Social media has become a bigger part of our society than ever seemed imaginable and there truly is a platform for everyone. Whether you are looking for inspiration, news, to connect with friends or family, or even to move your career forward there is a social media platform that is right for you. Below is a more in-depth breakdown of the major social media platforms and when each makes sense to use.
Facebook
Facebook is the most popular and in a lot of ways the most useful social media platform. If you are looking to connect with friends and family, there is no better option. Facebook allows users to share just about everything from their life, now they can even live stream things happening around them! Having a Facebook account allows you to have a messenger account which can be a great way to talk to people, especially those traveling or without a reliable cell phone. Facebook is also a great opportunity to connect with businesses and keep up with news. News outlets now turn to Facebook to break stories and give live coverage of different events. Social media has always been a fast way to get news, but as time has gone on credibility of Facebook news has skyrocketed as real news sources have started to utilize the platform. With 1.94 billion users, Facebook is as big as just about all of the other platforms that made our list. If you don’t already have one, Facebook is great for just about everyone looking to do anything with social media.
Twitter
Twitter is yet another brand that has quickly become one of the most popular in the world with the explosion of social media. It is a little different as the platform is not meant to connect you with friends or family, but rather designed to give more real time news and updates. The concept is simple, posts are limited to 140 characters and are designed to give a short blurb about a topic. This is great for news cycles as users can quickly and mindlessly post what is happening around them. Twitter was the first platform to make the use of hashtags big. Hashtags are an easy way to search for different topics by common phrases related to them, furthering how great Twitter is for news. Twitter has evolved a lot since it was originally just a way to share brief thoughts but can now be used to view live sporting events, share videos, and even release music and podcasts.
LinkedIn
LinkedIn is the niche platform on our list. It really is only useful if you are in the professional world, specifically the business world. It is basically a professional version of Facebook. It is used to post updates about employment, education, seek new jobs, network with people in your field, and anything else that helps in professional life. It is a great idea for college students to use LinkedIn to help get their start in the working world. LinkedIn isn’t only useful in the business world, as it has now expanded and is used by teachers, artists, and all kinds of other professional industries. If you do freelance work there is no better place to get opportunities. Tons of businesses use LinkedIn to find full time and part time employees. LinkedIn is a great place to show the world and most importantly employers your professional side.
SnapChat
SnapChat is great if you know other people using the app. It is a way to send pictures and videos to your friends who are also on SnapChat instantly. The interesting part about SnapChat is that these images or videos only show for a few seconds before disappearing forever. There is really no purpose to having a SnapChat account unless you have friends on the platform, it is very popular with teens and young adults. SnapChat can be used for news, however it is certainly not the most effective way to get your news.
Social media is great and if you take the time to tailor who you follow and connect with on the different channels it can be a very useful tool in your life. There are all kinds of other social media platforms that can be used for different purposes, it is all about trying them out and seeing which ones you personally prefer.
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