Over the past couple of decades, social media has been embedded in our lives so seamlessly that we don’t even recognize its extent. From looking up lifestyle hacks to trending news, a huge chunk of the world’s population is dependent on social media.
To be exact: 62.3% of the global population is now on various social media platforms (with US being the home to third-largest social media audience, after China and India). This makes it crucial for you to have an active social presence to market your brand to the right set of consumers.
But before crafting an impactful social media strategy, you need to figure out which platforms will best suit your requirements. To make this decision a bit simpler for you, here’s a list of 10 top social media platforms and sites.
| Social Media Platform | MAUs (Monthly Active Users) |
| 3.05 billion | |
| 2.5 billion | |
| Snapchat | 800 million |
| TikTok | 1 billion |
| YouTube | 2.7 billion |
| 1 billion | |
| 2.3 billion | |
| 528.3 million | |
| Telegram | 800 million |
| Threads | 130 million |
If you’ve already watched The Social Network (2010) movie, you’re somewhat familiar with Facebook’s inception and how it rose to popularity. According to the latest Facebook statistics, the platform has over 3.05 billion monthly active users and gets around 22 billion website visits on average.
Moreover, for the month of August in 2023, 50% of social media visits in the US came from Facebook. That’s how massive the platform has grown over time.
Currently, more than 200 million small businesses worldwide are using Facebook to reach out to their customers. To succeed on the platform, you need a good understanding of the Facebook algorithm, compelling content, and most of all — consistency.
Never advertised on Facebook before? Check our How to Advertise on Facebook guide to get started!
If you’re searching for top social media platforms that shape trends and significantly contribute to the creator economy, Instagram will undoubtedly top the list. That’s probably why its user base is about to touch the 2.5 billion mark in 2024.
On going through Instagram statistics further, you will find that the platform’s 61.8% of the total audience falls in the age range of 18 and 35. That’s good news for brands who are specifically targeting young consumers.
One sure-shot way to get noticed on the platform is to integrate the latest IG trends in your day-to-day content.
Snapchat was one of the first social media platforms responsible for making vertical format short videos popular. This application has made its way to 800 million monthly active users by offering them a chance to maintain a daily streak by sending snaps (a 10-second video).
While Snapchat might not be the priority for many advertisers, it is still a great way for companies to reach youngsters and find collaboration partners.
Instagram has several new features, but the decision to launch reels was solely to keep you off TikTok. That’s how huge the platform has grown — with over 1 billion active monthly users. (PS: that’s despite it being banned in India)
To advertise on TikTok, you get a chance to run different types of ads: in-feed, video, spark, TikTok image, playable, shopping, carousel, and pangle.
Marketing on TikTok is much like that of other top social media apps. The only difference is that you need to shift your focus toward short-form videos.
YouTube serves the dual purpose of a social media platform and a search engine. With over 2.70 billion monthly active users, it is often hailed as the ‘home of video marketing.’
Currently, YouTube has over 120 million channels and is heavily populated with influencers and advertisers. Therefore, it is important to focus on YouTube SEO and create content that is liked by the audience in your niche.
If you’re a brand that has multiple verticals, creating and managing multiple YouTube channels can really help segregate content and increase overall viewership. Moreover, the platform is now suited for both formats: long-form storytelling and short-form curiosity-building videos.
If you’re still considering LinkedIn to be a mere job search engine, you’re missing out on its actual purpose — professional networking. With over 1 billion users from 200 countries, it has now emerged as a leading advertising platform as well.
You can advertise on LinkedIn in multiple ways:
Reddit — also better known as the ‘Front page of the Internet’ — is a diverse platform that attracts all kinds of audiences. From professional networking to sports discussions, you will find everything here.
Reddit has several niche community forums (also known as subreddits) that cover most topics one could think of. In a way, you can consider it to be a seamless blend of community and content.
With over 2.3 billion monthly active users, Reddit is an ideal space for advertisers. Here, you can look for communities from your industry and target users accordingly.
Twitter was once just a microblogging site and recognised for its iconic blue bird logo. Well, those days are long gone! Since Elon Musk purchased the company, there have been several changes like — platform’s rebranding to 𝕏, removal of verified tick exclusively for celebrities, introduction of 𝕏 premium for everyone, and so on!
While these changes came as a shock, they helped scale the company to a 528.3 million monthly active user base.
𝕏’s homepage has a very active ‘What’s happening’ section that includes trending hashtags for different genres like: News, Sports, and Entertainment. Advertisers can run trend takeover campaigns to place their hashtags on that list.
Telegram is an instant messaging app that allows users to easily share large files and documents (up to 2 GB for each transfer!) with end-to-end encryption. In 2024, Telegram has over 800 million monthly active users.
Now, you might be wondering — how is Telegram like other top social media platforms when it is a messaging app? Sure, there’s a bit of difference as users can’t scroll a feed or make public posts. But it allows you to post stories and form community groups & broadcast channels for one-to-many or many-to-many communication.
Marketers can’t run ads on the platform but can utilize it to form customer groups to keep them updated about recent offers or product launches.
Instagram launched Threads as a direct rival of Twitter (𝕏) to give users a better way to share text content. The platform gained 2 million sign-ups in a matter of a couple of hours. Right now, Threads stands at 130 million monthly active users and is in the sights of marketers worldwide.
Unfortunately, there’s no option of buying ad space on Threads. However, you can always collaborate with influencers and create sponsored content for your brand. In the near future, we can expect Instagram’s ad tools to be made available on Threads as well.
Wondering what’s the difference between Threads and Twitter? Head to our Threads Vs Twitter: A Comparison of Key Features and Functionality guide to know more!
That was all about top social media platforms ruling the world right now! But if you’re just starting out, focusing on everything at once can be quite overwhelming.
As such, it is crucial for you to know where your audience hangs out and how you can reach them efficiently.
Once you are consistently posting organic content and running ads, it is time to monitor the account’s performance. With Vaizle, you can get a one-click overview of the latest metrics and periodic data analysis to find when the audience is more actively engaging.
Vaizle now offers exclusive access to all paid features for $1 only. Sign up for the 7-day trial and explore our range of tools — including social media, ad, and competitive SM analysis. Also, try our newly launched Ads to Google Sheet connectors to make your marketing journey insightful. Cancel or change plans anytime.
Mamta is an SEO Analyst with 2 years of experience. Currently, she is spending her time on content roadmapping to drive organic growth and engagement for SaaS businesses. Mamta is also an avid cinephile who spends her spare time watching latest action and sci-fi flicks from around the world.
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