While Facebook barely clings to its spot atop the list of the most popular social media platforms in 2026, there’s been plenty of shuffling further down the ranks.
But for the businesses that market on social media, overall popularity is just one piece of the puzzle. It’s also critical to know who’s using each platform and what type of content will work best. For example, can you guess which platform is best for feel-good content? Did you know that higher education performs exceptionally well on Instagram?
No, this isn’t your average roundup of demographics and stats for each platform (don’t worry, you’ll still get your fix).
In this guide, I’m going to share:
- What each of the top social media platforms is popular for.
- The best content types, emotions, strategies, and industries for each one.
- Creative ideas, actionable tips, and unobvious intel to help inform your strategy.
Let’s dive in.
Contents
The most popular social media platforms in 2026
We compiled Statista’s data of the most widely used social media platforms as of Nov 2025, and pulled the same information from last year. These are the most popular social media platforms worldwide, and how they compare to the list from 2024 so you can see what platforms are the most popular right now.
| 2024 Audience Size (Billions) | 2025 Audience Size (Billions) |
| Facebook (3.05 B) | Facebook (3.07 B) |
| YouTube (2.49 B) | Instagram (3.00 B) |
| WhatsApp (2.00 B) | WhatsApp (3.00 B) |
| Instagram (2.00 B) | YouTube (2.58 B) |
| TikTok (1.56 B) | TikTok (1.99 B) |
| WeChat (1.34 B) | WeChat (1.41 B) |
| Facebook Messenger (~1.00 B) | Telegram (1.00 B) |
| LinkedIn (1.00 B+ Members) | Facebook Messenger (0.94 B) |
| Telegram (0.90 B) | Snapchat (0.93 B) |
| Snapchat (0.80 B) | LinkedIn (1.10 B+ Members) |
| X (Twitter) (0.61 B) | Reddit (0.77 B) |
| Douyin (0.75 B) | Douyin (0.73 B) |
| Pinterest (0.50 B) | X (Twitter) (0.56–0.61 B) |
| Reddit (0.50 B) | Pinterest (0.58 B) |
The top four most popular social media platforms in the world are Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and YouTube. TikTok comes in at five, but X (formerly known as Twitter) slid to the 13th spot, and LinkedIn landed at 10.
This may seem surprising, but while 80% of customers engage with brands on social media, not all social media platforms are designed for this use case. Some are purely for instant messaging, and some platforms are wildly popular in other areas of the world, like China.
Let’s narrow our list down to the most popular social media platforms in the US.
The most popular social media platforms in the US in 2026
Raw monthly average user data specific to US users for social platforms isn’t easily available. So we’ve leaned on a recent data analysis from HubSpot to give us a clue as to which social networks are getting the lion’s share of attention.
Here are the 12 most popular social media platforms in the US, according to that survey:
- YouTube
- TikTok
- X
- Snapchat
- Threads
The data isn’t ideal since it’s cobbled together from multiple sources. But it does give us an answer to another interesting question: What’s the fastest-growing social media platform?
In year-over-year audience growth, it’s no surprise that TikTok had the largest year-over-year audience growth at 17.6%. And since most of the top platforms got a bump (except X), it seems that overall social media usage is growing.
Source
One unexpected turn is that YouTube only grew 2.1% over the last year. It’ll be interesting to see if that growth accelerates as YouTube shows up on more Google results pages.
🛑 Want a year’s worth of social media ideas, tips, and promotions? Download The Copy & Paste Social Media Calendar
The most popular social media platforms for marketers in 2026
According to Statista, the most popular social media platforms for marketing are:
- YouTube
- X
- TikTok
- Threads
Source
This is based on another self-reported survey. Note that LinkedIn is number three here, even though it barely cracked the top 10 by US users. That’s because even with a smaller user base, LinkedIn is built for professional communication, so it’s a concentrated pool of prospects for many marketers.
In the rest of this post, we’re going to explore what is popular on each of these platforms and how to incorporate them into your social media marketing strategy.
