Furthermore, social media can hold power structures accountable by amplifying voices that challenge corruption, inequality, and abuse. Viral campaigns and public pressure created through platforms like TikTok and Twitter often force corporations and governments to address demands they might otherwise ignore. AI chatbots and automation tools are enabling brands to deliver personalized customer support and marketing at scale. Responding to comments, answering questions, and acknowledging feedback can strengthen customer relationships. This includes a name, profile picture, bio, and sometimes links to websites.

We recommend reading through that list to see what social media apps might work best for you and your brand. And remember, you don’t have to be on every social media platform to have a successful brand. It connects, entertains, educates, and empowers individuals while also driving business, advocacy, and social change. As social media continues to evolve, its impact on communication, culture, and commerce grows ever more significant. Understanding its multifaceted roles helps users harness its potential responsibly, maximizing its benefits while mitigating its challenges. For those head-scratching moments, we’ve created the ultimate glossary of social media marketing terms.

WhatsApp also enables users to form communities and broadcast messages to a large audience, aligning with social media’s core principles. Despite being more focused on private communication, WhatsApp’s social networking aspects, including the ability to connect and share media with others, categorise it as part of the broader social media ecosystem. Social media can apply to any online communication feature that enables users to distribute content and connect with the community broadly. The capacity to instantly post photographs, views, and events has changed the way people live. However, the pressure to get several likes and shares on daily social media posts is a big issue, suggesting that more informal aspects of social sharing may be the way of the future.

This category is the internet’s open town square-where news breaks first, and public conversations happen in real time. If social media were a city, these would be the neighbourhoods – familiar faces, shared spaces, conversations that just keep going. And because of that, the skills behind it are starting to matter a lot more. Content creation, online branding, digital marketing – these aren’t just buzzwords anymore. Students and professionals are actively learning them because in a world that runs online, knowing how to build a presence isn’t a bonus skill.

Social media has dramatically changed the way people interact and share information, redefining communication in a digitally connected world. One of the most notable shifts is the ability to connect instantly with anyone, anywhere. Social media platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram have made global communication seamless, allowing users to share messages, photos, and videos in real-time. This instant connectivity has strengthened personal relationships, bridged geographical divides, and made long-distance communication more accessible than ever. To make a splash and use social media to boost your brand or grow personally, you’ve got to get a solid grasp of social media definition.

These platforms are used for inspiration, branding, advertising, and showcasing personal or professional portfolios. Their popularity is driven by their ability to tell stories through visuals. This type of social media is concerned with sharing ideas, opinions, and content with other users. Social media is any digital technology that allows users to instantly generate and share information with the public. Some, such as Twitter, are focused on sharing links and brief written messages.

Ways Social Media Marketing Can Help You

There are also a range of social media management tools that help businesses and creators to make social media work for them. For example, Buffer is a social media management tool that can help you achieve success with your social media marketing. Whether you want to build a brand or grow your business, we want to help you succeed. The benefits of social media for individuals are vast and varied, enhancing personal, social, and professional aspects of life. From staying connected and informed to expressing creativity and building careers, social media offers endless opportunities for growth and engagement.

Image-sharing Networks

Even small creators can build opportunities if they understand how audiences and platforms work. Social media marketing is the process of promoting a brand, product, service, or personal brand through platforms like Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, and X. The moment businesses realised people were spending hours every day on social platforms, marketing completely changed. Over time, social media has evolved far beyond personal communication.

This guide has given you the key points you need to not just get by but really stand out online. By focusing on smart engagement, making content that hits the mark, and being ready to learn and switch things up, you’re all set to connect better with people, get more followers, and hit your social media goals. Social media is packed with chances for those who are keen to try new things and get involved. You’re now on track to really make an impact online, ready to take on what’s next in the world of social media.

Social media has completely changed how people communicate, learn, market businesses, build careers, and influence decisions online. Video has become the highest-engagement content format on the internet. Whether it is a 20-second reel or a 30-minute tutorial, video now dominates how people consume information on social media apps. It didn’t – the idea of connecting people online goes back to the 1980s, long before Zuckerberg was even in high school. What started as slow, clunky digital message boards gradually evolved into the billion-user social media apps we scroll through every single day. Secondary revenue streams social media strategy for different growth stages include subscription services offering premium features (Meta’s Blue subscription, Twitter’s X Premium, and LinkedIn Premium), providing ad-free experiences.

