It’s time to get selective with your social media presence.
Whether you’re an O.G content creator or new to the game, the ever-changing social landscape requires regular evaluation. On the right platforms, you can maximize your brand reach, engage with your target audience, and achieve your social goals. But which platforms are the right ones for you?
Our top tip: Be selective with your social media presence.
It’s better to pick two or three sites to focus on and perfect, rather than publishing on all of them just for the sake of it.
Selecting your social site is less about the size of a social media platform, and more about whether the app is a right fit for you.
To help you learn which apps you should be on, we’ve narrowed it down to the top 8 social media platforms for 2023. Review each one and consider the following:
- Does this mesh well with the content I want to create?
- Does it fit my brand image?
- Is my target audience using this site?
- How many sites can I realistically manage at once?
Now let’s get started!
Apps Trending Upwards
Instagram
A tried and true favourite. Instagram has a way of adapting your favourite features of other apps all into one convenient place. While you may miss the days of static posts, Reels continue to trend upwards as the most viewed content on the platform.
The best style of content to post is a mix of static images, vertical videos less than 60 seconds, and live, in-the-moment content on Stories.
Who’s using Instagram?
62% of users are between the ages of 18-34 worldwide, with a higher ratio of female to male users.
TikTok
While the platform is far from new, its growth over the last three years has exploded it to the social leaderboard. Unlike Instagram, which allows for the sharing of both photos and videos, TikTok is a video-first platform. The app is an audio-visual experience – with an emphasis on audio. Whether you’re using audio from the app, or uploading your own, they’re best known for viral videos with trendy sound bites and choreographed dances to music.
Although TikTok isn’t your typical search engine, creators can benefit from using it as one. With its search feature and suggested keywords in the home screen and comments section, it offers the opportunity of leveraging an SEO strategy (similar to YouTube).
In 2023, they’re continuing to take on YouTube by increasing their video length. What started as 15-second video clips shortly increased to 1 minute, 3 minutes, and now 10 minutes. With 10-minute videos, creators will have to produce more interesting and entertaining content to keep viewers engaged. While the new increase allows for flexibility in your content, a good reminder for all platforms is to keep your content to the minimum length it needs to be. If you can do it in 7 seconds, do it. If your eye-catching content needs 8 minutes, then take every minute!
Who’s using TikTok?
Of the one billion plus users worldwide, 57% of global users are female, with 39.7% of users between the ages of 18-24, and 29.1% of users between the ages of 25-34.
Making A Comeback
To many of us, Facebook is the old dinosaur in the corner. But don’t count them out just yet. With more than two billion active monthly users and 7 million active advertisers, the opportunity for growth and branded partnerships can’t be ignored.
If you’re posting on Instagram, it’s a safe bet you want to have a presence on Facebook as well. With their similar content formats – text, images, video content, and Stories, it’s easy to repurpose your content for both channels.
Keep in mind that the Facebook algorithm prioritizes content that sparks conversations. Although Instagram and TikTok also push out content that has a high engagement, their discovery-style pages allow users to find new creators on their own. On Facebook, content is more dependent on high engagement to be pushed to new audiences.
Who’s using Facebook?
Although Facebook received some hate from younger audiences in recent years, the social media giant continues to be a leader with 1,984 million daily active users.
25% of users are between the ages of 25-34, with male users in this age group being the biggest demographic group on the platform.
Best For Longform Content
YouTube
With over 2 billion users, YouTube is the second most visited site worldwide and accounts for 25% of mobile traffic.
Although YouTube Shorts (vertical videos under 60 seconds) made a splash in 2022, the primary focus continues to be on long-form, horizontal videos. Making YouTube the only social media app thriving on this format. YouTube’s search feature allows for SEO optimization, meaning if you search for something on Google, words in your title and caption will be searched and included in the results, driving traffic to your content.
Content creators have additional opportunities of earning revenue on this platform. In addition to partnering with brands for product promotion, YouTube’s monetization options allow creators to earn money per view, by allowing ads to be shown before or during their video.
Unlike Instagram and TikTok which allow you to edit your videos in-app, YouTube creators take their video editing and thumbnail creation offline and set up their own licensing music usage. So if short, in-app editing is more your style, this may not be the channel for you.
Who’s using YouTube?
20.2% of YouTube’s advertising audience is between the ages of 25-34, and 15.5% is between the ages of 35-44.
Niche Apps
Your one-stop shop for inspiration! Plain and simple, Pinterest is the best app for users wanting to drive traffic back to their website or YouTube page. Link to your product page, blog, or other content across the internet.
Some of the most popular topics and themes include fashion, beauty, home, garden, DIY, and recipes.
Like Google, Pinterest is used as a search engine, where users can search for inspiration and pin their findings in one convenient spot.
If you’re looking to link to a blog – this is the spot for you.
Who’s using Pinterest?
Of the 445 million monthly users, roughly 75% are female. A 2021 survey of Pinterest users in the US found that 32% of people aged 18-29 years used Pinterest, as did 34% of those aged 30-49 and 38% of those aged 50-64.
The home of the hashtag!
Short thought bubbles and opinions expressed in less than 280 characters. That’s what Twitter’s all about.
Popular conversations happen 24-7 on news, entertainment, sports, politics, and more. Twitter focuses on in-the-moment, real-time information. It’s the number one source for trending topics. Where TikTok and Instagram will update their trending topics based on the past week, Twitter is the truest form of trending right now.
(Psst, TikTok – Christmas music is no longer trending. Please stop recommending it.)
This is a great space for sharing your expertise or providing customer support. With its ease and effectiveness in offering direct, immediate support, the platform has become the number one social app for providing your clients with customer service. According to Twitter, 64% of customers on Twitter say they would rather message a dedicated support handle than call a business.
Who uses Twitter?
Twitter is home to the highest population of social media users aged 50+.
38.5% are between the ages of 25-34, 20.7% are between the ages of 35-49, and 17.1% are aged 50+.
LinkedIn has evolved from being a simple resume site into a professional platform for industry experts to network and build their brands.
Its advertising opportunities allow the ability to send personalized ads to a user’s inbox.
This space has become a place for businesses to establish leadership in their industries and attract top talent, promote their brand, and connect with others in the industry.
Who uses LinkedIn?
Of over 20 million active users globally, 54% are between the ages of 25-34, and 24.7% between the ages of 35-54.
57.2% of users identify as male, while 42.8% identify as female.
With the introduction of new social apps come the changes to existing ones (just look at Instagram).
Just when you get into your comfort zone, an update to a platform may provide new reasons why you should add a new app to your repertoire.
Follow us on Instagram @SamuraiMediaOfficial for all the updates you need to stay on top of these changes!
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