What is Social Media Marketing: Complete Guide on All Social Media Channels

Simply put, social media marketing is any kind of marketing activities that occur on social media platforms. If you are promoting your brand, blog post or trying to gain more followers on any social media channel, it is social media marketing. Sounds simple right?
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Surprisingly, it is more complex that seems at first glance.

We all mainly use the same popular social networks. But there are other platforms as well, that provide a great value for marketers. Social media channels are changing rapidly so it is a smart choice to start with the ones that have proven stability. But you should be aware of new trends and choose your social media marketing strategy wisely.
Of course, you can’t be present on all 200+ social media channels. The first step is to choose the right channels according to your company’s needs, specifications, target audience, etc. 
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In this guide are gathered the main social media channels and upcoming trends for 2021. Let’s start from the popular ones.

Facebook

Users:2.7 billion monthly active users worldwide.
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Insights: Facebook allows businesses to create pages and upload texts, photos and videos. It is a great way to communicate with your customers, reach a wider audience, target both B2C and B2B users, analyse competitors and drive traffic to your website.

Instagram

Users: More than 1 billion monthly active users worldwide.

Audience: Millennials and generation Z
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Insights: Instagram is one of the most important social media channels. It doesn’t matter if you promote a big and well known corporation or a small business, startup or your personal brand, Instagram must be in your marketing! It increases sales and business awareness and allows direct purchases.
As Instagram is an image based platform, the businesses that are related to fashion, food, design, travel or ecommerce and handmade shops will benefit from marketing on this platform.

LinkedIn

Users:722  million members worldwide.
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Audience: Older users - CEOs, decision makers, executives

Insights: LinkedIn is an essential social media platform for building brand awareness and reputation, creating business relationships and growing professional networks. It is the most important social network for reaching out to business buyers.

YouTube

Users: 2 billion users visit YouTube each month worldwide.

Audience: Half of every generation
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Insights: YouTube is a critical marketing platform for any company. It presents a unique opportunity to build trust, generate high volume traffic with higher conversion rate, and more.

Pinterest

Users: 442 million users every month worldwide.

Audience: Millennials and generation Z
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Insights: Pinterest is beneficial for businesses that have mostly visual products. It  drives direct traffic to your website, inspires direct sales, improves content marketing efforts, increases brand’s visibility, etc.

Twitter

Users: 330 million monthly active users worldwide.

Audience: Millennials 
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Insights: Twitter presents a great opportunity to promote your blog posts,  updates and allows two way communication with customers, analyzing feedback, establishing brand community and promoting your brand organically.

Tumblr

Users: 496 million blog accounts worldwide.

Audience: Millennials and generation Z 
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Insights: Many businesses don’t pay much attention to Tumblr so it’s a great opportunity to get ahead of your competitors’.
Tumblr is both a blogging and social media platform that allows you to post texts, videos, images and audios. Small businesses can sign up and develop their own site. As a marketing tool, Tumblr should be used in combination with other social networks.

TikTok

Users: 800 million monthly active users worldwide.

Audience: Generation Z 
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Insights: Tik Tok doesn't have space for ads and, in comparison with other social media channels,  is not a marketing channel. But, considering its popularity and growing audience, many brands started to successfully use its short videos, challenges and contests to raise brand awareness and drive traffic. Besides, Tik Tok is one of the best platforms for influencer marketing.

Giphy

Users: 700 million monthly active users worldwide.

Audience: Generation Z and millenials
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Insights: GIPHY allows brands a unique way to boost brand awareness by creating a brand channel and uploading creative GIFs.

Quora

Users: 300 million unique monthly  visitors worldwide.

Audience: Millennials and generation Z 
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Insights: Quora is a great platform for highlighting your brand’s position and values, raising brand awareness and building valuable relationships with your followers. Although, Quora marketing is not easy and has its tips and tricks, if you deliver value for your readers, you will acquire a dedicated and loyal audience.

