We often overlook social media when it comes to business growth, but it can be the cheapest and most effective marketing option! After all, statistics show the average person spent two and a half hours on social media every day in 2022.
Take advantage of that time! Find out more about the biggest social media platforms and how using them for digital marketing can benefit your organization.
Key Takeaways
- The most used social media platforms include Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, WhatsApp, and Instagram.
- Each platform offers unique benefits and methods for reaching new customers.
- Choosing the right platform will depend heavily on your target audience and business objectives.
- Our social media experts can help you choose the right platform or platforms to establish your brand image and build brand loyalty.
The 12 Top Social Media Networks in the U.S.
It’s become a bit tired to remind people that social media is more popular than ever, with more and more users and hours spent on these platforms every year. Still, the sentiment is true, and it’s important for business owners to recognize the potential of social media marketing efforts for increasing brand awareness and reaching your target audience.
Two factors that can impact your social media strategy and chosen channels is the number of monthly active users and the average time spent on each platform. The bigger and more popular the platform, the more likely it is that a higher number of your potential customers will be on it.
We analyzed data from SOAX and Statista to determine which platforms are most popular on average, with a focus on U.S. audiences. Keep in mind that each of the apps below has marketing tools for social media advertising. In 2026, the platforms with the most social media users are:
1. Facebook – Facebook remains one of the top social media platforms, with the highest number of users of any app. Facebook boasts more than 3 million monthly users spending an average of about 20 hours per month, putting it in third for use time. Facebook Messenger is also a major player.
2. TikTok – While TikTok may not have the highest number of monthly users, it leads when it comes to the hours its young audience spends on the platform. In fifth place for active social media accounts, the app has just under 2 million monthly users spending an average of 34 hours per month posting and watching short-form video content.
3. YouTube – YouTube, home of both short videos and long-form content, comes in second place for watch time, with its just over 2.5 million monthly users (fourth place) spending an average of roughly 28 hours per month watching content.
4. WhatsApp Messenger – WhatsApp has the second-highest number of users actively engaging with the platform, 2 million, coming in fourth for time spent on the app at about 17 hours per month.
5. Instagram – Instagram ties with WhatsApp as the second-most popular social networking site based on active accounts, with 2 million active users. However, Instagram accounts are comparatively less active, spending an average of just over 15 hours per month.
6. Telegram – You may not have heard of it, but the Telegram messaging and voice-chat app is one of the most popular social platforms today, with 1 million monthly users, putting it in sixth place, spending roughly four hours per month on the app, landing it in seventh place for usage.
7. Snapchat – By social media metrics, Snapchat is a competitively popular app, with its just under one million users spending about 3.5 hours per month on the platform, putting it in seventh and eighth place, respectively.
8. WeChat – WeChat users don't spend as much time on the platform, but it does host many active users. The app has just under 1.5 million users spending less than an hour per month.
9. X (Twitter) – Despite its controversial past few years, X is still widely and regularly used. With more than 550 million users spending just under five hours on the app per month, X comes in tenth for users and sixth for time on site.
10. Reddit – Like WeChat, Reddit's users may not spend as much time on the platform per month compared to the list's top performers, but there are a lot of users on the site. In ninth place for the number of accounts, Reddit is home to more than 750 million users organized around niche communities rather than personal profile building.
11. Pinterest – With nearly 600 million Pinterest users and an average monthly use time of just under two hours, this site features a diverse array of image-based content and short videos. It ranks tenth for users and ninth for use time.
12. LinkedIn – While not on the list of social media channels with the most users, LinkedIn still makes it on our list for two reasons: first, LinkedIn users spend an average of just under an hour per month on the app, and it's also a popular platform for business decision-makers and professional networking, making it essential for B2B.
With user numbers well into the hundreds of millions, it’s clear that social media channels represent a huge opportunity for large and small businesses alike. From establishing your brand identity and building relationships with customers to generating data on audience behavior and consumer trends, social media can provide a range of advantages.
Still, succeeding on different platforms takes more than just a business page and a spattering of social media content. You should consider relying on a capable social media marketing agency to help you harness these powerful tools. At Cobalt Digital Marketing, our social media experts can create an effective content calendar to drive engagement and reach your specific audience.
Choosing the Right Social Media Platform for Your Business
If you’re trying to generate an engaged audience, social media is the place to do it, but first you need to figure out which channels to use. Choosing the right social media platform for your business comes down to more than just the number of users on the site or how long they spend viewing and posting content. Instead, businesses need to carefully consider the benefits each social media platform offers to decide which is right for them.
Different social media sites are ideally suited for different types of content and businesses, and your social media success will depend on choosing the right one. However, that’s also not a simple process: you’ll likely need to conduct research across at least one or two platforms to improve results and prevent spreading your resources too thin.
Still, before you can begin testing, you’ll need to get an idea of which platforms to test on. It’s also worth looking into which platforms your competitors use for their social media marketing. You can learn about effective content strategies and identify market gaps to improve your performance.
Platform Strengths and Benefits
Check out the benefits of the platforms below and consider if they align with your broader business goals.
