Social media has taken the world by storm — one social network at a time. Even in a tumultuous year such as 2020, social media users have grown to 4.48 billion worldwide. These statistics suggest that nearly 9 out of 10 people worldwide now use social media apps.
Unfortunately, not all social media sites secure a place in the hall of fame, and some just prove to be fads that pass just as quickly as they arrive. On the other hand, some make a mark and prove to be game-changers not only in facilitating communication for individual users but also in revolutionizing how brands go about their online marketing efforts.
Today, nearly 73% of marketers believe that social media marketing has been effective for their business.
But as it turns out, choosing the right social media app to build a business presence in, involves quite a few considerations. Here are a few that should be at the top of their checklist:
- Is your target audience active on the social media network?
- What kind of content do you want to produce and share?
- In what capacity, will the social media network support your business activities?
Now, if you are a business that is looking to leverage social media for growth in 2021, here’s a list of social media apps you should look into.
Table of Contents
Top Social Media Apps For Networking
Facebook has been synonymous with social media for over a decade now. With nearly 2.90 active users, it is one of the most popular social media apps in the world today.
Some of the unique features offered by Facebook include:
- Events: Individuals, Groups, and Businesses can create events ranging from a house party to the official launch of a brand. The feature sends out invitations to the selected audience, provides event details, and accepts RSVPs.
- Messenger: This is a messaging app by Facebook, segregating your Facebook Inbox from the rest of the features and options. For businesses, addressing queries on their Facebook page becomes as simple as having the messenger app.
- News Feed: The single most important feature of Facebook — it has helped launch and organize communities, support groups, protests, and whatnot. For businesses, it is the tool you use for posting regular updates about your brand — images, videos, memes, etc.
Platform: Android, iOS, Web
Pricing: Facebook is free for use,Facebook for Business features are priced based on the specifications you need.
Integrations: You will find integrations for Facebook Pages, Facebook Lead Ads, and Facebook Messenger that you can combine with other applications to drive your marketing campaigns.
As Twitter says — “it’s what’s happening” — and it has been so since its birth in 2006. With 330 million monthly active users, Twitter is right there as one of the popular social media apps with Facebook. Twitter is social networking as well as a micro-blogging service.
Some of the unique features of Twitter include:
- Trending Topics: The list of topics that are trending on Twitter is curated for local as well as global audiences. Simply put, you can be sure that these are topics that people around the world are talking about, and your business should be tweeting about.
- Tweets: With a character limit of 280 characters in place, Tweets ensured that people exchange short messages that grab attention. The versatility of tweets has made it a hit across domains and cultures, which is why you will find the most diverse audience on Twitter.
Platform: Android, iOS, All desktop browsers
Pricing: Twitter is free to use for individuals and businesses. Running sponsored ads is a priced feature and is based on your specifications.
Integrations: Having a Twitter integration can combine its features with any cloud apps for driving social marketing and for lead generation.
Instagram is one of the most popular social media apps that started as a photo and video sharing application and became much more after Facebook acquired the platform. With roughly 1 billion monthly active users worldwide it is now the second most popular social media network after Facebook, for individuals and businesses alike.
Some of the unique features of Instagram include:
- Reels: Equipped with AR filters and audio tools, Reels is an Instagram feature that befits businesses as well as individuals for creating short and entertaining videos.
- IGTV: A standalone video application by Instagram for creating long-form, immersive videos. Also available as a feature within the Instagram application.
- Shoppable Tags: A highly useful feature for eCommerce companies. You can integrate links that users can directly visit from your Instagram stories, thus boosting your conversions.
Platform: Android, iOS, All desktop browsers
Pricing: Instagram is free to use, paid features include- sponsored ads and related tools.
Integrations: Instagram integration enables you to connect with other social media apps for easy sharing and collaboration across platforms.
TikTok
TikTok allows users to create short mobile videos equipped with special effects, AR filters, and audio tools. This social media app has seen astronomical growth in the 5 years of its existence, and was the most downloaded social media app in 2020, with total downloads exceeding 2 billion.