• Yelp has over 178 million unique monthly visitors, and TripAdvisor serves over 400 million monthly users.
• This guide has given you the key points you need to not just get by but really stand out online.
• Social platforms facilitate customer feedback and let customers share their positive or negative experiences.
• From familiar names like Facebook and Twitter to niche platforms, social media encompasses many websites and apps, each serving a specific purpose but all designed to foster communication and content sharing.

When the profile is created a user, can share the content on social media. For example, we download Instagram from the Play Store or open it on the web, we create our profile using an email address. Video hosting platforms, like YouTube and TikTok, specialise in sharing video content. They work by allowing creators to upload videos, which are then recommended to users through algorithms based on their interests and viewing history.

The more you create, the sharper your strategy, and the better your results – the faster everything else follows. Great social media is not just about posting – it is a mix of creativity, analytical thinking, and sharp communication. These are the skills that separate someone who does social media from someone who is genuinely good at it. This blog breaks down what social media actually is, how it works, and why it matters more than most people realise. Intelivita is a full-stack mobile and web app development agency headquartered in Manchester, UK, with an additional office in India.

This is where opinions travel fast, news breaks first, and conversations happen in real time. The main benefits of social media for a business include opportunities for increased brand visibility, customer engagement, and market insights. Businesses use social media to connect directly with their audiences and drive sales, making it an important tool for modern marketing strategies. The history of social media traces its evolution from early online communication platforms in 1971 to today’s interconnected global networks. This timeline shares key milestones, technological advancements, and the rise of various platforms that shaped how people interact online.

Medium has over 60 million monthly readers, while Tumblr remains popular among younger audiences for creative and niche blogs. These networks are used for personal expression, professional thought leadership, and content marketing, catering to individuals and organisations alike. Bookmarking networks, like Pocket and Flipboard, enable users to save, organise, and share web content for later reading or sharing. These platforms allow users to bookmark links, categorise them, and discover curated content from others. In 2024, there were 5.17 billion people actively using social media worldwide, an increase of 4.44% from 2023, according to a report by Backlinko.

His in-depth knowledge of LinkedIn’s unique environment has paved the way for business success. Marketing on social media also involves publishing great content on your social media profiles, listening to and engaging with your followers, analyzing your results, and running social media advertisements. Content featuring employees, customers, or everyday creators often resonates more than polished executive messaging. TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts continue to capture attention. Short, engaging videos remain the most effective format for reaching and entertaining audiences.

Founded in 2014 by Dhaval Sarvaiya and Tuhin Bhatt, the agency focuses on app and web development solutions for diverse business needs. To answer the two RQ, we decided to conduct a systematic literature review (SLR). It’s tough to predict anything precisely, but the future of social media will most likely be more individualized and less noisy.

DevOps now faces demand for building interconnected ecosystems, requiring expertise in frontend design, backend, and database management to create different types of mobile apps that engage users and drive social growth. Users use this type of social media to share media assets such as images, videos, and other content with one another. The best examples of media networks are YouTube, Pinterest, TikTok, Twitch, Flickr, Vimeo, and Instagram. People post media to these sites, and other users can like, dislike, and remark based on their preferences. As there are many types of social media apps, the role of these tools varies as well. On the other hand, most social media platforms begin with a user generating an account, usually by inputting a username and an email account.

YouTube has over 2.7 billion monthly active users, while TikTok has over 1.6 billion. These platforms are used for entertainment, education, and marketing, with creators and brands utilising them to engage large, diverse audiences. Contemporary examples span entertainment-focused networks (TikTok and Snapchat) and professional communities (LinkedIn and Discord).

As a result, oversharing will become less of an issue, and filtering out useless material will become more common. There are various forms of social media, and they offer a variety of services; listed below are a few types of social media, along with instances. Everyone appears to have their definition of what social media is or is not. However, to acquire better and more accurate knowledge, let us delve deeper into the broad concept. Expand your vocabulary effortlessly with personalized learning tools that adapt to your goals.

At first glance, social media may seem like just another way to stay entertained or connected with friends. But somewhere along the way, it quietly became something much bigger. In today’s world, people use different kinds of social media platforms.

