08 Jan Five Social Channels You May Not Know About
How many social channels do you know about? The main ones like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest? Maybe Redditt, Tumblr and Snapchat. If you’re in the United States that might be the extent of your social channel knowledge but what about other countries? If you’re a brand that offers your products or services anywhere other than the United States you may want to look into these guys.
In longer form, Sina Weibo is one of the most popular social media sites in China and is commonly referred to as the “Chinese Twitter”. The microblogging site launched in August of 2009 and as of May 2017 had 340 million active monthly users. An article by BBC.com states that 154 million people use it daily with 91% of whom access it via mobile. Since Twitter, Facebook, Google and YouTube are blocked in China it makes Weibo the place to go for the latest news and happenings.
Known to many as one of the largest social media platform that you’ve never heard of, QQ set a Guinness world record for having the largest number of uses online at the same time. That’s a pretty big deal right? It started out as a messaging service in China and was known as OICQ back when it launched in 1999. Now it has grown to offer online games, avatars you can customize, share Snapchat like disappearing videos, join online groups and receive messages and large files. That’s not it, you can also stream music, find a date using QQ’s service and share post like on Facebook.
Original Logo – he looks a little angry
New logo – such a happy guy now
Vkontakte
Russia’s social media and social networking service that allows for similar interactions to Facebook. As of a year ago, VK had around 410 million accounts and was ranked 15 in Alexa’s global Top 500 sites. Like Facebook, when it launched in 2006 it was limited to those attending university and invitation only. It includes a function to sync to other social networks, any news published on the VK wall also appears on Facebook and Twitter.
You can see in this screenshot where you can log in using your Facebook account
Hello Network
Released in May of 2016, this is the baby of social networking sites you may not know about. It was founded by the creator of Orkut who wants to use the social networking site to inspire hope across the world and connect others with similar passions. It’s focused more on what you love doing versus who you know. When you sign up it prompts you to pick personas (interests) that you can change when you feel the need to. It connects you with others that have similar interests unlike Facebook that is more a friend based platform of who you know. Hello is closer to a Pinterest where you find people that enjoy the same sort of passions that you do.
Released in May of 2016, this is the baby of social networking sites you may not know about. It was founded by the creator of Orkut who wants to use the social networking site to inspire hope across the world and connect others with similar passions. It’s focused more on what you love doing versus who you know. When you sign up it prompts you to pick personas (interests) that you can change when you feel the need to. It connects you with others that have similar interests unlike Facebook that is more a friend based platform of who you know. Hello is closer to a Pinterest where you find people that enjoy the same sort of passions that you do.
Mastodon
This is one you have heard of before, if you have been following our blog because I wrote about it here. Launched in October of 2016 it’s like Twitter in features. Instead of tweeting you toot and it has a look and feel that is very similar to Tweetdeck. As of May 2017 they note having 623,000 users with the highest concentration of uses being in Japan.
With the continued growth of social media, it can be hard to keep up on all the social networks out there. Some may prove useful to brands and getting their message out while others can fall short or fizzle out not long after launch. Depending on where your customer base is or where you would like to expand they are something to keep an eye on.