Some of the unique features of Tiktok are:
- Video Editor: TikTok has one of the most sophisticated video editors allowing all kinds of users to create videos of professional quality effortlessly.
- Collaborative Videos: Even though this feature has now been replicated by Instagram through their Remix feature, TikTok allowed multiple users to collaborate virtually on videos.
Platform: Android, iOS
Pricing: Tiktok is free to use, businesses can run paid advertisements
Snapchat
Snapchat is an instant messaging and multimedia sharing social media app with a theme. Users can send and receive images and videos on the app that exist for only a few moments before they autodestruct unless saved. Nevertheless, the mobile application has more than 293 million daily active users worldwide, as of 2021.
A few unique features of Snapchat include:
- Geofilters: Snapchat allows users to create filters, and present them to the users based on their geographical area. This equips organizations with the ability to have specific filters for their customers and employees in the area.
- Lenses: Snapchat allows users to add overlays to their pictures and videos, which can also be customized.
Platform: Android, iOS
Pricing: Snapchat is free to use, includes paid features and advertisements.
As a business and employment-oriented social media site, LinkedIn has carved a niche for itself since its inception. With over 774 million users worldwide, LinkedIn is great for professional networking and bolstering employment opportunities. Best of all, it provides multiple ways for businesses to create a presence on the social network.
Some of the most unique features offered by LinkedIn include:
- LinkedIn Learning: LinkedIn offers a knowledge-sharing platform on which professional experts can share tips, tricks, and updates on industrial topics. The company also lets users choose from courses that they offer and the ones created by other users — and yes, some of them are certified.
- Saved Searches: Recruiters and candidates can easily find each other on LinkedIn. But they can also save their search criteria and get alerts when more candidates/recruiters meeting the criteria post about availability.
Platform: Android, iOS, Web
Pricing: LinkedIn is free to use, the premium version includes InMail messaging, access to LinkedIn Learning courses, and access to people who have viewed your profile. Premium Career costs $239.88/year, and LinkedIn Business costs $575.88/year. Premium Sales costs $779.88/year, and Premium Hiring costs $1199.40/year.
Integrations: LinkedIn integrations can help you sync your professional contacts more easily and help you share updates and information with them easily.
Reddit is a community network that has fostered small and large groups that want to exchange information, trivia, or any form of knowledge in a thread format. Over the years, Reddit has secured a strong place in pop culture with over 52 million daily active users worldwide.
In case you are wondering what this means for you — it is a great place to build a follower base through topical conversations and discussions.
Some of the unique features that Reddit offers include:
- Karma Points: These are points that Reddit users rate your posts with, which are not just a mark of your popularity but also the quality of your post.
- Subreddits: The entire Reddit platform is made of subreddits that are a particular umbrella topic under which other posts fall in.
Platform: Android, iOS, Web
Pricing: Reddit is free to use, the premium version is priced at $5.99/month which hides advertisements and gives exclusive access to r/lounge.
Quora
Quora is a question and answer website that is used for social networking. Quora has more than 300 million unique monthly website visitors and more than 190 million monthly active users worldwide. Think about it: you can create a strong presence for your brand, simply by answering user questions and problems. Isn’t that the essence of any business?
The unique features offered by Quora include:
- Q/A Format: The most unique feature of Quora is the Q&A format in which all the content on the platform is shared.
- Diverse Community: You will find the biggest experts in specific fields and meme sharers under the same platform, creating a large diverse community.
Platform: Android, iOS, Web
Pricing: Quora is free to use
Clubhouse
Clubhouse is a new social media app that allows users to create private rooms and share knowledge via voice/audio. These rooms can designate hosts/moderators who can control other users’ actions in the chatroom.
The primary feature that distinguishes Clubhouse from others is that it lets users create rooms, or even hallways filled with rooms, creating audio-only content. This audio-focused social media app can prove to be a great podcast for your business.
