Platform Name | |
Monthly Active Users | 303 Million |
Key Demographic | Mainly professionals, but this is the key social platform where you’re likely to find the older generation age bracket. |
Pros | A great platform for hiring staff, anyone and everyone has their CV or some kind of uploaded imitation of on here. It also has a great, informative blog platform and a section to advertise job positions. |
Cons | Due to its nature it means that, unless people are using it for one of the above options, users don’t tend to check it that frequently, hence its low active monthly user figure. |
Platform Name | Snapchat |
Monthly Active Users | 301 million |
Key Demographic | Children and Teenagers, if they are your target audience you need to be all over this social media platform. |
Pros | It’s quick and they have some great AR capabilities. Especially good if your running a show for teenagers or educational purposes. Think about appointing a Snapchat Officer when running workshops for teenagers! They love the responsibility! Just make sure to get permission slips signed for under 18s to be on social first. |
Cons | Did you not hear what Kim Kardashian said? Snapchat is on its way out! Seriously, on the day she shared that the value of Snapchat dropped by $1.3 billion, which probably also tells you a bit about the demographic of Snapchat… I’m saying nothing. |
Platform Name | |
Monthly Active Users | 291 Million |
Key Demographic | Mainly women, in fact 80% of its users are female. The median age of Pinterest is also slightly higher than many other social networks at 40 although active users usually fall below this age. |
Pros | Amazing craft and ideas platform. The ability to create separate mood boards is genius and I have seen it frequently used by designers and event managers. If you have merchandise you can create a sales platform on here to. |
Cons | Very rarely is there citation to who has made and designed the items on here which means plagiarism is common if you are putting up your own work up, although some would argue that Pinterest is about utilising others ideas and coming up with your own creation. |
Platform Name | Soundcloud |
Registered Users | 76 Million |
Unique Monthly Listeners | 175 Million |
Key Demographic | Music fans and podcast listeners |
Pros | Unlike Spotify you are able to upload your own music and podcast content through Soundcloud to share with the world. This can then easily be shared either by you or your listeners across other platforms and through your website by embedding tracks in the code. |
Cons | A low viewership at present means it is one of the least common streaming sites but it is building in popularity, especially amongst podcast developers and listeners. Also, at present, you don’t have to create a profile to register which makes finding users with specific tastes difficult! |
Platform Name | Vimeo |
Monthly Active Users | 240 million |
Key Demographic | A rather small demographic mainly consisting of creatives who prefer a higher quality of video. Basically, perfect for the arts industry. |
Pros | The biggest pro by far is the ability to privatise your videos! If you’re workshopping or trying to market your show to tour promoters but don’t want to spoil it for paying audiences simply send them your video link with a password so they can view it, but no one else can! |
Cons | Unlike most the social media networks Vimeo has a lot of restrictions in the number of videos you can upload and store when you use it for free. For £6-70 per month you can pay for additional storage and upload limits (it’s basically like paying for hosting). |
Platform Name | Tumblr |
Monthly Posts | 1.1 Billion |
Key Demographic | Another of your younger platforms (although not as young as Snapchat) catering mainly to under thirties. |
Pros | You can find any different interests on this site which makes it hugely accessible! You can also have multiple blogs which discuss different topics and unlike must social media where consistency is key you can come and go as you please on Tumblr without effective your business. |
Cons | Due to it’s blogging nature it is open to discussion which can be a feral breeding crowd for trolls! Think about YouTube arguments but on in parliament, discussing Brexit, on speed. They’re also super cagey about their visitor statistics so it’s difficult to gauge the kind of reach your getting. |
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BONUS TIP: Try to always keep your finger on the pulse with new, up and coming social platforms! How? I have found the easiest and most constructive way of doing this is simply seeing what is currently all the rage with my friends kids! If it is winging its way through the local comprehensive school, chances are it’s buzzing all over the UK. Obviously if you don’t have access to the fountain of knowledge that springs from the youth you can always listen to a social media podcast or keep your eye out in the news!
Do you use any social networks I haven’t mentioned? I would love to hear about them in the comments.
I have tried to pull the most recent user data and demographics from the following websites:
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