40 best social media sites for marketing

40 BEST SOCIAL MEDIA APPS AND SITES FOR MARKETING

The modern age can rightly be called as “social media era.” There are plenty of Social Media Apps and websites which are used by billions of people. Facebook dominates it with monthly active user numbers to 2.23 billion in June 2018.

The social networking sites continue to evolve as time moves forward. There is also a plethora of social media apps. Moreover, the brand new ones will appear on the scene as well.

Today, we share with you the trendiest ones out there. It’s a post on 40+ Best Social Media Apps and Sites for Marketing. We have compiled the list of best social media apps. We have also featured the best social media sites.



The list proves an indispensable resource for digital marketers.

Even internet marketing enthusiasts can significantly benefit from this list of best social media apps and sites.

It also lists out social media apps for teenagers. Moreover, you get to know what’s everyone is using right now. They allow you to be socially active. You get an opportunity to connect and network with your friends and loved ones.

Nowadays, social networking sites are being actively used by digital marketers to market their content, products, and services. It allows you to network and builds relationships with fellow marketers, bloggers, influencers as well as target audiences.

Plus, Google has also incorporated social signals in its ranking algorithms. Social Media Marketing has a “Big” role in the online world.

So, you cannot undermine and ignore the importance of social networking sites and apps. It is evident with the coming up of the numerous social networking platforms and apps.

Nowadays, relationships begin, grow, and end on social media. There’s no need for a personal hand-shake or face-to-face meeting.

The number of users of social media platforms has grown to 2 billion users. Moreover, with the increase in the number of mobile devices, this figure is all set to cross the 3.0 billion mark by 2019.

In this article, you get to know the most popular social media sites and apps in the world. You can check out if your favorite social media platform is a part of this list or not.

We have featured top social media sites and new social media apps. Maybe you know the top 3 or even the top 5 social media sites.

However, it’s a list of 40+ Best Social Media Apps and Sites for Marketers. It takes into account global as well as US social media visitors.

We have included the top social media apps globally. This is to account the growing popularity of mobile social networking. These social apps fiercely compete for the leading social sites.

Most importantly, these have stood the test of time. We will be updating this list of social media sites and apps very soon with new data as it becomes available to us.

For now, here’s a roundup of 40+ Best Social Media Apps and Sites.

40+ Best Social Media Apps

Let’s begin:

1. Facebook

Facebook happened to be the biggest social media site with more than two billion monthly active users. This accounts a third of the world’s population! Facebook has users from all over the world.

Moreover, there are as much as 65 million businesses which are using Facebook pages. Plus, there are over six million advertisers that are actively promoting their business on Facebook.

So, if you want to have a presence on social media, then Facebook proves one of the safest bets out there. The best thing with Facebook is that you can easily get started on it. Facebook supports almost all content formats such as text, images, videos, live videos, and stories.

Businesses get a variety of options. They can have professional pages; do paid post promotion and native advertising. Its reach is so massive that some businesses go for a Facebook page instead of having a full-fledged website. It shows the massive power of Facebook’s audience.

Facebook is a must if your customers happen to be in any of these groups:

Seniors (55+)

Foreign Markets including Middle-Eastern Countries, Europe, and Asia

Small niche market where people with unique interests congregate

So, if you have a small niche business, then Facebook might have a whole group of potential customers. Moreover, the Facebook App is the best and the fastest way of staying connected with communities that are important to you.

So, the Facebook social media app does more than just connecting you with your friends and interests. It allows you to keep in touch with the latest news and current events that are happening around the world.

You can follow the newsfeed of your favorite celebrities, brands, sports teams, and artists. You can watch live streaming videos. The app allows you to write on timelines, browse for people, and edit your profile and groups. The Facebook App is available for Android as well as iOS.



2. WhatsApp

WhatsApp is the world’s most popular instant messaging platform. Facebook acquired it in 2014. However, it continues to function as an independent entity.

