The Social Media Networks (Aside From the Usual Ones) You Need to Use

We’ve just about all uploaded a selfie to Instagram, shared personal statuses on Facebook, streamed YouTube videos and embarked on Twitter arguments.

The four biggest names in the social media sphere are well documented and cemented in their standing, but that doesn’t mean that’s where socials stop. There’s a whole, humungous world of social media and sharing out there - for both personal users and brands, so consider having a presence on these key social channels.

LinkedIn

It may have a reputation as a channel to boast and brag about your professional achievements, but LinkedIn is a social media network with over 500 million members and just over half of those are clicking on monthly, so it might not be as daily used as Instagram, but it still has a huge platform for voices to be heard. From long form articles to job postings and connecting with people in your industry, it’s less social than the other social media platforms but having a presence as an individual and as a brand could be seriously beneficial.

WhatsApp

If you work in a team, WhatsApp could prove invaluable. Easily, quickly transfer imagery and videos over WiFi. Leave voice notes for feedback. Jump on a quick group call instead of typing out an email. WhatsApp offers instant connectivity and communication for groups to operate in in the modern day.  It’s available in 180+ countries and has over a billion users. Essential, and also semi-essential that there’s a ‘mute’ function for all those group chats, too!

Snapchat

If interested in reaching a much, much younger market, Snapchat is worth considering. Brands are tapping into the instant, on-the-go style of quick, snappy video sharing platform to reach the teenage market it’s aimed at. When rival Instagram Stories kicked off, Snapchat took a huge hit but it’s still one of the heavy hitters of the social media scene.

Pinterest

If you want your content to go over continents and be pinned and shared on boards by the near-billions, Pinterest is where your content needs to be. For social media creators who produce recipes, share interior design hacks or pen travel features, Pinterest is great as users collate inspirational materials into different moodboards. Visual-led, so the imagery needs to be strong, Pinterest has over 250 million monthly users so it’s not the preserve of bored housewives anymore!

Medium

For journalists, writers, poets and anyone who calls the written word their currency, Medium is a great social network for sharing written content. As opposed to most of the popular social networks being led by visual content, Medium as a machine has words as its true fuel. Easy to use, easy to upload and free to join, lots of brands are incorporating it into their social media marketing strategy. Tourist boards are actually using Medium very cleverly to produce enticing advertorials to help deliver key messages to lots and lots of eyes.

Spotify

For those who aren’t in the music industry, don’t disregard Spotify. You might want to curate playlists or share podcasts, and Spotify is the service that everyone associates with on-demand streaming. For podcasts in particular, there are also platforms like Stitcher and Google Play Music. Anchor is also another social platform to use to help actually build a podcast with audience interaction.

Plus, we all know how important it is to be ahead of the curve, so here’s a couple to keep an eye on too:

Vero

A direct competitor to Instagram where you can share content to your heart’s content, but there’s something different here: it has no ads, no algorithm and the content can be segmented to be shown by different ‘groups’ you choose (friends, acquaintances etc.) Privacy is important, so Vero aims to address it in the digital sphere.

Amazon Spark

Shoppable content is becoming big business and Amazon wants in, so it’s developed its own platform of shoppable content connecting its customers called Amazon Spark.

TikTok

You might remember this as muscial.ly, TikTok continues where Vine left off and offers the ability to shoot and edit very short-form video content. On that note, keep an eye on Facebook’s competitor Lasso and also on Byte, which is launching in 2019  from the guy behind Vine.