Blog Comments And Forums
An online forum is a site that lets users engage in conversations by posting and responding to community messages. A blog comment site is the same thing except being a little more focused. The comments are usually centered around the specific subject of the attached blog. Google has a popular blogging site aptly titled, Blogger. However, there are a seemingly endless number of blogging sites, particularly because so many of them are niche-based, unlike the universal appeal of general social media sites.
Social Media Messaging Apps
Social messaging apps are a great addition to your marketing plan, but how do you find the right one? Here are nine options available to your business.
1. Messenger
Messenger is a social messaging app attached to Facebook. It currently has 1.3 billion users and is one of the most popular messaging apps.
Originally, Messenger started out as a feature that was included as part of Facebooks interface. You needed to be in the Facebook app to access your messages. As it grew in popularity, Facebook made a separate app to make messaging even easier.
You can download Messenger to any smart phone. All you need is a Facebook account to use this app and communicate with Facebook users.
This platform is simple and easy to use. You can send text, photos, emojis, GIFs, and stickers. It offers numerous features to create a fun interaction between your business and your audience.
Messenger also enables you to integrate chatbots. Chatbots are becoming increasingly popular among businesses because they provide a way to give customer service without someone needing to be present. Its also great for sending automated reminders and order confirmations.
If you have a Facebook business profile, Messenger is already included. Its a great, free tool that allows you to provide better service to your customers.
2. Snapchat
Users communicate by sending these photos and videos to one another. Snapchatters can add text, Bitmoji images, and emojis to their content.
3. WhatsApp
How To Call Using Whatsapp
One of the most useful features when using WhatsApp internationally is the ability to make phone calls. Unlike standard international voice calls, WhatsApp calls use your internet connection rather than your phone line, so theyre completely free .
To start a phone call on WhatsApp, all you need to do is open a chat window and tap the phone icon in the top right. If its a group, you can even select multiple people to call at the same time.
The steps for how to make a video call on WhatsApp are virtually identical. Just tap the video camera icon next to the phone icon. Its a great , especially for Android users!
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How To Use Whatsapp For Business: Tips And Tools
Learn how to use WhatsApp for business and provide your customers with immediate, personalized customer service.
While youve probably already included platforms like Twitter and Facebook in your social media strategy, WhatsApp could be equally as important to your brand.
Thats right: WhatsApp isnt just for texting your coworkers or video chatting with your family in a different city. It can be used for business, too.
WhatsApp Business was created specifically with small business owners in mind. It can help you connect with your customers and support them with immediate, personalized customer service.
If youve never considered adding a WhatsApp Business account into your brands social strategy, well explore why that might be a good idea.
Bonus: Get a free, easy-to-use Customer Service Report Template that helps you track and calculate your monthly customer service efforts all in one place.
Feature Of The Whatsapp Application:
WhatsApp application has now integrated a lot of features.
This means, now you can do a lot of things on the platform.
In my further discussion, Im gonna share with you a list of all the features that will help you to understand whether its a social media application or it just an instant-text application.
1. You can add people to your WhatsApp contacts with the help of their contact numbers.
This means, if you want to add someone to your list then you need to save their phone contact number in your list and youll be able to add them to your WhatsApp contacts list.
2. After adding them, now you can share text messages, you can share media files like images and videos, you can share documents like PDF, PPT, and other formats as well.
You can share live locations as well.
You can share all of these but personally not publically.
Means no one can see you shared something or not if you share in personal chats.
3. WhatsApp application has now integrated a status feature.
This means, if you want to share anything with your WhatsApp contacts at once then you can consider using this feature.
In order to share anything on your WhatsApp status, make sure to open the application, and start sharing.
4. You can connect on audio and video calls. You can also connect on group video calls.
5. You can create WhatsApp groups and broadcast lists.
WhatsApp groups and broadcast lists are the best ever thing in order to connect with like-minded people.
Read more:
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Key Reasons Whatsapp Is A Social Media Platform
WhatsApp is a popular messaging service, but its also a social media platform. That might seem a bit counter-intuitive at first. But youll agree with me once you understand how we define social media. Lets start with a simple definition of a social media platform:
A web-based and mobile-based Internet Application that allows the creation, access and exchange of user-generated content.
Whether you personally agree with this definition or not, WhatsApp easily ticks all the boxes. It strengthens our hypothesis that we might be onto something. While WhatsApp was originally designed as a messaging service, it mostly functions as a social media platform these days .
Dont just trust me on that. Take it from the scientists that studied this.
In a 2011 paper in Business Horizons, Kietzmann et al. propose a framework to define social media platforms. They describe the key building blocks any social media platform should have. According to the research paper, there are seven functional building blocks of social media:
Line 203 Million Maus
Line is a multi-purpose social messaging app that allows users to message, share stickers, play games, make payments, request for taxis, and shop online. It is the most popular messaging app in Japan and is also popular in other areas in Asia.
