As socially inclined creatures, human beings have embraced technology that connects us with others. Every year, there is an increasing number of people signing up for and using social media. While there weren’t even a billion people using social media back in 2010, the number exceeded more than 2 billion within just five years.
In 2019, there were around 2.77 billion people using social media sites. And, with smartphones and internet connectivity becoming cheaper and easier to access, we should expect to see these numbers grow even higher. By 2021, more than 3 billion people will be using social media.
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What this means for marketers is that there is huge potential to reach a massive and engaged audience on the list of social media sites. And that’s not just limited to popular social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
In this post, you’ll discover the 70+ list of social media sites that you can include in your social media marketing strategy. Some of these platforms could even help you build valuable connections in your areas of interest.
Table of Contents
List of Social Media Sites You Need to Know in 2021:
#1: Facebook
Facebook is currently the largest social media site in the world. With 2.7 billion monthly active users as of 2021, it’s safe to say that nearly every social media user is on Facebook. So it’s an excellent platform for brands to market their products to a huge audience.
Users can share text posts, links, images, and videos with their Facebook friends. They can follow famous people and pages and react to people’s posts on the platform. Brands can also promote their products using paid ads on Facebook.
#2: Instagram
Instagram is one of the fastest-growing social networking platforms. While it is mostly app-based, users can also access their feeds through the website version. In June 2018, it finally reached 1 billion monthly active users
Instagram is a highly visual platform, where users share videos and images. You can also use Instagram Stories and Live features. It is very popular among the younger generations. According to Statista, 32% of users are aged between 18 and 24, and 33% are aged between 25 and 34.
Image: Statista
#3: Twitter
Twitter is a platform that lets users stay on top of trending topics and engage in relevant conversations. In 2019, the platform had over 330 million monthly active users. While it doesn’t have as many users as other top social media sites, it does have a highly engaged user base. Twitter users send out at least 500 million tweets per day on average.
#4: Tumblr
Tumblr is another leading social media site. Users can join communities and participate in cultural dialogues to expand their ideas. It’s one of the top social media sites for self-expression and is very popular among teens and fandoms.
As of January 2021, the social network Tumblr had 327 million unique visitors worldwide,
Image: Statista
#5: LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a social media site for professionals and is very popular among a B2B audience. The platform has grown rapidly over the years and currently has 690 million members. Members can expand their professional connections on the platform, showcase their portfolios, and search and apply for jobs.
LinkedIn is also an excellent platform to share your professional expertise, as it allows members to publish blog posts that reside on the platform.
#6: WhatsApp
WhatsApp is a messaging app that lets users share text messages, images, voice notes, audio files, documents, and videos. It has grown exponentially over the years and had about 2 billion monthly users as of March 2020. Along with its growing user base, the platform has also introduced many new features to make interactions easier among users.
While users could only make one-on-one calls before, it now has a group calling feature. They also introduced a WhatsApp Status feature that allowed users to update photos, videos, and text statuses that disappeared after 24 hours. As of Q1 of 2019, 500 million users were updating their WhatsApp Statuses daily.
Image: Statista
#7: Snapchat
Snapchat is another highly visual social media platform that’s popular among the younger generation? Users can send snaps to each other and update 24-hour Statuses just like on WhatsApp and Instagram. In Q1 of 2020, it had 229 million daily active users who are highly active on the platform.
#8: Pinterest
Pinterest is a virtual scrapbooking social media site and is, therefore, highly visual. Users can create themed boards and add images and products to the board. Brands can even create Shoppable Pins through which users can directly make purchases.
In 2019, there were 335 million monthly active users on the platform. These users have created more than 200 billion pins on over 4 billion boards.
#9: Reddit
Reddit is a social media site where users become part of subreddits and engage with other users on relevant topics. It is also somewhat of a news aggregator site since users share the latest news from different sources on the site. Other users will then interact with this news, upvote or downvote it, and comment on it.
It has a huge community and gets over 1.3 billion, monthly visitors. It gets most of its traffic from the US, followed by the UK and Canada.
Image: SimilarWeb
#10: YouTube
YouTube is the largest video-sharing social media site in the world. It lets users upload videos on the platform, view videos from other users, and interact with them. In 2019, it had an average of 2 billion monthly active users. YouTube users spend an average of 40 minutes watching videos on the platform.