Whether you’re a social media newbie or have been connected for a while, there’s no denying the hold that Facebook has as a platform. Every day, 2.41 billion users log on to Facebook to post, scroll, and watch content, making it a must for businesses.
If you think your company may benefit from Facebook, you may be right, and here’s why:
- Facebook is one of the most developed platforms, making it simple and effective to use.
- You’re able to target your audience based on age, gender, interests, and employment to get the most out of your ads.
- You can utilize features including and alongside community groups, personal profiles, and the marketplace.
- Thanks to its highly advanced analytics, you can use Facebook to gain powerful insight about your audience and their purchasing decisions.
- Facebook is ideal for local businesses looking to generate leads and engagement in their community.
- You can share company news and generate real-time interactions with engaged users.
TikTok
While TikTok is relatively new, it’s quickly grown in popularity through its short yet creative videos. TikTok encourages creators to have fun, and viewers find it entertaining and informative. This platform has 1.2 billion users, putting it above several older media platforms like Twitter and Snapchat.
This social media platform may benefit your business:
- Consumers are highly attentive to TikTok, making them more susceptible to the content they view.
- Its more casual layout allows you to create less-polished marketing campaigns.
- Thanks to its highly personalized algorithm and recommendations, you can count on improved audience engagement.
- TikTok can be particularly important for your social media marketing strategy if your target audience is under the age of 35, with the most effective use being for brands aimed at ages 18 to 24.
- User-generated brand content helps boost trust and audience interest.
YouTube
YouTube is the one-stop shop for video content. Once you navigate to this platform, you can view millions of videos, from singing cats and welding to football recaps and coffee tutorials. The possibilities for a consumer are endless when using YouTube.
While YouTube is a great way to spend your free time, you may be wondering how it can benefit your company:
- You can be creative and rely heavily on visual content for your ads.
- YouTube is owned by Google, which gives companies access to Google’s advertising platform.
- You can gain a higher search ranking by using keywords in your video’s title and description.
- YouTube balances social media features with more traditional streaming, with highly engaging user-generated content helping draw in potential customers.
- Video content can be used to showcase products. For professional services, you can share educational content, customer testimonials, and more.
While not quite as popular as its sibling company, Facebook, Instagram has risen in popularity over the past few years. Younger generations lean more toward Instagram because of the simple setup, filters, and reels. The businesses that can benefit the most from integrating Instagram into their digital marketing strategy are highly visual brands.
There can be many benefits to using Instagram for your business:
- It’s owned by Facebook, so it shares the same wide advertising platform as Facebook does.
- While ads are available on Instagram, you don’t have to pay for advertising; your profile simply grows as you gain followers.
- You can be visually creative and appeal to followers through the photos and videos you post.
- With its focus on visual storytelling and influencer marketing, Instagram is best for fashion, beauty, health, and other industries that rely on visual advertising and trends.
- Video posts are great for sharing behind-the-scenes content, product demonstrations, and more.
X (Twitter)
Posting engaging content on X can help certain businesses establish brand recognition and generate website traffic. Still, it’s important to keep in mind that there are certain brand-safety risks that come with building a strong social media presence on X. If you determine that it’s right for your social media strategy, you may see the following benefits from social media marketing on X:
- Through social media interactions on X, you can access real-time customer engagement and feedback.
- You can leverage social media to share educational content and subject matter expertise.
- As part of your social media marketing today, monitoring X engagement can be a useful way to gather valuable insights on your target audience.
If you’ve ever logged on to Pinterest, you know just how easily you can get sucked into this platform. The variety of recipes, outfit ideas, and home inspo can keep you scrolling for hours.
While you may love Pinterest for personal reasons, it can also benefit your organization:
- The boards and pins that people create are often used to plan for future purchases.
- You can be strategic with your content and boost your reach with the keywords you use in your posts.
- Pinterest is particularly useful for promoting products, with more than a third of consumers saying social platforms influence their purchases.
If you need to build brand awareness in the business-to-business space, then LinkedIn is probably already on your radar. LinkedIn is essential for generating B2B leads and building social engagement with business leaders. Some of the key benefits of building a LinkedIn presence for your business are:
- Most job seekers use social media like LinkedIn for job searches and networking.
- Using LinkedIn ads and social media posts, you can widen the pool of potential applicants for job listings.
- Many business owners and decision-makers use LinkedIn to find and share industry news.
- You can use LinkedIn to establish a reputation for thought leadership in your field.
- LinkedIn is a powerful social platform for showcasing your company culture and brand values.
Rely on Effective Social Media Marketing and Content Creation
Choosing the best social media platform for your business is just the beginning of your social media management journey. You will need to conduct careful research and ensure you have the right team in place to create highly engaging content. You also need to be ready for the ways that AI is changing content creation and discovery on social media.
While you may enjoy using social media in a personal capacity, most feel completely out of their comfort zone when it comes to using these platforms for their business. From scheduling posts to researching content ideas, everything gets more complicated when it comes to social media for businesses. It might be daunting at first, but with the right help and expertise, you can overhaul your brand visibility.
Our team of catalysts at Cobalt Digital Marketing has the know-how to navigate the top platforms. With our experience providing superior social media marketing efforts, we can launch your business into the online world today!
