is useful during business talks. With WhatsApp, you can send a lot of documents at a very cheap price.

• Texts

The most common feature of WhatsApp is its texts. WhatsApp uses a data connection to send messages. With this, you can avoid the SMS charges that comes with messaging over a mobile carrier.

5.) Twitter

Twitter has over 48 million active visitors to its platform monthly. It is another outstanding social media platform that holds much potential in reaching a larger audience. It is usually used for sports, news, politics, entertainment, and other social matters. Twitter differs from other platforms as it emphasizes on live information.

It has another unique feature. It permits 280 characters in a single tweet. This is different from the other social media sites that have a larger limit. Twitter has found its use as a customer service site. This unique social media platform is available across many platforms. By using desktop browsers, mobile clients, or apps, you can access Twitter on Windows, iOS, and android.

6.) Messenger

This was initially within Facebook. But since 2011, Facebook has made it stand on its own. And its features have improved ever since. Messenger boasts over 1.3 billion active users. It is a messaging app like WhatsApp and requires internet data for operation. Messenger has also found its use as a great business promotion and transaction tool. It is another unique platform that you can leverage in taking your business to the next level. It is available on desktop, Android, and iOS. Facebook makes it possible for developers to build third-party apps using Messenger's framework.

7.) Snapchat

Snapchat is popular with teenagers in the U.S. and across the world with about 46 million persons actively using the platform monthly. It is another great platform to market your business especially if your target audience is the younger class. Still, you can accomplish more on this social media platform. This app is useful for sharing short videos as well as photos. These photos are usually called snaps. Snapchat made use of a format called Stories format. The Stories format found on several social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook became famous from Snapchat’s successful use of it. The growth of Instagram stories has hindered Snapchat stories in recent times. But Snapchat remains a top-ranking social media platform.

8.) TikTok

With over 800 million users visiting TikTok in a month, it remains a top social media platform in 2021 that you can leverage. This app focuses on short videos such as music videos or comedy skits. It beat Facebook and other apps in 2018 as the most downloaded app in the world. People use it to record and edit short videos. TikTok is available on both Android and Apple devices with a 12+ rating. This is to help parents access the parental feature control provided on Android and Apple.

9.) Pinterest

Pinterest is a visual bookmarking social media platform. This unique platform hosts about 416 million users in a month. And it differs from most social media platforms. On other platforms, users engage in activities. Whereas, Pinterest is a community where people learn new things. It is commonly said that 78 percent of users find Pinterest content very useful. This is larger than other platforms. Pinterest is available on multiple devices and operating systems including window browsers, android, and iOS.

10.) Reddit

This self-acclaimed internet front page has a massive user base online. The list of the top social media platforms in 2021 would be incomplete without mentioning Reddit. With over 430 million active users in a month, Alexa rankings put Reddit as part of the top 20 websites with the most visits. Reddit blends community and content uniquely with over 150, 000 communities for each topic that one can imagine. Every business and brand can tap into any of these communities and find potential customers.

11.) WeChat

WeChat was once a single-purpose messaging app like Messenger and Whatsapp but now it does more. It has evolved beyond calling and messaging into a shopping platform and a payment tool. Users in Asia who can access this social media platform can also make reservations, transfer money, hire taxi services, etc. Businesses with a large audience base in Asia can key into this platform to reach their customers.

Wrapping Up

This list of the top social media platforms in 2021 identifies areas where internet users spend most of their time. For business owners, it presents a great opportunity to find their customers online. Doing so increases the potential to reach their target audience, meet their marketing objectives, and convert leads into sales. Persons who are more inclined to seek out new relationships are not left out as they too can find a suitable social media platform to meet like-minded persons.