Also, a note on YouTube. Is it a social media platform? Kind of. But since it isn’t as focused on conversational engagement as the others, we didn’t include it in our deep dives below.
Facebook is the most popular social media platform for…
Everything…just kidding (sort of). It is the biggest social media platform worldwide, and its versatility makes it a go-to for just about anything. But in particular, Facebook is best for the following:
Local marketing
Did you know that Facebook is right up there with Google Business Profiles as one of the top local business directories? When you think about what a Facebook business page contains, this shouldn’t come as a surprise. This includes:
- Description, category, price range
- Contact info, hours, photos
- Call to action button, reviews, and instant messaging
70% of Facebook users visit a local business page at least once a week, so promote your page, and use it to build relationships, keep customers updated, and connect with your local community.
Advertising…
While your business page is a popular hub for those who know about your business, Facebook isn’t the best platform for reaching new audiences organically. In fact, its organic reach is only around 1 to 2%.
On the other hand, thanks to its size and targeting capabilities, Facebook is right up there with Google as a top digital advertising platform. Facebook ads can reach up to 34.1% of the adult population, the highest percentage of all social media platforms.
The average Facebook user clicks 12 ads per month, and the volume of impressions can raise brand awareness and improve your ad performance elsewhere. In terms of cost, the average conversion rate and cost per lead on Facebook is 7.72% and $27.66, compared to 7.52% and $70.11 for Google Search.
…to ages 65+
While users aged 65 and older represent one of the smallest groups of Facebook users overall, they have steadily grown and now make up over 10% of the audience on the platform. Now this, of course, doesn’t mean that this is the most popular age group on Facebook. It’s still 25-34, but for the 65+ age group, it is the preferred platform.
A variety of content
According to Statista, Reels (short, TikTok-like videos) get the most engagement on Facebook (0.15% to 0.23%). Photo or image posts are next up, garnering an engagement rate of between 0.10% and 0.12%. Good old-fashioned link posts have fallen behind with an average 0.03% engagement rate.
Video is generally the most engaging everywhere. But what’s unique about Facebook is how many non-video posts you’ll see in your feed. So yes, video is great, but on Facebook, variety rules.
🎬 Action time: Get with these 62 engaging Facebook post ideas and check out these 9 ways to level up your Facebook video marketing—which include finding your “aha” moment, formatting properly, using captions, and more.
Community and relationship-building
Don’t let Facebook’s low organic reach deter you from using it to engage with your audience. Many people often use a business’s Facebook page to check for announcements, store closings, sales, and other recent information. If you use your page in this manner, your customers and close followers will know to check your page frequently, and you won’t have to worry as much about showing up in their feeds.
You can then cater your posts to the quality traffic you are getting to your page—sparking discussions and engaging back with individuals, encouraging direct messaging, and more.
The most popular industries on Facebook
Facebook can work for any industry or business, but according to the data, we can see that for ads, the industries that see the highest conversion rates are:
- Restaurant & Food
- Attorney’s & Legal Services
- Education & Instruction
View our Facebook advertising benchmarks here.
For organic engagement, data from AgencyAnalytics tells us that Real Estate, Health & Fitness, and Education verticals see the highest engagement rates.
| Industry | Post engagement rate |
| Advertising & Marketing | 0.27% |
| Animals & Pets | 1.25% |
| Apparel & Fashion | 1.06% |
| Arts & Entertainment | 0.91% |
| Attorneys & Legal Services | 0.69% |
| Automotive Parts & Services | 0.71% |
| Beauty & Personal Care | 1.33% |
| Business Services | 0.63% |
| Career & Employment | 0.53% |
| Dental Services | 0.87% |
| Education | 1.69% |
| Environment & Sustainability | 0.99% |
| Event & Entertainment | 0.94% |
| Finance & Insurance | 0.56% |
| Food & Beverage | 0.77% |
| Furniture | 1.58% |
| Health & Fitness | 1.98% |
| Home Improvement | 1.32% |
| Industrial & Commercial | 0.53% |
| Manufacturing & Industrial | 0.62% |
| Non Profit | 0.78% |
| Real Estate | 2.12% |
| Restaurants | 1.25% |
| Sports & Recreation | 1.23% |
| Travel | 1.37% |
Source
🎬 Action time: Learn how to master the organic Facebook algorithm with these 6 ways to show up in the Facebook News Feed.
