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The Different Types Of Social Media Platforms.

2024-05-16 | 3256 Print PDF

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What are the Different Types of Social Media? 10 Types of Social Media Sites Online.

 

Social media sites are no longer the norms for socializing networking or sharing info, instead, they have metaphors into a channel for business growth and influencer growth for publicity and viral content online.

Most of the time, individuals tend to get updates and news worldwide on their social platforms like Twitter, and Facebook to mention a few, and co-exist with business or company updates on sites like Linkedin. The number of social media sites online dwarfs that of search engines in comparison, and due to the nature of humans to want to socialize, we have an interest in having different accounts with different social media sites, with obviously other purposes.

Hence there is a need to explain the different types of social media sites we have online. We have basically different categories of social media sites online and to make it easier we will try to explain these categories so you can assert if the social media site you are on falls under any of the categories below.

10 Types of Social Media Sites Online by Category.

1.) Social Network: Social network sites are social platforms where you can build your network of friends that a familiar individual connects, you simply invite people that are connected to someone you know or someone you have the same familiarity with eg your old classmates or co-workers, can also be your relatives. The platform is an algorithm it uses to connect and expand your friend's network base, hence you tend to see activities they do on your feed wall and vice versa.

A very good example of social network sites is Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, etc, they all have one thing in common which is to network and grow your followers, without linking or connecting with others you will not get new feeds on your wall or have your content distributed to other followers and vice versa. These social network sites might differ regarding objectives and goals, but they have similar operation operandum.

2.) Media Social Sites: Well the term social media sites had to come from the two terminologies of "social" and "media and in this area, we have to justify the use of content in the format of images, videos, and text to mention a few. in most cases social network sites do provide the avenue for this, but in the terms of media sites they rely on searches from outside users to get engagement on their existing users. No wonder YouTube is ranked as the second most used search engine for videos "How To's" " Among this kind of media sharing social sites we have sites like Snapchat, Vimeo, Instagram, and even Tiktok just to mention a few, and earlier said some social network sites also offer this features, but not in the same light as these other ones that are solely geared for media sharing.

Media-sharing types of social sites can be used in brand building, lead generation, targeting, and so on. They provide a medium for influencers, brands, and businesses to discover and share media with their targeted audiences, and convert them into prospects, this medium is a result-driven way to reach more audience as a picture speaks more than a thousand words..." figure what a video will be worth?".

3.) Forum Social Sites: Forum sites are one of the longest forms of socializing online and sharing information they were so useful back in the day, that most queries adverts, or topics of any format were published and categorized. Most experts, professionals, and businesses back then would utilize forum sites such as Quora, and Reddit to engage new customers, product launch, or create forum support groups, etc and they still do to date, the use of forums was so rampant that they were the best choice to place targeted ads, but due to the mammoth control of the social space by Facebook when it was introduced back on February 4, 2004, it has come to serve almost all the purposes of its predecessors in the social space...but as they say, a jack of all trade is master of none. Sites, like Reddit, Quora, Digg, etc have managed to still stay relevant after all these years, which should say a lot for people still working with social sites they are very familiar with, used for finding, sharing, and discussing different kinds of information, opinions, and news.

4.) Book Marking Social Sites: These types of social sites are basically used for curating posts or published content from other content providers, they can serve as content aggregators for users to interact and socialize with topics, it's similar to having your news feeds being curated with content from businesses, and people you follow on social network sites.

There are really few of these platforms, but some do have cross 3/4 features with media sharing sites, eg Pinterest does offer such book marking features, weheartit, Flipboard, are other platforms that offer such benefits, but the most outstanding is Scoop It and SEO web analysts blogger community platform. The use of these mediums is that they help you syndicate your brand awareness for your business, plus, choosing this one to run different types of Social Media Marketing campaigns will help you generate website traffic and customer engagement. They can come in handy for out-of-the-box creatives for growth hacking concepts, using such bookmarking features to target new audiences can be very effective in your sales funnel in the first stage of customer acquisition, which is lead generation, at a very low budget in comparison to paid advertisement.

