We all know that our lives are all played out online these days. But there is a lot of difference between the demographics for different social media platforms. While Facebook still gets a lot of attention from the media, it is seen as an app past its sell by date. Twitter, on the other hand, is a place of turmoil after Elon Musk’s takeover.
TikTok is one app that is getting a lot of attention, as its ties to China have started worrying western countries. Others have gotten more specialist, offering niche news or posting the latest sportsbook review for users to digest. But we thought we would look at five social media apps that are well worth keeping an eye on this year – whatever their USP.
Post
Post was devised as an antidote to what was seen to be a more toxic atmosphere at Twitter. Set up towards the end of last year, it is designed to bring news and social media together again. The selling point seemed to be that it wasn’t Twitter and that it was making social media enjoyable again. The waiting list certainly suggested that there was a gap in the market.
The idea definitely struck a chord with many users of the bigger social media apps that had been turned off by what they had become. The demand did seem to stretch the resources though – and it will now be interesting to see whether Post can come through and succeed with its lofty aims.
Caffeine
This app really took off last year, with the number of users growing at a very impressive rate. There is nothing particularly new about Caffeine – but it has done what all successful social media platforms have done in the past. Take a proven concept and specialize.
Caffeine noticed that apps like TikTok were proving that live video was continuing to be very popular and looked at the urban centers for its audience. Whether it was planned or not, Caffeine emerged very popular in the African-American communities and has used high-profile celebrities to grow its customer base even more.
Mastodon
When Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter was first proposed, many users thought they knew what would be coming around the corner (they were mostly right, to be fair) and desperately started searching for a social media app that would stay as progressive as they hoped Twitter would have been.
Mastodon was one platform that was instantly looked at as a salvation. This micro-blogging app offers users thousands of social networks and can actually be a little confusing for newcomers. But the ad-free site has definitely seen an upturn and the future could be bright.
Supernova
It might seem as if we are giving Twitter a hard time here, but Supernova is another example of a social media app that actively uses the disenchantment with the big platforms to carve out a space of its own in the market. Supernova promises a place free of haters and uses a charitable angle as its USP.
This platform makes a big thing of its specially trained human moderators to attract users – and also gives 60% of the income generated by advertising to charities. The charities are actually chosen by the users themselves, so there is a good deal of involvement here. Usage has steadied recently, but people obviously like its charitable ideals.
Twitter Spaces
Not everything to do with Twitter has gone downhill. Twitter Spaces, which was launched in 2020, exploded into action with a simple concept of opening up live audio conversations. This has been a huge hit with influencers and brands alike, which see it as an excellent way to get their message across.
With almost 400m users, Twitter Spaces has been able to shake off the negativity surrounding its parent brand and forged its own path. With the ability to host live events and a bigger sense of community, this is one social media platform that could do very well this year.