Instagram is the most popular social media platform for…
Don’t worry, I’m not going to say visual marketing! Visual marketing should not be an isolated strategy. It should be a staple for all of your strategies, not just on social media. Here is where Instagram stands out above the rest.
Ecommerce
Instagram advertising costs may be higher than Facebook, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a good channel for paid social advertising. First of all, purchase intent is highest on Instagram, with 61% of social media users turning to Instagram for product discovery—the highest among popular social networks.
Source
Instagram has also become the platform of conversion. 60% of users say they rely on Instagram for product research, a 16% increase from last year. Plus, 72% of users make purchase decisions based on Instagram content.
Still not convinced?
- 71% of Instagram users feel more connected to brands they follow on Instagram.
- 44% of Instagram users turn to the platform to find product reviews and recommendations.
- 40% of shoppers on Instagram spend over $200 per year.
- Approximately 130 million users engage with shopping content on Instagram every month.
Influencer marketing
Instagram is the preferred influencer marketing channel by 57.1% of marketers. It’s a busy place, with over 80% of influencers active there (making it the most widely adopted influencer platform).
Source
🎬 Action time: To get started with influencer marketing, learn how to find social media influencers in your industry to help you promote your content.
SEO?
Instagram recently announced a restriction on the allowed number of hashtags in a post (down to five). At the same time, the platform is putting more focus on AI and algorithm-focused discovery. That means optimizing your content for Instagram search is even more important than ever.
The most popular industries on Instagram
It also comes as no surprise that the industries that tend to thrive on Instagram are: travel, beauty, fashion, health & fitness, lifestyle, parenting, business, music, photography, food, and animals.
But here are some surprising finds from other studies. For one, the industries on Instagram with the highest engagement rates were Health & Beauty and Healthcare.
Source
And the same study found that the industries with the highest reach rates were Health & Beauty and Consumer Packaged Goods.
RivalIQ, on the other hand, found that the top three industries for engagement were higher education, sports teams, and nonprofits (I excluded influencers here since, well, influencers).
Source
The data is a bit all over the place, so I think we can say that Instagram is good for a wide variety of industries. I mean, if office supplies can do it, anyone can.
📊 How successful are your competitors’ Meta ads? Find out in these Facebook Ads Benchmarks: Competitive Data and Insights for Your Industry
X is the most popular social media platform for…
Much more than just expressing your brand in 280 characters or fewer at a time. But that is, by far, its biggest distinguishing factor.
Customer service
The fast-paced, direct-connect nature of X has made it a go-to channel for customers to reach out to brands. In a recent survey, two out of three people chose X as their preferred social media channel for customer care. And as a public-facing platform, brands that use it for customer service can also build their reputation at the same time.
Source
Actual text
Here’s a bit of a surprise, considering how much every platform, even X, is making the push for video content: text-only posts still get more engagement than any other type.
And the margin between them is pretty big. According to a Buffer analysis of 1 million social media posts, text versions received over 30% more engagement than video and 34% more engagement than image or photo posts.
Source
Advertising to males
Overall, around 54% of all social media users are male. But on X, the gender gap is larger, with 63% of that platform’s US audience being male and 37% female.
Source
With that in mind, X is a good place to reach the male segment of your audience.
News
News is a big topic on X. 57% of users there say they regularly get their news from the site, which is more than any other popular social network.
Source
Another study shows that 65% of users use it regularly to get the news. That makes sense, since one study found that 82% of journalists have an account there.