Brands can create official accounts on Line to share news and promotions, which will appear on their followers timeline.
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The 15 Biggest Social Media Sites And Apps
Last Updated on by Karl
Social networking platforms are locked in a never-ending game of musical chairs.
Every year, the whims of a fickle public, the introduction of new players, and shifting global trends trigger a shuffle in social medias most important leaderboard.
Aside from these shifts just being generally quite interesting to industry watchers, theyre also super useful for savvy digital marketers.
Knowing how deeply each of these platforms reaches into the global online community is critical to your companys social media marketing strategy. As is understanding other nuances relating to the platforms growth.
Choosing which social network your brand is going to focus its marketing efforts on is a very important decision, and one that shouldnt be taken purely on a hunch.
Sure, a particular social media platform may feel right for your brand, but we recommend that you take a bunch of other variables into consideration before making the leap. Amongst these, relative popularity and growth are two of the most important factors.
So, to help your brand with this crucial decision, Dreamgrow maintains this post: An up-to-date view on the movers, shakers, newcomers, and immovable monoliths that make up the social media landscape.
Lets jump in.
Webfx Will Help You Leverage Social Messaging Apps
Messaging apps are the fastest growing way to connect with your audience and promote brand recognition. You can use these apps to build a better relationship with your audience and engage with them more. At WebFX, we have a team of 150+ skilled experts that will help you make the most of your app options.
Were a full-service digital marketing company that specializes in social media marketing. Our team of experts are knowledgeable and keep up with social messaging app trends. With more than 20 years of experience in digital marketing, we have the knowledge and skills to help you create a plan that brings your business success.
If you want to partner with a company that drives results, look no further than WebFX. To date, weve driven over $1 billion in sales and over 6.3 million leads for our clients. Our team takes the time to develop a plan that works for your business.
Want to know what its like to partner with a social messaging app expert like WebFX? Just ask our clients! Check out our 550+ client testimonials that attest to the great work we do for them!
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Qq 617 Million Active Users
Another property owned by the Chinese conglomerate Tencent , QQ has been around forever .
Launched under the name OICQ in 1999 as a downloadable instant messaging service, the platform quickly became Chinas most popular digital contact platform and played a pivotal role in killing email in the worlds most populous country.
QQs early rise to dominance as a business communication platform was helped by the softwares exceptional handling of file transfers. This created a network effect where companies simply HAD to be on QQ because, well, all their partners, vendors, and clients were already using it.
Being first to market with such a useful platform, especially in a territory that actively blocks so many external cloud-based apps, helped build the foundation for QQs enormous success.
Despite its ubiquity in China, QQ hasnt managed to make its mark on the rest of the world. International versions of the platform werent integrated with many valuable QQ products, rendering it mostly valueless outside its home territory.
Whatsapp Usage By Country
India is currently WhatsApps biggest market, with 340 million users in the South Asian country . That puts it way ahead of WhatsApps second-largest market, Brazil, which is home to 99 million users. In fact, WhatsApp users in India made up nearly half of the total number of WhatsApp app downloads in the month of February 2020.
In spite of its Californian roots, WhatsApp is surprisingly not as popular in the US as most would think, with just 68 million users in the country. Of these, 26 million are considered to be monthly active users.
It appears most mobile messenger app users in the US prefer to communicate through Facebook Messenger and Snapchat, which have 106 million and 46 million monthly active users respectively.
But despite the relatively low WhatsApp usage in the US, experts are forecasting a steady increase in growth and expect there to be over 85 million WhatsApp users in the US by 2023.
You may also be interested to know that despite Chinas ban, there are approximately two million people using WhatsApp in China.
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How To Use Whatsapp On Your Computer
If you are the type of person who prefers typing on a keyboard , you can also use WhatsApp from a computer. Youll need to keep your phone nearby, but it can be a very convenient way to chat or send files from your PC or Mac.
How to use WhatsApp on your computer:
If you dont want to use a browser, you can also install the WhatsApp PC client directly on your computer. If you think someone is using WhatsApp Web without your permission, you can remove access from your phone by following the first two steps above.
Snapchat 498 Million Active Users
Few people would have guessed that an app rejecting the notion of once its on the internet, its forever would thrive the way Snapchat has.
The photo and video-sharing platform became famous for only displaying users posts for a limited time before its deleted. Forever. This infused each Snapchat interaction with an immediacy that resonated with a younger generation of mobile internet users.
It also helped that the app broke the mold when it came to augmented reality filters and lenses features that instilled Snapchat interactions with a creative irreverence missing from other social networks.
Snapchat has shown some seriously impressive growth in its daily active users outside of the United States and Europe.