WhatsApp appeared much later than Facebook, but it succeeded to capture the imagination of millions of people across the world.

With WhatsApp, you can instantly communicate and share with individuals and groups. Plus, it offers the WhatsApp Call Feature which is indeed the icing on the cake.

WhatsApp number of active users per month has crossed the one billion mark recently. This sums up the “huge” popularity of WhatsApp.

WhatsApp functions as a cross-platform app and uses your internet connection or data plan for sending and receiving messages. The messages can be sent or received in the form of text, photos, videos, and even voice messages.

In fact, WhatsApp uses your phone number instead of usernames or pins. You can connect WhatsApp to your phone’s address book so that the contacts can be seamlessly transferred to the app. It also offers a few customization features such as profiles, wallpapers, as well as notification sounds.



3. Twitter

Twitter is a social media platform for news, politics, sports, entertainment, and more. It has more than 330 million monthly active Twitter users.

The biggest highlight of Twitter that makes it different from most other social media websites is its strong emphasis on real-time information.

Another notable aspect of Twitter is the fact that it permits 280 characters in a tweet. Most of the other social media sites allow a much higher limit.

However, Twitter can also be used as a customer service channel. According to Twitter advertisers, more than 75% of social customer service requests are made on Twitter. Even Salesforce recognizes Twitter as a powerful channel for customer service. It calls Twitter as the “New 1-800 Number for Customer Service.”

Although Twitter is known for its feed of real-time updates, it also allows you to post photos and videos along with its well-known character limited copy. Moreover, Twitter is mainly famous for its “live tweeting.”

Plus, you can engage new (potential) customers with its hashtags. It allows you to search a hashtag and get posts that have used that hashtag. So, you can find consumers that are searching for something which your business offers, as well as vice-versa.



4. Instagram

Instagram is a unique social networking platform that’s completely into sharing of photos and videos. It’s the best social network that allows real-time sharing of photos while on the go.

Moreover, Instagram can rightly be described as a photo-sharing networking app. It allows you to capture and share the best moments of your life.

You can use your phone’s camera or any other camera and transform the moments into works of art. With Instagram, you can apply multiple filters to the photos.

You can even post them to other popular social networking sites, like Facebook and Twitter. Instagram is now a part of the massive Facebook Empire. Facebook bought it for a hefty $1 billion in 2012.

Moreover, Instagram has evolved as a leading advertising platform for brands and Instagram influencers.

You can legitimately generate income through the network. This social media app is available for iOS as well as Android platforms. It can even be used on Windows phones, along with the web.



5. Whisper

Whisper is one of the best social media apps that offer a great way to meet new people. It’s an online community where millions of people share real thoughts, trade advice, inside scoop, and much more.

Whisper happens to be one such social network that’s highly “addictive.”

Whisper allows you to chat directly with “other Whisper” users. In fact, more than 30 million people use Whisper every month. So, if you want to know what people around you are thinking about, then you should join the Whisper online community. Whisper will undoubtedly change the way you see the world.

6. Skype

Skype is another highly popular communication-based social networking platform. Microsoft owns it. Skype specializes in providing video chat and voice calls between computers, tablets, and mobile devices.

It even offers instant messaging services. Skype allows you to transmit both text and video messages. It enables you to exchange digital documents such as images, text, and video. Skype also allows video conference calls.

You can even conduct group conference calls. The good thing is that Skype-to-Skype calls are free. You can make Skype-to-Skype calls with anyone, located in any part of the world, over the internet.

Skype employs a freemium business model. Most of its services are free. However, a Skype Credit or a subscription is required to make a call to a landline or a mobile phone number.

As of now, Skype has over 1.4 billion worldwide users. In fact, at one point in time in February 2012, there were as much as 34 million users on Skype.

Skype was released in August 2003. In September 2005, Skype was acquired by eBay for $2.6 billion. In 2011, Microsoft bought Skype for $8.5 billion.



7. SnapChat

SnapChat is the most popular image messaging social platform. It allows you to chat with friends by using pictures. It’s a social networking app which thrives on instant messaging.