Platform: Android, iOS
Pricing: Clubhouse is free to use
By now, you should have a good idea of the social media apps that may work wonders for your online presence. Adding new social media apps to your arsenal can get challenging and may require you to implement change management strategies.
But wait, while managing social media apps can get quite challenging, there are plenty of social media management apps that can come to your rescue.
Best Social Media Apps For Management
Buffer
Buffer is one of the best social media management apps out there with a user-friendly interface and flexible pricing plans. Some of the features that make Buffer a great addition to your social media repertoire are:
- Management of at least three social media channels with basic features even on the free plan.
- Scheduling, and posting across multiple social media channels.
- Detailed insights about the target audience, their engagement, and usage.
Platform: Android, iOS, and Desktop App (Windows & macOS)
Pricing: Free Plan (three social media channels + basic features), Paid Plan – $5/month (unlimited social media channels + advanced features)
Integrations: The Buffer app can be integrated with a wide array of social media networks and websites to streamline social media communications.
Sprout Social
Sprout Social is another professional social media management app that is apt for brands and agencies alike for managing social media activity and communications. Some of the unique features that set Sprout Social apart from the rest are:
- A complete suite of social media management features including publishing, scheduling, monitoring and reporting.
- Provides a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Module — rare for a social media management application.
- Highly visualized and presentable reports which are preferable by customers having varied scales of business
Platform: Android, iOS, and Desktop App (Windows & macOS)
Pricing: Standard ($99/month), Professional ($169/month) and Advanced ($279/month)
Hootsuite
Hootsuite promotes itself as an all-in-one social media management app providing similar features and options as Sprout Social. Some of the unique features that set it apart from the rest are as follows:
- Hootsuite is compatible with all major social media platforms except Tiktok.
- Includes a custom scheduling option as well as an auto-scheduling option.
- The full suite of analytics offered by Hootsuite offers insights on over 200 metrics.
- Custom permissions for users of all levels.
Platform: Android, iOS, and Desktop App (Windows & macOS), Chrome
Pricing: Professional ($49/month), Team ($129/month), Business ($599/month), and Enterprise (Custom Plans)
Zoho Social
Zoho provides a wide range of enterprise solutions for teams and companies of all sizes. You see, the social media management app is adept at handling and automating regular social media tasks. Some of its main features include:
- Scheduling, monitoring, and publishing posts on platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn
- Team management module for collaboration and coordination of the social media management team
- Live Stream of your social media activity showing the engagement and actions by users on your social media channel
Platform: Android, iOS, and Web
Pricing: Standard ($15/month), Professional ($35/month), Premium ($45/month) – for businesses, Agency ($230/month) and Agency Plus ($330/month) – for agencies
CoSchedule
CoSchedule offers a complete suite of features that automates and organizes all your marketing efforts within a single dashboard. This social media app is adept at carrying out every task that you expect out of a social media management tool and more. Some of its key features include:
- Scheduling and real-time monitoring of posts and social media activity
- Content calendar for creation of smart marketing campaigns
Platform: Android, iOS, and Web
Pricing: Marketing Calendar ($29/month), Marketing Suite (Custom Solutions)
SocialPilot
SocialPilot is a complete social media management app that allows users to manage multiple social media accounts seamlessly and automate related tasks. Some of the key features that SocialPilot offers include:
- Integration of 50+ social media accounts.
- Analysis and reporting of all social media channels in a single dashboard with white-labelling options.
- Social inbox to manage interactions with customers.
Platform: Android, iOS, and Web
Pricing: Professional ($25.5/month), Small Team ($42.5/month), Studio ($85/month), and Agency ($127.5/month)
Closing Remarks
Each of the social media apps, may it be a social media site or a management app; they have their own share of pros and cons. You should select the best social media app for your business based on your goals and objectives and the main factor – audience.
Build a team that plays smart automating flows on social media rather than doing each step manually. All that matters on social media is your brand’s presence! Build that up and work for it!