#11: Mix
Previously Stumble Upon, Mix is a news aggregator social media site that lets users curate their favorite content from around the web and add it to their “Collections”. It provides several browser extensions and also has iOS and Android apps.
#12: Tagged
This social media site acquired the once-popular hi5 social media platform in 2011. It is mainly focused on friendship and dating. Users can connect with others through common interests, games, browsing profiles, and more.
#13: Nextdoor
Nextdoor is a private social network for dedicated neighborhoods. You can enter your street address and find a community of people living in your area. While it was previously just for neighborhoods in the U.S., it has now expanded to other parts of the world. You can now use it from the U.K., Germany, France, Italy, Australia, Sweden, and Denmark.
Image: Nextdoor
#14: DeviantArt
Deviantart calls itself the world’s largest social media community for artists and art enthusiasts. Users can share photos of their artwork, discover the work of other artists, and interact with other members of the community. According to the platform, it currently has more than 44 million registered users and 45+ million unique visitors each month.
#15: Quora
Quora is one of the largest social networks for people to ask and answer questions about hundreds of topics and categories. This includes everything from language and career to mythology and marketing. As of 2020, it had 300 million monthly active users.
If you have any questions that internet results cannot answer, you can post them under a relevant category. You can even send answer requests to experts on the topic.
#16: Meetup
Meetup is a social media site that does exactly what its name says – it helps connect users with local groups to meet up with new people. Groups can organize events for like-minded people to get together.
You can find groups in a wide range of categories including outdoors and adventure, tech, photography, language and culture, music, and more. It is most popular in the U.S., which contributes to 49.9% of its traffic, followed by the U.K., which contributes to 7.95% of its traffic.
Image: Meetup
#17: ReverbNation
ReverbNation is one of the most reputable social media sites dedicated to musicians. They can promote their music through the platform and reach a bigger audience. They can even make money off of their tracks by selling them to fans or distributing them to major digital platforms. Besides these basics, ReverbNation also offers a host of tools and features to help musicians build their careers.
#18: Flixster
Flixster is another niche social media site with a focus on film. It’s an American-based site where film enthusiasts can connect with like-minded people and share their film reviews and watching experiences. You can use this platform to learn about new movies and see what others think of them. You can also use it to book movie tickets for watching movies in a theatre.
#19: Goodreads
Goodreads is another niche social networking site, but this one focuses on books. Book lovers can connect with fellow bookworms and share their book reviews. The site also provides them with book recommendations based on their reading history. Users can join virtual reading clubs and socialize with like-minded individuals.
Image: Goodreads
#20: Twitch
Twitch is a live-streaming platform, mostly used by gamers to stream their gameplay or watch other gamers. Users can interact with live streams from other gamers and comment on them or upload videos to Twitch for their audience. It has about 5 million monthly broadcasters.
#21: CaringBridge
CaringBridge is one of the only social media sites of its kind. It’s a personal health journal that connects people with their loved ones during a health journey and allows them to provide support. It’s an excellent platform for people who are undergoing serious illnesses and health struggles as it helps them stay connected with people who care about them.
#22: Wattpad
Wattpad is a social media community of readers and writers. The platform sees a ton of user-generated stories across various genres including fiction, poetry, humor, and even fanfiction. It currently has about 70 million readers worldwide.
Image: Wattpad
#23: Viadeo
Video is another professional social networking site that connects business owners and entrepreneurs with one another. It is more popular in Europe than in the U.S. and is available in different languages ranging from English and French to German and Portuguese.
#24: Crunchyroll
Crunchyroll is the go-to platform for anime enthusiasts to stream the latest anime shows and read popular mangas. It’s also a social media site where users can interact with each other and engage in anime-related discussions through the forums.
#25: Skyrock
Skyrock is a France-based social networking site, where users can create profiles and blogs and interact with other members. Music, sports, and film blogs are the most popular on this platform.
With Skyrock, you get free, personal web space to create and share blog posts and talk to others. You can also search for profiles of other users by using their search filters like location, gender, age, etc. You can also post images, on Instagram, and others can like and comment on them.