It is a mobile-based. It’s a multimedia messaging app. SnapChat is one of the fastest growing apps out there. It’s based on the idea of self-destructing “snaps.”

It allows you to send a photo or short video in the form of a message (known as a snap) to a friend. The message automatically disappears a few seconds after they’ve viewed it.

So, the pictures and messages are only available for a short time before they become inaccessible. As of February 2018, SnapChat has 187 million daily active users.

8. Pinterest

Pinterest is recognized as a major player in social networking as well as in the search world. The website Pinterest is all about visual content on the web. It’s a photo sharing and visible bookmarking social media site or app. Pinterest allows you to find new ideas for your projects and save them.

The Pinterest website and app offers a beautiful and intuitive pinboard-style platform. Pinterest proves one of the most enticing and useful resources for collecting the best images that can be grouped into separate boards.

Pinterest has also evolved as a huge influencer in social shopping. It features “Buy” buttons right on pins of products that are sold by some retailers.

Presently, Pinterest has over 100 million (approx) active users per month.



9. LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a social network meant for professionals. It is one of the most popular professional social networking sites or apps. It is available in over 20 languages.

Anyone who is looking to make advances in his or her career should be on LinkedIn. LinkedIn allows you to make profiles that look exactly like detailed resumes. It has various sections for work-related information. You can showcase your work experience, education, volunteer work, awards, and certifications.

LinkedIn allows professionals to promote themselves and their businesses. You can make connections with other professionals. Members can participate in group discussions. You can post job ads, apply to jobs; publish articles, and so much more.

LinkedIn has more than 400 million members. It is being used all across the globe by different types of professionals. It is an ideal platform to connect with different businesses. You can locate and hire ideal candidates, and more.



10. Facebook Messenger

Facebook Messenger also knew as Messenger is a messaging app and platform. Originally it was developed as Facebook Chat in 2008. However, the company soon revamped its services in 2010 and released standalone iOS and Android apps in August 2011.

It allows you to send messages, and exchange photos, videos, stickers, audio, and files. You can react to other users’ messages and interact with bots. Facebook Messenger also supports voice and video calling.

It has been separated from the main Facebook app. As of now, Messenger had over 1.3 billion users in April 2018.



11. YouTube

YouTube is the second largest search engine after Google. It’s the place for watching and sharing video content online. In fact, YouTube is the biggest video-sharing social networking site.

Although Google owns YouTube, it works as a separate entity (social network) being the premier place online to watch videos on almost every topic under the sun. It also allows uploading your own as well. You can upload and share videos, view them, comment on them, and like them.

With YouTube, you can watch music videos and movies. There are personal Vlogs and independent films. In fact, YouTube has it all. Moreover, YouTube allows users to create a YouTube channel. Here, they can upload all their personally recorded videos and showcase them to their friends and followers.

YouTube has come up with a premium subscription option which is known as YouTube Red. It removes all advertisements from videos.

There’s even YouTube TV which is a separate live streaming subscription service.



12. Kik

Kik is a free instant messaging app. It’s immensely popular with teens and young adults. It allows users to chat with each other one-on-one or even in groups.

You have to use Kik usernames (instead of phone numbers).
Apart from the usual text-based messages, Kik also allows users to send photos, animated GIFs, as well as videos to their friends.

You can use Kik to chat with people whom you already know. However, you also get the opportunity to chat with new people based on similar interests.

You need to scan other users’ Kik codes and add them easily to your list.

13. Viber

Viber is a multi-lingual social platform which is known for its instant text messaging as well as voice messaging capabilities.

The Viber app is available in over 30 languages. You can share photos, videos, and audio messages. You can call non-Viber users through a feature named “Viber Out.”

This cross-platform instant messaging and voice over IP (VoIP) application is operated by Japanese multinational company Rakuten. It’s available as a freeware for the Microsoft Windows, Mac OS, Linux, Android, and iOS platforms.