5.) Review Social Networks: Sites like IMDB, Rotten Tomato, Tripadvisors, Booking, FourSquare, Capterra, and Ripoff are specific review sites that allow people from different experiences about a business service or product to drop their ratings about their consumer satisfaction, which may range from quality, down to the delivery of the product or service in question.

These sites are well-tailored and categorized, which makes them an easy fit for most leads to find them reliable for purchase surveys prior to making a decision to purchase a product or not.

These types of social sites are so popular that they drive the final sales conversion decision online for most products and services the features are also being incorporated into bigger sites like Google My Business and Facebook Business pages as well.

If you are searching to buy a certain product online and you come across a bad review about the product will you purchase it? Quite... No! This is why Reviewing social network sites is very important for your online reputation management as a business owner who provides goods and services, see it as a way of social proofing a product or service before purchase.

6.) Blogging & Publishing Networks: This form of social sites are the dinosaurs of anything social they predate as old as the web 1.0 itself. Platforms like WordPress, Tumblr, and Medium provide such avenues for post publishing and having subscribers that will like to receive your content in their email inbox, not to mention their integration with other social platforms like Facebook that can provide more exposure and traffic for your content online.

Because of the high relevancy of content in this new digital age, you can find social network sites also embodying them in their features, eg Linkedin and Facebook social network sites. Content that you use on these networks will also help you create a niche for your business and audiences who are in search of information concerning that niche will for sure visit your blog or site.

7.) Messaging Social Sites: Now these are mobile application platforms and desktop applications that allow the ease of communication and building networks of friends, groups, and targeted audiences for sales retention. These forms of 4/4 social sites or applications are used for customer service and to provide solutions or quick support, there are lots of these types of social media applications ranging from WhatsApp, (currently acquired by Facebook), down to Telegram, IMO, WeChat, etc with most of them you can create groups, business messaging and other advert targeting applications (eg telegram bots).

8.) Social Shopping Networks: These are social sites built for e-commerce or retail sales, one such popular sites as Craigslist, eBay, Amazon, and now Esty and Shopify. These sites allow you to connect with your prospects in a networking system that promotes upsell of products from various merchants offering different prices within the same category of niche.

These networks are very result-driven for small businesses and startups as they can sell their products without any land-based office or store, and best suitable for SMEs that want to kick off dropshipping products or resell products from affiliate sites.

9.) Interest-Based Networks: The interest-based social media sites are category social sites that tend to place their users based on preferences, by profiling your interest they tend to provide you with only things that will guarantee engagement from you. This was one of the foremost bases during registration on some social network sites, most noticeable on sites like Pinterest, Facebook, and Stumble up (defunct). Now such preference selection is used by more refined sites like Academia, Goodreads, Scribd, and Last. FM.

Compared to big social networks, using Interest-based networks would help you run a more targeted campaign. Because they are already categorized, these platforms are the best places to target audiences of a particular niche that will ensure engagement.

10.) Dating Social Sites: Funny as it may be, dating sites were once a favorable place to find soulmates, discuss future desires, and keep tabs on friends from different demographics around the world. In fact, we can say that Facebook metamorphosed from dating application sites, as it can be seen in the past that individuals are still getting hitched via Facebook. The use of dating sites has now been strictly restricted to local use for security reasons same goes with Facebook and other similar social network sites. The idea of using dating sites for business with the current factors of internet scams and identity theft as made it the most targeted, this, such idea has been abolished, and not recommended.

 

Conclusion: These are the 10 basic types of social media sites we have online, you can have different accounts on one or more of them, but you will need to have a strategic plan to utilize them concurrently to ensure maximum success, and you can do that with tools like SEO web analyst or other platforms that allow you to synchronize several accounts and public from one place to all these types of social media sites.

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