Image: Skyrock
#26: VK
VK is a Russian social media site. While it’s also available in other languages, it is most popular among Russian speakers. Users can create groups and public pages, organize events, and message other users. They can also share images, video, and audio or even play browser-based games.
#27: MyHeritage
MyHeritage is a genealogy-based social media site. Users can create family trees, upload and view family photos, and update their family histories. People have even used the platform to find their ancestors and learn more about them. MyHeritage has also introduced DNA testing so users can more accurately trace back their family histories and discover their blood relations.
#28: LiveJournal
This is a blog-based social media site where users can create blogs and journals for other users to read. The platform also curates the top blogs and communities so users can easily access the most popular content on the platform.
Image: LiveJournal
#29: Classmates
Classmates is a social media site that connects you with your ex-classmates and school alumni. Users can easily plan their high school reunions through the platform and access their high school yearbook.
#30: SoundCloud
SoundCloud is a music-sharing social media platform where users can upload their original tracks or listen to tracks from other artists. They can add music to their playlists and comment on parts of a track that they like for other users to see.
#31: Bubbly
Bubbly is a voice-based social media site where users can create voice posts and tag and customize them with relevant images and filters. They can also find and connect with celebrities and artists to listen to what they have to say. Users can also share their voice posts to other social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.
#32: Flickr
Flickr is a photo-sharing social media site that’s a favorite among photographers and graphic designers. You can share original, high-quality images on the platform or discover relevant images from other users. You can also join groups and connect with new people with shared interests.
Image: Flickr
#33: We Heart It
This is another image-based social media site where users can discover and curate their favorite images into their collections. There are several channels on the platform including art, music, school, quotes, and more. Users can check out these channels for relevant images to inspire them.
#34: Influenster
Influenster is a product review and discovery platform where users can view honest reviews from other consumers. They can gain access to reviews of products across various categories ranging from beauty and makeup to tech and electronics. They can also submit their own reviews of products they’ve used.
The platform will measure each user’s social impact by collecting data from leading social media platforms. Based on this analysis, users can even become part of influencer marketing campaigns relevant to their interests.
#35: FilmAffinity
Another social media site for film enthusiasts, FilmAffinity is a movie recommendation platform. Users can rate the movies they’ve watched and get movie recommendations based on their favorite genres.
Image: FilmAffinity
#36: Open Diary
Open Diary is one of the earliest social media sites, founded in 1998. Users can keep a virtual diary to record their daily lives and deepest thoughts. The Open Diary community will be able to access these entries and interact with them. You can even create anonymous posts to share thoughts and experiences that you can’t talk about with anyone else.
#37: Yelp
Yelp is a crowd-sourcing review website where users can share their opinions about local establishments. It’s a great way to find the most recommended places and events in your area.
#38: CollegeHumor
As the name suggests, CollegeHumor is a humor-based website that features fresh humor articles and videos on a daily basis. In addition to content from its in-house team, users can also access memes, articles, images, and videos submitted by other users.
#39: Gaia Online
Gaia Online is an anime-themed social media site where users can participate in trending conversations through forums. They can also explore the platform to meet new people with shared interests and play browser-based games.
Image: Gaia Online
#40: MocoSpace
This is a mobile social community where users can connect with other members through public chat rooms and group chats. They can also engage in private chats with other users. They can play mobile games, send eCards, and more.
#41: CouchSurfing
This social media site connects travelers with people from all over the world. They can discover locals in the destinations they’re visiting, request to stay with them, and meet other travelers.
#42: Funny or Die
Funny or Die is a humor-based social website that mainly focuses on video content. Users can view the latest trending videos and upload their own humor videos. In addition to videos, the website also publishes some humor articles and lists to entertain the community. It is frequented by several celebrities like Will Ferrell, Selena Gomez, and Jeff Goldblum.
#43: italki
italki makes language learning easier by connecting users with native language teachers through video chat. This helps language learners to get interactive, one-on-one tutoring sessions so they can easily learn the language of their choice. They can choose from thousands of teachers in any language.
#44: eToro
eToro is a social trading platform that allows users to follow leading traders in the community and connect with other traders. Users can also earn some extra income by having other traders copy their trading strategies and portfolios.
Image: eToro
#45: XING
This is a career-oriented social media site that helps people expand their professional networks. Users can conduct a job search, get the latest industry news, and discover professional events like conferences, seminars, and trade shows. It is mostly a European-focused website.