It requires a telephone number to operate. Viber is predominantly used for instant messaging. However, it also allows users to exchange media such as images and video records.
As of December 2016, Viber has almost 800 million registered users. Viber is currently based in Luxembourg.



14. Tumblr

Tumblr is an immensely popular social blogging platform. It’s much popular with teens and young adults. Tumblr like Pinterest is mostly known for sharing visual content. It allows users to customize their blog theme.

You can create blog posts in different content formats. You can follow other users to see content in their dashboard feed and be followed back. Reblogging and liking posts are the best way to interact with other bloggers in the Tumblr community.

When you post great content, you have the opportunity to end up with thousands of reblogging and likes depending on how far your post gets pushed out in the Tumblr community.
David Karp founded it in 2007. Oath Inc owns Tumblr.

As of now, 1st June 2018, Tumblr hosts over 417.1 million blogs. The website has 555 million monthly visitors.

15. GroupMe

The GroupMe is one of the most popular mobile group messaging apps which is now owned by Microsoft. GroupMe was launched in May 2010 by the private company GroupMe. By 2011, GroupMe was delivering over 100 million messages each month. This number crossed the 550 million mark by June 2012.

Presently, GroupMe has over 14 million registered users. It allows you to save your memories. You can explore the photos and videos shared in your group now, or later. One can group chat, but one-by-one. You can chat with your computer at groupme.com.



16. Google Hangouts

Hangouts come as an instant messaging and video conferencing service from Google. It can be accessed through Google Plus, Gmail, and mobile apps for iOS and Android. There’s even a Chrome extension that allows you to chat with your contacts directly from the Windows desktop.

It offers a simple and minimalistic interface. You can make video calls to multiple people. Google Hangouts comes with all the conventional features of any good messaging service.
You Have to be logged in to your Google account.

One can send messages, Emoji, and images to your contacts in one-on-one or group conversations. You can use its video conferencing feature to make video calls to up to 10 people simultaneously. It integrates apps such as YouTube and Google Drive together with sounds and visual effects. All these features add a little fun during calls.

17. Reddit

Although Reddit does not come with the coolest of designs, it certainly is one of the most happening places on the web.

Reddit has a powerful and smart community of people who come together to share links, photos, plus videos that are relevant to the subreddit topic thread they were participating.
Its Reddit AMAs feature allows users to ask questions to celebs and other public figures.

Reddit goes on to display submitted links that get voted up or down by users. The ones who receive the most upvotes get pushed to the first page of their subreddit.



18. Discord

Discord is a cross-platform voice and text chat app that’s specifically designed for gamers. The Discord app is perfect for chatting with team members. You come to know who is playing online and catch up on text conversations you may have missed. Discord is all about modern game communication. It enables gamers to talk to each other in real time. Users can send direct messages to other users. They can chat, and talk or listen in larger group chats.

The iOS app allows you to stay connected to all your Discord voice and text channels also while AFK. So, Discord is all about experiencing modern game communication.

Additionally, Discord allows you to add nearby people as friends with the power of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. You simply need to turn on the “Nearby” feature. Stand near your IRL friend who also has the screen open. Now, see them magically appear on your screen.

19. Periscope

Periscope is a Twitter-owned app. It was officially launched on 26th March 2015. It’s about live web video broadcasting from your mobile device. It’s a live streaming video mobile app.

It allows you to shoot a new broadcast and send instant notifications to people so that they can tune in and start interacting by leaving comments and hearts.

Putting it simply, Periscope allows you to “go live” through your mobile device anywhere and anytime. The app will enable you to become your broadcasting station, on the go. Periscope allows you to stream video and audio to any viewers who join your broadcast.

A Periscope broadcast is genuinely an interactive event. It has the option for replays for users who missed out. Moreover, once the broadcast is over, others can see a replay and can provide feedback.
You can even host private broadcasts for specific users. Users can open up the app and browse through all sorts of broadcasts that are currently being hosted live.