Reddit

Users: 430 million monthly active users worldwide.

Audience: Millennials and generation Z 
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Insights: Many business owners and marketers dismiss Reddit, which opens a great opportunity to market your brand in a certain niche. It’s a unique blend of quirkiness, trendsetters and geekdom. So, if you are not afraid of criticism and are open for discussions and bold ideas, you will win this media platform.

Imgur

Users: 250 million monthly users worldwide.

Audience: Millennial males
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Insights: Imgur is a GIF and image creating and sharing social networking platform. It has the highest male millennial audience on the internet and very high engagement rates.

Triller

Users: 250 million downloads worldwide.

Audience: Generation Z
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Insights: Thriller is a short form video app that is attractive to younger people. If your business is looking for a targeted audience and influencers, Tiller should be a part of your social media strategy.

Vimeo

Users: 150 million monthly users worldwide.

Audience: Millennials
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Insights: It’s true that Vimeo has much less traffic than YouTube, but it’s much more targeted and community-driven and can offer more opportunities for better consumer interaction.

Likee

Users: 200 million members worldwide.

Audience: Millennials and generation Z 
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Insights: Likee is a more creative and entertainment-focused platform which challenges marketers to think outside of the box. Unique short videos and various challenges allow it to catch users attention and convert them into loyal customers.

Goodreads

Users: 90 million members worldwide.

Audience: Generation X, Millennials and Generation Z
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Insights: Goodreads has a specific audience and is designed for authors and readers. For publishers and authors it’s the best platform for marketing and promotion.

Opportunity

Users: 85 million active users worldwide.

Audience: Generation X and  Millennials
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Insights: Is a business social network allowing to establish business relationships, find talents and generate more leads.

Medium

Users: 60 million monthly active users worldwide.

Audience: Generation X and  Millennials
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Insights: As businesses started to use Medium relatively recently, it means there is an opportunity to brand on the platform and use it for marketing purposes.

Flickr

Users: 60 million monthly active users worldwide.

Audience: Millennials 
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Insights: Flickr is a photo sharing and photo organizing platform perfect for photographers and creative staff. Note that its golden years are in the past and at the moment it is a platform for professional and semi-professional photographers.

DeviantArt

Users: 45 million unique visitors monthly worldwide.

Audience: Generation X, Millennials and Generation Z
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Insights: DA is a social network mainly for artists and fiction writers. But if your business is creative or art related, you definitely should consider marketing on DA, as, be sure, your competitors and many marketers overlook it. So if you are a creative or marketing agency, design agency or are in  arts and crafts, photography, animation, movies, tech, travel, etc, you will find a large audience here.

Behance

Users: approximately 12 million users worldwide.

Audience: Millennials
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Insights: Behance is an easy to use platform that allows web designers and creative brands to present their portfolios of graphic design, web design, fashion, branding, illustration, photoshop, photography and more. It’s a great platform for targeting more interested users and converting them into customers.

Dribbble

Users: approximately 12 million monthly users worldwide.

Audience: Generation X and  Millennials
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Insights: The platform is an engaged and high-quality community of web and graphic designers. Please note that you should receive an invitation to become a community member.

Periscope

Users: approximately 10 million monthly users worldwide.

Audience: Millennials and Generation Z
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Insights: Periscope users can broadcast live through phone and it allows anyone on Twitter to join. It’s a great platform for brands to connect with their viewers.

Vero

Users: approximately  5 million users worldwide.

Audience: Generation X and Millennials
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Insights: Vero is a relatively new social media app. It is similar to Instagram and is used by  influencers, photographers, creators and videographers.

Author

Narine Nazaryan is a digital marketing specialist with more than 5 years experience in the field and more than 10 years experience in the banking and finances spheres. She is an obsessed reader and content writer. Her hobbies include coding, astronomy, physics and following the latest scientific discoveries. As it is obvious from this short bio, she doesn’t like bragging at all and is a very modest and pleasant person.