Social media is vital for both consumers and marketers. When in 2020, people from all across the globe were forced to stay inside, social media platforms played a huge role in maintaining the sanity of the people by allowing them to socialize and mingle with each other. The same holds true for brands that would not succeed without a comprehensive digital strategy. 72% of people reported that their consumption of social media increased in the COVID-19 and this is not at all suppressing. Social media users not only consumed data but also started creating content to post and share. Undoubtedly, we all know that social media platforms are important. The crucial question is which social media platforms are important Here is a list of five social media platforms that stood out in 2021.
1. Facebook
With more than 2.7 billion monthly active users, Facebook has become an indispensable social media platform not only for the general public but also for brands. Facebook has undoubtedly remained the queen of all the social media platforms for its huge user base. Facebook has successfully changed the way people interact with each other. Since 2004, Facebook has been surrounded by many controversies but still, it managed to stay not only strong but also kept growing. This social media platform is particularly popular for the demographic age of 12-34 years. However, this demographic age has been seen to be sinking in the USA. The largest number of Facebook users are from India.
2. Instagram
Instagram serves much more than simply serving as a platform for sharing Sexy Photos. In fact, it has become one of the most critical social media platforms in 2020 with more than 1.2 billion monthly active users. New features like Instagram Reels have also boosted its popularity. Instagram has played a huge role in changing the entire social media landscape as on this platform the images shared itself speaks volume of the content. The most prominent contribution of Instagram to this world are the influencers which have created an entirely new arena of jobs, especially for the aspirational youngsters. This has also changed the traditional marketing which previously only involved used actors and actresses.
3. WhatsApp
With over two billion active users, WhatsApp is the most popular instant messaging app. Facebook acquired WhatsApp in 2014 for $16 billion. WhatsApp has grown to branch off to include WhatsApp Business where brands post WhatsApp Status to stay in touch with their customers. Even though WhatsApp is not a typical social media platform, many brands and businesses are using WhatsApp to communicate with their customers in a hassle-free manner, thanks to the tons of useful features which are available on WhatsApp Business. In addition to that, many small business houses prefer to use the basic WhatsApp app to sell their products to the customers by creating relevant groups for the same.
4. YouTube
YouTube is the second most popular social media platform after Facebook. Even though it is the second-most popular social media platform, it is the most visited platform. Everyone, including the people who have not registered themselves on YouTube, can enjoy the content available in it which explains its popularity. YouTube is one of the rare social media platforms that not only caters for the needs of the young demographic but also the older demography as well. Most of the YouTube traffic comes from three countries, namely, the United States, India and Japan. YouTube while growing has expanded itself from a mere social media platform to the second largest search engine. The platform is super SEO-friendly which makes it an important platform for brands to reach their targeted audience.
5. TikTok
TikTok is particularly popular among the teenage group. This video sharing platform earned its wide fame in the year 2017 and since then, there has been no looking back. Just within two years of its launch, it became one of the top five most downloaded apps of the world and soon it became the number one downloaded app too by a huge margin. Even though this app is not supported by numerous countries like India, it has seen steady growth. In fact, Instagram took an advantage of it by rolling Instagram Reels to make it similar to TikTok and attract its user base and it has even successfully managed to achieve its goal too.