When you're thinking virtually creating a social media strategy for your business, a few leading platforms probably come to mind right away: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and possibly YouTube or Pinterest, depending on your industry.

Even so, there are many types of social media sites out there, with new platforms and formats popping up on the regular. Some of them are pretty niche, while others have the potential to become the next Instagram or TikTok.

1 thing that'southward changed since the early days of social media is that many platforms used to focus on one function, such as social networking or epitome sharing. At present, near established social media platforms accept expanded to comprise live streaming, augmented reality, shopping, social audio, and more.

And so, instead of giving you lot high level descriptions of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn (you can discover that anywhere!), nosotros grouped a wide variety of platforms into 9 full general categories that focus on specific use cases and what businesses tin accomplish by using them.

Bonus: Read the footstep-past-step social media strategy guide with pro tips on how to grow your social media presence.

With the ever-growing number of social media platforms, information technology tin be overwhelming to constantly wonder whether each of them is worth your time.

To avoid spending too much of your time learning the ropes of every new platform, allow your social media marketing strategy guide your decisions, and just join the networks that support your goals.

Follow these three tips to build your own criteria that will assist yous evaluate any new social media platform, no matter what information technology is or how it works.

Know your audience

The starting time question you should ask earlier joining a new social media platform is: where is your audience?

It makes more sense to go where your audience is already hanging out than to join a new platform and attract your audition to it.

The 2d matter to understand is how your audience is using that platform. What type of content are they looking for? Which types of accounts do they follow? Are they passive consumers or content creators?

For detailed insights into how people use different social media platforms, swoop into our Country of Digital 2021 study.

Facebook leads on use of social platforms as news source

Source: Digital 2021 report

Go on up to date with social media statistics

Whenever a new social media platform emerges, it'south essential to know the difference between a shiny new object and a fast-growing platform that has the potential to stick.

Although no one can tell the hereafter, one way to know if a platform has staying ability is to compare its statistics to established social media platforms.

If you're non sure where to discover recent stats, we've got you covered:

  • Instagram Statistics
  • Facebook Statistics
  • Twitter Statistics
  • YouTube Statistics
  • Pinterest Statistics
  • TikTok Statistics

Marshal to your fundamental business goals

Ask yourself: which platforms match my business goals all-time?

For example, if one of your goals is to increase awareness near a new product or service that could benefit from video tutorials, yous should focus on video-only platforms (like YouTube and Vimeo) or video formats available on the sites you're already active on (like Instagram Stories and Reels, Facebook Live, etc.).

Types of social media platforms and formats you should know in 2021

1. Social sound platforms and formats

Examples: Clubhouse, Twitter Spaces, Spotify

Used for: Listening to live conversations on specific topics.

How your business can use them: New social audio platforms (like Clubhouse) and formats (similar Twitter Spaces) take thrived during COVID-19 lockdowns while people have been at home with more time to join live conversations.

The nearly significant advantage of audio social media platforms and formats is the loftier attending and engagement you're likely to get from opt-in listeners.

Lively, engaging conversations tin help you lot build your image as a leader in your niche and introduce your business organization or products to valuable audiences already interested in topics related to your niche (otherwise, they wouldn't exist tuning in).

Here are some idea starters for using audio social media platforms:

  • Host industry panels.
  • Broadcast news and large announcements.
  • Host interactive sessions (such as AMAs) with your audience.
  • Record interviews during a live Clubhouse/Twitter Spaces chat and upload them as a podcast (case: The Social Media Geekout evidence).
  • Build your business' thought leadership through a 30-60 minute testify.

Matt Navarra does a great job of combining Twitter Spaces AND podcasts:

2. Video social media platforms and formats

Examples: YouTube, TikTok, Instagram Stories and Reels, Facebook Sentinel

Used for: Watching videos in brusk and long formats.

How your business can use them: Video social media platforms are neat for capturing attending, driving brand awareness, and bringing products to life in a mode that nonetheless photos can't.

Whatever video content that you publish should be designed to entertain, brainwash, and/or inspire your audition. Videos made purely to sell aren't going to appoint viewers.

Some of the all-time examples of businesses using video social media platforms are:

  • Ryanair on TikTok — highly entertaining, bear witness a good agreement of the humor and nuances of TikTok users.
  • Notion on YouTube — creates educational content that's both helpful and inspiring for its users.
  • Beautiful Destinations on Instagram Reels — provides travel inspiration through curt, professionally shot clips.

3. Disappearing content formats

Examples: Snapchat, Instagram Stories, Facebook Stories, LinkedIn Stories

Used for: Sending ephemeral letters privately and publishing timely, in-the-moment content for all of your followers to view for upward to 24 hours.

How your business can apply them: Imperceptible formats like Stories are well-suited for posting timely content, such every bit announcements, limited edition items, or live events.

Most Stories and Snapchat content also feels more genuine and less polished due to the 24-hour shelf life. As such, it allows businesses to prove a more than human side.

Hither are some ideas for how your business can utilise disappearing content:

  • Polls, voting (using interactive Stories stickers)
  • Teasers/countdowns to production launches
  • Backside-the-scenes content
  • Time-sensitive announcements

A not bad example is from i of my favorite local bakers, who posts their weekly specials on their Instagram Stories.

Instagram Story screenshots showcasing bakery's daily menu

Source: Instagram

four. Discussion forums

Examples: Reddit, Quora

Used for: Asking and answering questions, networking, forming communities effectually niche- and interest-based topics.

How your concern tin use them: Be genuinely helpful to your customers by lending your business' subject matter expertise and answering questions related to your industry. Bonus points if you can share information about your brand and products in your answers, simply that shouldn't be your main goal of participating in discussion forums.