#46: MeetMe
Previously known as myYearbook, this social media site helps users discover new people to connect with. You can discover new people in your area to connect with and people who share your interests.
#47: Ravelry
There’s a social media site for everyone and for every niche interest. Ravelry is a dedicated social network for people who are interested in knitting and crocheting. They can connect with people who share the same interests and share ideas and inspiration with them.
#48: Care2
Care2 is a social media site for activists, where they can discover trending stories and petitions from around the world. The community is made up of more than 45 million people who want to make the world a better place and stand against cruelty and injustice.
Image: Care2
#49: YY
YY is one of the biggest social media sites in China, where users share video content with other users. It has more than 300 million users and allows group video chats. Like Twitch, users can watch a single video of someone engaging in an activity. These activities can range from tutorials to karaoke.
#50: Vero
Vero is a social media site where users can share their favorite things with the community. They can share songs, photos, books, and movies. The platform markets itself as a social network that cares about building real connections between users and doesn’t use data mining and algorithms.
#51: Medium
Medium is a content publishing site with some social network elements to it. Members can publish content on the site and share it with other users. They can “clap to” and comment on posts created by other members. While most articles are free to read, some of them are reserved for paying members.
#52: GIPHY
This is an online database of animated GIFs that are usually humor-based. Users can upload their own GIFs or search for and discover GIFs created by other users. They can react to their favorite GIFs and even share them with friends on other social media platforms.
#53: Tribe
The tribe is a cloud-based community where consumers can connect with a brand community. Users can engage in conversations and discussions under specific brands. They can explore and follow different brands, ask questions, start discussions, and create polls relevant to the brands.
#54. Tencent QQ
This is a Chinese instant messaging platform that was initially launched only in China but later expanded to 80+ countries. It supports text messages, voice calls, and video calls. For It also has a built-in language translator to help you communicate with people who speak a different language. It had 647 million users in China, in 2019.
#55. WeChat
WeChat is a popular messaging app that allows you to connect with people using your app ID? This makes it possible to talk to strangers without divulging your phone number or other information. So, the unique selling point (USP) of this app is it helps maintain anonymity when connecting with strangers. You can use it to send text messages or share photos and videos. It also supports voice and video calls. It has 1.25 billion monthly users as of 2021.
#56.Qzone
QZone is another app from the makers of QQ and WeChat—Tencent. This social media platform is very popular in China with as many as 517 million users currently. You can use it as a blog, an online diary, a platform to share photos, watch videos, listen to music, and more.
#57. TikTok
TikTok is a short-form video-sharing platform that has become quite popular within a short span of time since its launch in 2016. It was created by the Chinese company, ByteDance, and has a Chinese version called Douyin. This app is famous for its lip-sync videos and has over 800 million, monthly users.
#58. Sina Weibo
This is a Chinese microblogging and social networking website with over 516 million monthly users. It is often called the Chinese version of Twitter because it is actually quite similar in the sense that people share short updates and posts just like a tweet.
#59. Kuaishou
This is a Chinese video-sharing platform that has been active since 2011. It has over 400 million monthly users in over 9 countries.
#60. Skype
It is a communication-based social networking platform that is most popular for making video conference calls. It also provides instant messaging functionality and you can use it to share texts, images, videos, and audio files.
#61. Viber
Viber is an instant messaging platform from the Japanese company Rakuten. It can be used on both mobile devices and desktops. You can use it to make free voice or video calls and send messages. It had over 1 billion registered users in 2020, however, not all of these are active users.
#62. LINE
LINE is a popular Japanese social network that also attracts users from other countries like Thailand. You can use it to send messages and make free voice or video calls. It also allows photo and video-sharing options.
#63. LINE PLAY
It is an avatar-based network, like a virtual world. It combines elements of both a game and a social networking platform. You simply need to create your avatar and meet people online from anywhere in the world. It has over 65 million users. It is available as a mobile app as well.
#64. The Dots
This is a professional networking platform for people who are in creative fields. It is a good space to collaborate with others, find jobs or clients, and upskill yourself. You can also talk to other experts in your field and seek advice from them. Overall, it is a great platform to showcase your work and get discovered. You can check it out in your browser or download their iOS app.