This means that if your audience is on X, you may consider sharing industry news as a part of your strategy.
🎬 Action time: Get up to speed on the latest X features for marketing and use them to engage your audience.
Young, educated, wealthy city dwellers and Republicans
Pew tells us that Republicans are more likely to say they use X, which is a reversal from a few years ago. Other reports say X’s user base tends to be younger (its largest age demographic is 18-29 year olds), have a higher income (29% have an income of $100,000 or more), and be well-educated (29% also have a college degree or higher).
Overwhelmingly, people who use X also tend to live in cities or suburbs, with just a quarter of them living in rural locations.
Source
The most popular industries on X
As with any platform in this post, most businesses can find a way to benefit from X marketing—it’s about how effectively you use it. But there are some categories that seem to have more ease with success than others.
SQ Magazine reports that verticals with the highest engagement rates on X are sports teams, Higher Education, Alcohol, and Tech & Software.
Source
Activity-wise, media and sports teams out-post other vertices on X by a lot. Which makes sense since so many users go there to get news, which would include sports updates.
Source
It’s also worth noting that X is a top channel for healthcare communication.
LinkedIn is the most popular social media platform for…
Do I even need to say it? But actually, there’s more to LinkedIn than you might think. Let’s learn about some of its strong points.
B2B marketing
As a professional, business-based social media network, I should hope that LinkedIn is the best for B2B marketing. After some fact-checking, we can safely conclude that it is.
🎬 Action time: Check to make sure you’re using all of the LinkedIn company page features available to you for maximum engagement
Organic engagement
It’s no Instagram, but LinkedIn’s organic engagement rate is nearly double that of Facebook, which makes sense. People use this platform specifically for business and networking purposes, so they are naturally receptive to posts and messages of a transactional or marketing nature.
Also, with fewer posts per day and fewer members than Facebook, the competition is lower. So it’s no wonder that more B2B marketers post their thought leadership content on LinkedIn than on any other channel.
LinkedIn is the place for your leading thoughts, shared organically.
🎬 Action time: Get familiar with our LinkedIn advertising cheat sheet.
Native documents
280 characters or fewer may be ideal for X, but on LinkedIn, it’s long-form documents presented in carousel form that get a lot of the attention. In fact, SocialInsider found that native documents were second only to multi-image posts as the most engaging type of content on LinkedIn.
Source
LinkedIn displays native documents, like PDFs and Word docs, as carousels. And you can add them right to your post.
Kumbaya and inspiration
Don’t let the whole B2B thing on LinkedIn fool you—this platform has a warm and fuzzy side too. Members don’t just use LinkedIn to find jobs and network, but also to better themselves, personally and professionally. As such, inspiring, humorous, and community-building content about leadership, core values, and work life has a home here, too.
Instagram isn’t the only place you can show off your personality.
🎬 Action time: Take a look at this list of over 200 core values and nail down yours. Then make this a common theme in your posts for both your company page and your personal page.
Trust
When asked which social media platforms they feel most confident in about protecting their privacy and data, consumers ranked LinkedIn above most of the other popular networks.
Source
As for the content on LinkedIn, that tends to be more trusted, too, since most professionals say they have the most confidence in advice from their professional network.
The most popular industries on LinkedIn
The most popular categories on LinkedIn by user share are IT, Healthcare, Construction, Retail, and Education Management. IT, in particular, makes up almost 30% of all profiles on LinkedIn.
Source
As for advertising, the B2B House says that public administration, retail, and manufacturing get the most engagement.
- Public administration
- Retail
- Manufacturing
- Consumer goods
- Education
- Transportation & logistics
- Finance
- Corporate services
- Media & communications
- Healthcare
- Hardware & networking
- Software & IT
Source
TikTok is the most popular social media platform for…
Dancing and teens. Just kidding. It’s not your kid’s TikTok anymore. In fact, we’ll see that the fastest-growing of the big platforms is also becoming one of the best for brands, education, and much more (including a lot of dancing).