20. IMO Video Calls and Chat

IMO is a free chat and instant messaging app for PC. It allows users to participate in video calls. They can send and receive text messages. It’s entirely free for download. Plus, you can make an unlimited number of calls over this service.

IMO is also available for Android and iPhone. With IMO, you can message, and video calls your friends and family for free, irrespective of what device they are on.

Imo offers high-quality video and voice calls on Android and iPhone. Moreover, you can send unlimited messages and make video and voice calls over 2G, 3G, 4G or Wi-Fi. You can make group video calls with friends, family, and others.

It offers fast photo and video sharing. And there are hundreds of free stickers as well!

21. Houseparty

Houseparty is the group video chat app. It’s simple, synchronous, and social. It allows you to converse with people you care about most. Meet new friends, and have fun together – wherever they are.

It allows you to be with eight people at the same time. This social media app makes connecting face to face effortless. It alerts you when your friends are “in the house” and ready to chat. With Houseparty, you can jump right into the conversation.

Your friends know when you open the app and ready to chat. So, they can join you. Houseparty is the next best thing to hanging out in person.



22. LINE

LINE is a global messaging social network app. It’s available for both Android and iOS. It allows you to share photos, videos, text or audio messages, and files.

You can even use LINE to make voice and video calls at any time of the day. It offers free international voice and video calls. Send free one-on-one and group texts to your friends anytime, anywhere!

It offers more than 10,000 stickers and emoticons. As of now, LINE has almost 215 million (approx) active users per month. So, LINE is reshaping communication around the globe. With LINE, you not only enjoy messaging but also free voice and video calls wherever you are.

23. Badoo

Badoo is the world’s largest dating app. It’s a free dating network that’s bigger, better, and safer. They check each photo and verify profiles so that you can chat and meet your favorite person.
Badoo is simply huge.

Its 350 million people strong, 190 countries and 47 languages. Moreover, 400,000 new users sign up on Badoo every day. It offers the opportunity to chat with verified users. They verify with a photo, Facebook, or a call.

So, Badoo is safe for chatting. You can ask for a live Selfie when you start chatting. People can only send two messages unless you reply.

24. WeChat

WeChat is much similar to WhatsApp. It’s an all-in-one communications app for messaging and calling. With WeChat, you can connect with people of your choice.

The number of WeChat users is fast catching up with the number of WhatsApp users. WeChat has almost 697 million active users per month. WeChat offers multimedia messaging.

You can send video, photo, text, and voice messages. It allows group chat & calls. You can have group chats with almost 500 people. And that’s not all.

You can do group video calls with up to 9 people. So, WeChat is all about free voice & video calls. You can make high-quality free calls to anywhere in the world. You can do calls to landlines and mobile around the globe at low rates.

It literally has an inexhaustible sticker gallery. You can express your feelings with hundreds of free, fun, animated stickers. Plus, it is localized in 20 different languages.



25. QQ

Tencent QQ which is popularly known as QQ is an instant messaging social media platform. It was initially launched in China. As of now, QQ has become international with more than 80 countries using it.

QQ allows you to stay in touch with friends through texts, voice chats, and video calls. It comes with a built-in translator for translating your chats. It has a huge number of active users per month: 853 million (approx).

In fact, QQ has gained almost one billion registered users in 80 countries. QQ has become an immensely popular communication app and offers endless opportunities with video calls, voice chats, and rich texting.

26. Tagged

Tagged is the best place to link up with new people, chill, and play games with over 300 million other users.

The app allows you to:

Watch a Live stream, or start your own

Make out a quick connection with ladies and guys nearby

You can match with people just like you, thanks to its smart algorithms

Chat with new friends

Tagged is available for both Android and iPhone. It takes privacy very seriously. It does not give out your exact location and personal information without your permission. Tagged is the best place for chatting with new people. Last but not least, you decide when and how you want to connect.