#65. Telegram
This is an instant messaging platform that is somewhat similar to WhatsApp in that you can use it to send free messages. One unique benefit of Telegram is that all the messages shared on this platform are encrypted and can self-destruct. So, when it comes to security and privacy, it gets a big thumbs up.
Another great feature is that it allows you to create groups of as many as 200,000 members, which is more than what other messaging platforms offer. It is available for both iOS and Android devices, as well as desktops. It has over 400 million users.
Image: App Store
#66. Foursquare Swarm
Foursquare is a search-and-discovery-based app that helps users discover nearby places by providing recommendations. Steady is so much more than a social media platform but is also a location data and technology platform.
Their social networking feature is now available as a separate product called Swarm. It is a social networking app that has Foursquare’s popular functionality of check-ins when visiting a place.
#67. Douban
This is a culture-oriented Chinese social media site with a focus on movies, music, and books. You can use it to create fan pages or review books, movies, etc. It also has the option to create groups to discuss specific topics. The average audience on Douban is more educated and culture-oriented than any other social media site in the country.
#68. Discord
Discord is the preferred instant messaging platform for gamers. A lot of gamers use it to create team channels and discuss game strategies. You can use it directly from your browser or download the app.
Even though it is popular for gaming groups, it can be used for creating practically any type of group and connecting over a group chat. It can be a book club, a movie club, and even a study group. So, with Discord, the possibilities are endless.
Image: Discord
#69. Badoo
It is a social media cum dating platform where you can create your profile and find people with similar interests. The platform claims to have over 474 million registered users who send 350 million messages every day, on average. This makes it one of the largest social discovery platforms in the world.
It is available across devices and platforms and provides multiple login options. It is available for use in over 200 countries. You can use it to find people in your location and make friends.
#70. Myspace
Myspace is one of the older social networking platforms. In fact, it was the largest social platform almost a decade ago and was extremely popular in the US. The rise of other platforms like Facebook and Twitter eventually led to a decline in their popularity.
However, Myspace is still active and gets a monthly traffic of over 7.5 million users. The main focus of the platform is on music, but it is also quite popular for blogs.
#71. Mixi
This is a Japanese social networking site that started as an invite-only service but can now be used by anyone. You can use it to find and connect with people who have similar interests. It has over 2.7 million community groups based on different hobbies and interests. The platform also provides you with the option to create and join events for people with specific interests.
#72. Ravelry
This is a niche, hyper-targeted social media site for people who like knitting, weaving, and crocheting. The purpose is to discover ideas, share your own work, and seek advice. It is a free site and provides tons of resources for knitters and crocheters.
#73. Cellufun
It is a social media site gaming community where you can create avatars, play games, socialize, and purchase virtual commodities. The site is free to use, but you can pay to get additional features using FunCoins, their virtual currency. It can be used on both mobile and desktop devices.
#74. Xanga
This is a social networking platform for bloggers and allows you to create and share blog posts. The social networking aspect is that you can create your profile, connect with friends, and share blog updates with your subscribers like you would for a social media post.
Friends and subscribers are two different categories. Subscribers can follow you and get updates on your blog. Friends, on the other hand, can have a more direct connection with you.
They are currently updating their platform and will soon launch Xanga 2.0 with updated features.
#75. Imgur
This is an American social media site image-sharing site somewhat similar to Instagram, but not quite. It is mostly popular for sharing viral images and memes and is not as versatile as some other platforms. However, it does provide features like hashtags and topic-based content search.
Image: Imgur
#76. Ello
Ello is a niche social media site platform for and global community of artists. You can use this to showcase your work, look at other artists’ creations, and connect with them. The platform is visual and vibrant in nature. So, even if you are not an artist, you can always check out the beautiful work done by them.
#77. Vimeo
This is another video-sharing List of social media sites platforms like Twitch or YouTube. You can create and share videos or go live, just like you can on any other video platform. It is a paid platform and the plans start at $7 per month.
Conclusion
These are 77 of the most popular list of social media sites that you should know about in 2021. If you’re a marketer, some of these platforms can help you promote your brand and products. They can also help you expand your network. If you’re an influencer or a consumer, you can use these sites to connect with like-minded individuals and build better connections.
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