Social media has become an indispensable part of modern life, revolutionizing how people communicate, share, and engage across the globe. It serves various purposes for individuals, businesses, organizations, and communities, making it a versatile and dynamic tool. From fostering personal connections to driving social change, here’s an in-depth look at the primary purposes of social media. Social media is characterized by user-generated content, such as posts, videos, stories, and comments, and is often driven by engagement metrics like likes, shares, and followers.

The types of social media are diverse, catering to various user needs such as communication, content sharing, collaboration, and commerce. These platforms are categorized based on their functionality and their primary purpose. The role of user-generated content is not reflected in early definitions, whereas it has become a central part of recent definitions. For example, an Instagrammer with a new account can click a photo and upload it with a caption on their account.

Others, like Instagram, are designed to facilitate sharing of photographs and videos. At the same time, social media shapes culture by setting trends and redefining norms. Viral content, influencer marketing, and memes are pivotal in driving consumer behavior, entertainment preferences, and social values. Platforms like TikTok have popularized cultural phenomena, from dances to music, that transcend geographical boundaries, creating a global shared experience.

Before we assess the meaning and compare the definitions in terms of the two RQ, a few quantitative results are provided. Analyzing the 21 definitions, we found a lexical density (i.e., the percentage of nouns, adjectives, verbs, and adverbs) of 57.5 percent. The most frequently used word with 23 occurrences is “social,” followed by “people” with 12 occurrences, and “virtual,” “content,” “user,” and “network” with 8 occurrences each. In terms of two-word phrases, “social networks” (8 occurrences) is followed by “social media” and “social networking” (5 occurrences each), as well as “virtual communities” (VC) (4 occurrences). As of January 2020, there are more than 110,000 publications that have the term “social media” in their title.

Businesses use these platforms to communicate with customers and gather feedback. The social media world is broad and diverse, offering different platforms for various forms of interaction, content sharing, and community building. As social media became more competitive, creators and businesses started relying on social media management tools to manage content, track performance, and improve creativity. What performs well on LinkedIn may completely fail on Instagram because audiences expect different styles of content. That is why creators and brands today focus heavily on audience behaviour, storytelling, and consistency instead of simply posting randomly. According to Statista, over 69% of Pinterest users are women, while 22.6% are men.

In addition, non-English articles and other gray literature were not considered, which is common criticism in academic research. It would also be insightful to see whether there are tendencies of certain researchers, for example, from engineering, to base their research on specific definitions rather than on others. For example, if one definition is dominant in engineering but not in medical research, this would imply that interdisciplinary research about SM applications needs to be compared more carefully, as the basic definition differs. Social media has completely revolutionized the way modern-day society communicates and shares ideas, information, and content. Despite these challenges, social media continues to shape the landscape of activism, offering tools to amplify voices, foster global solidarity, and challenge traditional power structures. Its ability to unite people around shared causes, generate awareness, and organize collective action has made it an indispensable component of modern social movements.

If you have ever seen usernames like @nike, @netflix, or @zomato, you have already seen a social media handle. A social media handle is simply the unique username people use to identify and tag an account online. So if you want to grow professionally, or build a community around something you actually care about – this is where you start. Just by showing up and being real about what you know and what you’re learning. Not every social media platform is built the same – and honestly, that’s what makes it interesting.

Today, nearly all business-to-consumer websites have social components, such as comment fields or social sharing buttons, that make engagement easy. Various tools help companies track, measure, and analyze how their brand is perceived across social media platforms. It is a private message sent from one user to another on social media platforms such as Instagram, Twitter (X), or Facebook. DMs allow users to communicate confidentially, share media, or discuss topics that are not meant for public posts.

Businesses can use posts and stories to share product launches and promotions or address public concerns quickly. Community-building is another key focus, with brands creating spaces like Facebook Groups or branded hashtags to foster loyalty and a sense of belonging among their customers. Platform analytical tools help businesses track campaigns’ performance, refine strategies, and make data-driven decisions.

Once you understand that, the whole landscape starts to make a lot more sense. Just as education is important for the overall development of a student, social networking is also imperative. There are different kinds of social media, and they provide a variety of services, below are a few types of social media with examples. Consider traditional media to be a one-way street where you can read a newspaper or watch a television report but have minimal ability to express your opinions on the issue. On the other hand, social media is a two-way road that allows you to communicate. Traditional media was discussed previously to provide more comprehensive definitions of media, but don’t be misled into believing that TV, radio, and magazines are all part of social media.