The best social platforms will vary depending on the attributes of you and your business. B2B and B2C will use social media in different ways. Selling services is very different from selling products. How I made my decision on determining the best social platforms was through a variety of things. Ease of use, flexibility, and audience. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have others, not on this list. It also doesn’t mean that everyone on this list is right for you.

Best Social Platforms

Facebook

It’s HUGE. Enormous, vast, immense. Massive, colossal, gigantic. Mammoth, gargantuan. No matter what adjective you use, Facebook is a beast. It has a user base that can only be described as cosmic. 42% of the World uses Facebook. That’s insanity. The sheer power of Facebook is why is one of the best social platforms on the planet.

PROS

• Nearly 3,000,000,000 users
• Great engagement algorithm
• Desktop & Mobile friendly
• Super easy to use
• Accepts a variety of content types, including hashtags and tagging
• Search algorithm matches a search engine
• Clear separation of personal profiles and business pages

CONS

• Hard to gain engagement with the saturation of users
• Facebook sponsored posts will hijack newsfeeds
• Star reviews were exchanged for recommendations
• A more (and new) challenging verification process

Instagram

Instagram is the leader in visual beauty. It is the perfect platform to showcase memes, pictures, videos, and live content. Since it’s purchase by Facebook, it’s grown significantly and is almost as large as YouTube (user wise.) Users spend more time on Instagram than other platforms. It’s also gaining popularity with younger generations. It’s constantly growing and that’s why it’s one of the best social platforms today.

PROS

• Users are accustomed to heavy hashtag use
• The search recommendation algorithms are very accurate
• Geo-tagging is accurate and perfect for tagging locations when traveling or showcasing a location
•  Very neat and organized interface

CONS

• Over-reliance on visual content makes content creation harder
• Designed for mobile use only, limited use on a web browser
• Crashes often and has tech issues more frequently than other social platforms
• LImited business profile use (by multiple users)

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the best way to get in front of a professional audience. High-level employees and owners are on LinkedIn more than other platforms. The groups on LinkedIn are stellar and more efficient than any other platforms to date. That’s why it made my list for best social platforms.

PROS

• Hiring and job placement opportunities
• Professional news sources trending algorithm
• Decision-making networking connections
• Profile features to easily showcase skills, experience, and talent

CONS

• Poor newsfeed algorithms
• No longer provides recommendations for business pages
• No longer allows page verification requests
• Low use of hashtags among users
• Very short user time per session

YouTube

YouTube gets about 100,000,000 views per day. That’s a TON! It’s the 2nd most used website in the world. Every year users watch enough hours to equal 46,000 years. Users LIVE on YouTube. This is one of the best social platforms in the world hand-down.

PROS 

• Easiest potential to go viral
• Users spend longer on the platform than any other
• No bandwidth limit
• Easy to use on-the-go, including video uploads
• Easy interface to categorize and group videos
• Good video recommendation algorithms

CONS

• Can be costly in time and money to produce content
• YouTube ‘owns’ more of the traffic than your site
• The largest site for trolls and has very little censorship
• Poor category use

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I also use Twitter, Tumblr, and Google My Business. Some platforms I only use for personal use and some only for professional. What are your favorite platforms to use? If you have any pros or cons you’d like to suggest, please share them. I’d love to hear from you and connect on LinkedIn.