Entertainment
Okay, before we get to the new stuff, we need to clarify that entertainment is still the biggest draw of TikTok—95% of users say it’s the reason they log in.
Source
In other words, no matter what the rest of the data says, don’t completely leave fun, entertaining videos out of your social content plan.
Honest reviews
Reviews have always been a great way to build trust with your customers. Recently, TikTok has become the most commonly used social network for sourcing reviews and recommendations.
Source
For marketers, that trust fuels conversions, at least according to TikTok’s own data. The platform says its users are 1.4 times more likely to buy products they find on TikTok compared to other platforms. And its users are 1.5 times more likely to convince a friend or family member to try a product they found on the app.
Source
How-to content
Here’s another noteworthy shift for TikTok: people go there to learn new things (beyond the newest dance moves). The hashtag #learnonTikTok has amassed over 707.3 billion views.
From baking a cake to building a house to braving a weekend in the woods, there is an ever-growing army of influencers ready to teach you just about anything.
Source
And the best part for brands is that 62% of the app’s users say they prefer a how-to tutorial over standard reviews as a way to learn about new products.
The most popular industries on TikTok
Oberlo tells us the most popular industries on TikTok based on sales include:
- Beauty
- Clothing
- Accessories
- Consumer Electronics
- Food & Beverage
- Health & Personal Care
- Shoes
- Furniture & Home Goods
- Household Supplies
- Ped Products
- Financial Products or Services
- Auto & Parts
Source
If you’re in one of these industries or just want to test a new channel, you can learn how to get started with TikTok ads here—but not before reading this post on TikTok vs. Reels Ads!
Snapchat is the most popular social media platform for…
The youngins! Not only are 55% of Snapchat users 13 – 24 years old, but Snapchat claims to reach 75% of all 13-34-year-olds in the US.
Video ads
One of the most common Facebook video ad tips is to optimize for muted viewing, as 85% of Facebook videos are watched with the sound off. With Snapchat, however, 64% of video ads are watched with the sound on—a great opportunity to use music in your ads and create more immersive experiences.
🎬 Action time: Learn how to advertise on Snapchat.
Location-based marketing
Snapchat is also a great platform for location-based marketing. In addition to geofilters, it offers Snap Map—a location-sharing feature that allows users to find nearby users and businesses (30 million businesses and counting). According to Snap Inc., the Snap Map feature has over 400 million monthly users
Source
Feel-good content
According to a recent study, Snapchat was the only social media platform that positively impacted well-being. The study concluded that “spending time on Snapchat positively affected friendship closeness and well-being but had no significant impact on self-esteem.” Another study commissioned by Snapchat showed that “Snapchatters overall experienced significantly higher levels of engagement while using our platform compared to the other apps tested.”
The most popular industries on Snapchat
There isn’t much out there in the way of industry-specific insights for Snapchat marketing. We know beauty and skincare are popular categories there because Snapchatters viewed over 262 million hours of beauty content in 2024. Food is also a top performer, with a single Taco Bell Snapchat lens generating over 224 million views.
And while you may not think of it as a place to sell your tax or investment services, Snapchatters are two times more likely to try a new financial product or brand after seeing it on social platforms.
The most popular social media platforms in 2026 [recap]
Now you know not just what the most popular social media platforms are, but what they’re each most popular for, so you can incorporate them into your social media marketing strategy. Don’t forget to keep an eye on the up-and-comers like Bluesky.
Here’s a quick recap of the most popular social media platforms in 2026 and what they’re most popular for:
- Facebook: Local businesses, advertising, reaching ages 65+, and relationship-building.
- Instagram: Ecommerce, organic engagement, and influencer marketing.
- LinkedIn: B2B, organic engagement, long-form content, warm and fuzzy feels.
- Twitter/X: Customer services, Republicans, advertising to males, and news.
- TikTok: Entertainment, educational content, B2C.
- Snapchat: Video ads, young audiences, location-based marketing, feel-good content