27. QZone

Like QQ, QZone is also a social networking service developed by Tencent. It allows you to share photos, watch videos, listen to songs, write blogs and maintains diaries and much more.
You can also customize (if you want) the look and feel of your QZone WebPages.

QZone is one of the most popular social networks which are being used by more than 600 million users. It helps users “share life and stay impressed” anywhere, anytime.

You can use your mobile phone to view your friends’ dynamics, interact with your friends, upload photos, and write talks and logs, and so much more. You can even share videos. It offers full-screen playback for an enhanced viewing experience.

28. Baidu Tieba

Baidu Tieba is the biggest Chinese communication platform that is offered by the Chinese search engine company, Baidu. The website allows users to search or create a bar (Forum) by typing a keyword.

Baidu Tieba was established on 3rd December 2003. Here, the “bar” refers to a forum that allows users to interact socially. Baidu Tieba comes out with the slogan “Born for your interest.”
As of 2014, there were over eight million bars. It covers famous stars, films, comics or books.

Moreover, over one billion posts have been published in these bars. Every bar can have at the most three moderators, thirty vice-masters and ten video-masters to manage uploaded videos.
As of now, it does not allow anonymous posting. Now, it only allows posting my account.

Users are allowed to post at most ten pictures and one video quoting from certain broadcast websites. However, they cannot edit the published posts. That said, they are allowed to delete their published posts as well as comments from other users on their posts.

29. Vkontakte

Vkontakte is a Russian online social media and social networking service. It comes in several languages. However, it is especially popular among Russian-speaking users. As of August 2018, VK had at least 500 million accounts.

It unites millions of people through messaging and sharing of news from anywhere around the globe. Vkontakte allows you to send messages, share stories, and photos. You can watch videos and live streams, listen to music, play games, and join communities.

At Vkontakte, you can discover a whole new world of talented artists. Vkontakte short and popular name is VK. Users can message each other either as publicly or even as privately.

One can create groups, public pages, and events. You can share and tag images, audio, and video. You can play browser-based games. It is based in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

According to Similar Web, Vkontakte is the 9th most popular website in the world. It has 100 million (approx) active users per month.



30. Telegram

Telegram is an instant messaging network on the lines of WhatsApp. It is available across platforms in more than eight languages. Its focus is more on the privacy and security of the messages that are sent over the internet using its platform.

It can send messages that are encrypted and self-destructive. Telegram ushers in a new era of messaging. Its messages are heavily encrypted and can self-destruct. Telegram is cloud-based and allows you to access your messages from multiple devices.

Telegram is known for delivering fast messages faster than any other application. Its servers are spread worldwide for security and speed. It has an open API and protocol free for everyone. Moreover, Telegram is free forever with no ads and no subscription fees.

It keeps your messages safe from hacker attacks. Plus, there are no limits on the size of your media or chats. You can send documents of any type.

31. Taringa

Taringa is a highly popular social networking platform in Latin America. It allows users to share their experiences, content, and more.

It offers the opportunity to have fun with memes, GIFs, and featured viral videos. You can browse and rate the best internet content. Follow other users and even your friends who share interesting content every day.

Taringa has a 27 million registered user base who go on to create and share thousands of daily posts on general interest topics like life hacks, tutorials, recipes, reviews, and art.

Its primary markets include countries such as Argentina, Colombia, Peru, Chile, Spain, and the US Latino Community. In fact, Taringa is regarded as the 4th most popular Latin American Social Network.

32. Text Me

TextMe comes as a cross-platform messaging application. You can text messages to any of the phone numbers in the US, Canada, Mexico, and 100 other countries in the world for FREE. It allows free calls and free video calls between Android and other platforms. So, signup and share TextMe with your friends to make a call or a video chat for free. Plus, you can text them for free.

TextMe allows you to:

Send real SMS messages to any number in the United States, Canada, and 40 more countries worldwide for FREE using your Android phone or tablet

Send Texts to over 100 countries using your credits

Make free HD Voice and Video Calls to other TextMe users.