The hottest social media trend by far is audio-based social networking and live streaming.
Watching the growth of promising young social channels will help you determine which ones are worth joining and which are not worth your time.
And, if you end up joining a popular new social channel early on, you may have more time to understand what promotional content works there.
This will put you ahead of competitors who launch their accounts later and may struggle to come up with creative post ideas.
To help you stay ahead of social media, we've put together a list of eight young social platforms you might want to put on your radar this year.
All of these platforms have gained large user bases, interest from investors, or news buzz in recent months.
For each platform, we'll walk you through how it works, its user base, why it might hold promise for marketers in the future, and how you should approach it today.
New Social Media Platforms You Should Know in 2022
1. Twitch
Year Launched : 2011
Number of Users : 140 million monthly active users
Twitch is a live streaming platform that allows content creators to interact with their audience in real-time. Its leading traffic drivers are video game enthusiasts.
Players can record themselves playing popular games like Fortnite and Minecraft while the audience is watching and engaging. Some creators also offer exclusive content to those who opt for a paid subscription plan.
Apart from game content, you will find videos and live streams related to cooking, music and just about anything on this social network. Twitch also offers interactive live shows, from esports events to festivals to 30 million average daily visitors.
2. Discord
Year Launched : 2015
Number of Users : More than 100 million monthly active users
What was once a gaming platform has now evolved into a sprawling chat app.
Here's how it works: The platform operates on servers, which are community groups that allow video, audio, and text chats. Each user can build their own server or join one created by other members.
When it first launched, Discord was popular with gamers who wanted a platform to stream games and connect with the wider gaming community. After raising $100 million in funding in 2020, Discord announced plans to expand beyond this community.
In a blog post, co-founder and CEO Jason Citron shared that his users wanted this change.
3. Tiktok
Year Launched : 2017 (Founded in 2016)
Number of Users : 1 billion monthly active users
In 2018, lip-syncing app Musical.ly joined a similar one-year-old app called TikTok. Today, it is now more popular on app stores than any other leading social media platform and is expected to reach 1.5 billion by 2022.
For those who remember Vine or Musical.ly, TikTok is like a mix of the two.
This platform lets you record short videos that play over and over like Vine. However, like Musical.ly or Snapchat, you can add fun effects, AR filters, text, and music overlays to enhance the atmosphere. Like similar video platforms, it is mainly adopted by users under 30 years old.
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