In the four years between Q4, 2017 and Q4, 2020, the apps usage in these two regions has maintained a steady rate of growth. DAUs in the rest of the world, however, have skyrocketed in this timeframe, going from 47 million to a whopping 99 million.
As of December 2020, Snapchat DAUs in the rest of the world now outnumber their US and European counterparts.
From a demographic perspective, two statistics stand out:
- 59% of all US internet users between the ages of 13 to 24 are on Snapchat.
- Since 2016, Snapchat has been the most popular social network amongst teens and young adults.
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Advantages Of Messaging Apps Versus Social Media
Our Customer Service: Why Messaging Apps Are #1 series explores how messaging apps stack up against other customer service channels such as e-mail, telephone, live chat, etc. Todays topic is Messaging Apps versus Social Media. What are the advantages of customer service via WhatsApp, Apple Business Chat, and Facebook Messenger vs. Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter? Read on to find out why direct channels offer a better experience for both your customers and your business.
Messaging Apps versus Social Media: 5 Reason Why WhatsApp & Co. Offer Better Customer Service
Customer service via social mediathis seemed like a dream when social media platforms were flourishing and businesses had just discovered the engagement potential of social branding. As it turns out, customer care and service carried out through tweets, on Facebook posts, or Instagram comments is hard to manage and can blow up quickly. But a close relative of social media mobile messaging, or what some people call dark social because of its private, 1:1 nature can be the antidote to businesses customer service woes. Messaging apps offer a huge variety of advantages, from a streamlined one channel approach, to enhanced automation possibilities.
Top 10 Social Media Platforms Compared
| MAU |
Monthly Active Users: 2.7 billionFounders: Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, Chris HughesRevenue: $86 billion
Despite a shifting demographic, no matter your industry, theres a space for you on .
Some of the leading industries on Facebook include financial services, ecommerce, retail, gaming, entertainment, media, telecom, technology, consumer goods, and automotive businesses.
While the News Feed increasingly suppresses business posts, there are still ways to bolster engagement without investing in ads.
Consider joining groups, using a Facebook Messenger chatbot, or using live video to up your engagement.
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As A Health Behavior Change And Reinforcement Tool
Social media can also function as a supportive system for adolescents’ health, because by using social media, adolescents are able to mobilize around health issues that they themselves deem relevant. For example, in a clinical study among adolescent patients undergoing treatment for obesity, the participants’ expressed that through social media, they could find personalized weight-loss content as well as social support among other adolescents with obesity. Whilst, social media can provide such information there are a considerable amount of uninformed and incorrect sources which promote unhealthy and dangerous methods of weight loss. As stated by the national eating disorder association there is a high correlation between weight loss content and disorderly eating among women who have been influenced by this negative content. Therefore, there is a need for people to evaluate and identify reliable health information, competencies commonly known as health literacy. This has led to efforts by governments and public health organizations to use social media to interact with users, to limited success.
During the coronavirus pandemic, the spread of information throughout social media regarding treatments against the virus has also influenced different health behaviors.
Status Saver For Whatsapp Scan
This app makes managing your businesss WhatsApp contact list easy. Use it to import WhatsApp contacts into your iPhone, merge duplicate contacts and connect with someone on WhatsApp without adding them as an official contact.
So, there you have it! Now you know why WhatsApp could be a great tool for your business. Dont forget: messenger apps like WhatsApp Business are great ways to elevate customer service, and improve communication with both your customers and your team.
Save time building an efficient customer support system on social media with Hootsuite. Respond to questions and complaints, create tickets from social conversations, and work with chatbots all from one dashboard. Try it free today.
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Youtube 2291 Billion Active Users
The second-most popular social media platform on our list, YouTube comes in at a super-impressive 2.29 billion registered users.
However, since ANYONE can enjoy YouTube content, regardless of whether or not theyre a registered user, this figure may not be the most accurate representation of the platforms true popularity.
Launched in 2005, the video-sharing platform was initially intended to be a dating service, with the founders reportedly publishing ads on Craigslist to entice women into posting videos of themselves talking about their ideal partners.
The lack of response resulted in the site being opened up for videos of any kind a decision that would ultimately make Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim multi-millionaires.
The company overcame numerous technical and legal obstacles on its way to becoming not only the worlds leading video-sharing platform but also the target of a $1.65 billion acquisition by Google. All of this by November 2006 only 16 months after its official launch.
YouTube is also one of a tiny selection of social media platforms that reaches very young age groups. A 2020 study conducted by Pew Research revealed the following about the viewing habits of US children under the age of 11.
- 80% of parents say their children watch YouTube videos.
- Only 19% of parents say that their children dont watch YouTube videos.
- More than half of parents said their children watched Youtube at least once a day.