One thing to note: On Reddit, it's highly frowned upon to insert any self-promotion into answers. If you're posting as a business, make sure to reply the original question and only add links to your products if they're genuinely helpful. Before posting in a subreddit, check the rules to verify if including links to your ain business is allowed.

While Microsoft didn't create the /r/XboxOne subreddit, once they saw how pop it was, they started engaging with Redditors past hosting AMA sessions with game developers.

/r/XboxOne subreddit

Source: Reddit

5. Shoppable social media platforms and features

Examples: Pinterest Product Pins, Facebook Shops, Instagram Shops, TikTok, Shopify, Douyin, Taobao

Used for: Researching and purchasing products from brands directly through social media platforms.

How your concern can use them: Accept advantage of congenital-in mobile-friendly features to allow your audience to purchase from you without having to get out a social media app.

Features like Pinterest Product Pins, Instagram Shops, and TikTok's in-app shopping allow you to connect your product catalog directly to your contour on each app.

Even if your followers don't similar to make purchases on social media platforms or have longer buyer journeys, shopping features can allow you to tag products, add together additional product info and drive traffic to your website.

Some slap-up ways to use shopping social media platforms:

  • Limited edition drops, due east.thousand., announcing an exclusive product launch on social media and linking or tagging the product via your product catalog
  • Social selling
  • E-commerce (many social media platforms have eastward-commerce integrations, such as Shopify, which you lot tin can access directly from your Hootsuite dashboard)
  • Retargeting, east.one thousand., creating custom audiences based on who has engaged with your Facebook/Instagram Shops

You can likewise host live shopping events on social media. Livestream shopping has become a huge marketplace in China, encouraging platforms like Instagram to introduce Live Shopping.

Instagram Live shopping

Source: Instagram

vi. Social media alive streams

Examples: Twitch, YouTube, Instagram Alive Rooms, Facebook Live, TikTok

Used for: Broadcasting live video to many viewers. Live video streams can range from one person showing themselves and what they're doing on their screen to professionally organized panels with multiple speakers.

How your business organization tin employ them: Livestreaming's popularity exploded during the pandemic when people were stuck at home during lockdowns with aught to do.

However, you don't need a global pandemic to get viewers to watch your live streams. There are many ways to make tune-in-worthy streams, from interviewing well-known guests through doing exclusive production reveals to hosting AMA sessions with your concern executives.

Livestreams also offer the opportunity for users to interact live with the hosts, and then information technology's vital to monitor and engage with comments during the stream. Read more tips in our guide to social media live streaming.

When COVID-19 put Formula 1 races on hold during 2020, several drivers started streaming themselves playing driving simulators on Twitch, which became hugely popular with fans.

7. Business social media platforms

Examples: LinkedIn, Twitter

Used for: Connecting with professionals in your industry or potential clients.

How your business can employ them: Business social media platforms offer many potential uses: recruiting and hiring talent, building B2B relationships, and connecting with professionals in your niche.

Platforms like LinkedIn are ideal for B2B purposes, because they allow brands to connect with new audiences, meeting them where they go to network and practise business.

Just LinkedIn is not the simply business-forward social media site out there. Twitter offers businesses the run a risk to find relevant conversations, and add to them in meaningful ways. A bang-up example of this is Adweek, which hosts a weekly conversation for digital marketers called #AdweekChat.

There are likewise communities built around industry-specific hashtags on Twitter, similar #MarketingTwitter and #FreelanceTwitter.

Pro tip: Set up a keyword-based column using your industry's hashtag in Hootsuite to monitor for appropriate conversations to participate in.

8. Airtight/individual community social media platforms

Examples: Soapbox, Slack, Facebook Groups

Used for: Creating communities, with the possibility of requiring registration or other screening measures for new members.

How your business can use them: Businesses can use private groups to bring members of their community together to bond over shared challenges, help answer each other's questions, and feel a sense of professional belonging.

Equally the group admin, your business organisation has the correct to gear up rules well-nigh things like self-promotion. Many groups (specially on Facebook) require members to reply a few questions earlier joining to screen out spammers, but you can too use these fields to ask members to opt-in to your e-mail marketing list.

A bully case is the Instant Pot Facebook Group, started past the make in 2015 and has grown to over 3 million members who dearest sharing recipes and product tips.

Instant Pot Facebook Group

Source: Facebook

9. Inspirational social media platforms

Examples: Pinterest, YouTube, Instagram, blogs

Used for: Searching for data and finding inspiration for annihilation from cooking to travel to decorating to shopping and more.

How your business organization tin can apply them: Curate visuals and inspire your target audience with content tailored to their preferences, and weave in your ain products where relevant. Utilise collections, playlists, tags, and guides to group your content and create themes that match your audition's interests.

Inspirational social media platforms similar Pinterest and YouTube are well-optimized for search, which ways your posts should include keywords, hashtags, and images that marshal with what your audience usually searches for.

Travel bloggers often exercise a keen job of optimizing their blog posts and YouTube videos for searches similar "What to do in [Destination]" and "[Destination] Travel Guide."

Hungry Passport YouTube travel guide

Source: Hungry Passport on YouTube

Whether you're edifice a community or evaluating new platforms for your concern to join, there are many types of social media you can apply. Some are pretty much mandatory for any concern, while others simply make sense if they align with your specific niches or utilize cases.

Any your needs and goals, it's a rubber bet you'll notice a way to use social media to benefit your business.

Hands manage all your social media profiles using Hootsuite. From a unmarried dashboard, you can schedule and publish posts, appoint your followers, monitor relevant conversations, measure results, manage your ads, and much more.

Get Started