Social Media Platforms: 10 most popular in 2025

We all know that social media marketing is big news when you’re trying to build brand awareness. If you can genuinely connect with your audience on their favourite apps, you’ll bring more people through your digital doors and - with the right strategy - drive serious conversions.

However, strategising for social media can be challenging when there are dozens of platforms at your disposal, each with its own strengths, weaknesses, and considerations. To help, we’ve compiled a list of the 10 most popular social media platforms in 2025 based on monthly active users worldwide. We’ll also delve into their benefits and how you can use them for success.

Here’s the overview:

1. Facebook - 3.07 billion
2. WhatsApp - 2.78 billion
3. YouTube - 2.5 billion
4. Instagram - 2 billion
5. TikTok - 1.6 billion
6. WeChat - 1.3 billion
7. Telegram - 1 billion
8. Messenger - 1 billion
9. Snapchat - 900 million
10. Douyin - 766 million

Along the way, we’ll talk about the strengths of each social media site and provide guidance on how to choose the right channel for your brand. Let’s get started.

Facebook currently boasts 3.07 billion monthly active users (MAU) as of 2025, making it the largest social media site in the world by a pretty substantial margin.

The platform isn’t just a way to connect with friends. Facebook is versatile and suits all types of content, from paid ads and images to text posts and statistics. It’s also an all-rounder when it comes to audience targeting. While 25-34-year-olds make up the largest percentage (24.2% ) of Facebook users in Australia, the 18-24, 35-44, and 45-54 demographics aren’t far behind.

One of the perks of the platform is its community-building features. Businesses can create their own pages, upload image posts, and respond to comments directly. For paid ads, Meta also has a top-class suite of advertising tools and analytics functions.

• Massive global reach - diverse age and gender distributions.
• Versatility with content formats - from paid ads to images and even live streaming.
• A first-class advertising platform with built-in analytics to explore user data.

With an estimated 2.78 billion active users, WhatsApp has rapidly grown into a mainstay for text, voice and video communication, particularly in countries like India and Brazil, where the platform holds almost the entire market share.

While it doesn’t have the powerhouse customer engagement or analytics capabilities of Facebook or Instagram, WhatsApp Business is excellent if you’re looking to market your products directly via messaging. It boasts a 98% open rate for messages (almost five times more than email marketing).

Because of this, the app is also a top choice for customer support, such as when sending order updates or providing instant answers to frequently asked questions.

• The ability to send targeted, secure messages directly to customers.
• Ideal for providing personalised support and digital marketing communications.
• Enormous engagement and high open rates.

YouTube follows closely behind WhatsApp with over 2.5 billion MAU. It’s particularly popular with younger audiences, with more than half of the site's users being between 18 and 34 years old.

YouTube’s capacity for long-form videos is its unique selling point. It’s perfect for everything from product demonstrations to educational content. That said, Youtube Shorts is also a goldmine for connecting with a younger audience, with the short-form section of the platform now achieving around 70 billion views a day worldwide.

The platform is also renowned for its personalised recommendation engine, which makes it easier for brands to connect with their target customers organically.

• Long-form video opportunities with high user engagement.
• Ideal for educational content such as tutorials and testimonials.
• A variety of video content can cater to all demographics and age ranges.

Instagram boasts more than two billion monthly active users, making it a worthy final addition to Meta’s trio of social media giants. The platform excels when used for visual storytelling and, along with TikTok, is the most reliable way to connect with young audiences (particularly the 18-34 range).

While static image posts and carousels are still viable, Instagram Reels and Stories are the go-to in 2025. Reels, in particular, have the largest reach and highest engagement rates of all content types, with a 13% increase over 2024.

Instagram is also gold dust when paired with influencer marketing, which allows brands to work with popular creators to create targeted advertising for their products.

• Ideal for visual content, such as images, testimonials and short-form video content.
• Multiple ways for brands to connect with audiences, including images and video.
• Perfect when paired with influencer marketing.

With an estimated 1.6 billion monthly active users, TikTok is rapidly becoming the king of short-form video. Its swipeable content, high engagement, and brilliant recommendation engine make it a must for brands that want to connect with younger audiences. It also gives businesses the chance to go viral organically, even with a small following.

Approximately 30.7% of the platform's audience is in the 18-24 age range, meaning TikTok has quickly become the best way to connect with the Gen Z demographic. Like Instagram, it works particularly well when paired with influencer marketing. It also now offers TikTok Shop, which allows businesses to directly advertise and sell their products from within the app. (Australia is still in the early rollout phase for TikTok Shop, but it’s coming.)

• Enormous and rapidly growing popularity with the Gen Z demographic.
• High viral potential owing to TikTok’s excellent discovery algorithm.
• Ideal for capitalising on trends and partnering with influencers.

WeChat has more than 1.3 billion monthly active users, making it the most dominant social app in China. It essentially acts as an all-in-one ecosystem, with chat, social media, payments, shopping, and news all integrated into the platform.

WeChat is a must for brands that want to tap into the Chinese market. Businesses can set up official accounts, stores, and payments from directly within the app. Then, they can use built-in marketing tools to connect with customers directly.

Like WhatsApp, WeChat isn’t built for mass visual marketing, but it opens a direct line to customers, making it ideal for authentic engagement that feels meaningful and personalised.

• The biggest social app in China, with high engagement rates.
• Ideal for building loyalty with customers throughout the entire lifecycle.
• Integrates marketing, ecommerce, payments, and retention into one platform.

At just over one billion monthly active users, Messenger still holds its own as a standalone messaging app. Its real strength, however, lies in the fact it syncs directly with the Meta ecosystem.

Brands primarily use Messenger to provide customer support by setting up AI agents or chatbots to talk directly to customers, or connecting live customer service reps. The platform also has click-to-chat functionality, meaning businesses can initiate personalised conversations when a customer clicks on an ad on Facebook or Instagram.

• It links with Facebook and Instagram.
• Works best for conversational marketing and customer support.
• As with Facebook, it has a broad, global demographic.

Telegram recently surpassed one billion active users. It’s mostly known for secure, decentralised messaging and group communication, but it actually has a suite of brand tools that businesses can use to form deeper connections with their audience.

For instance, companies can send push messages, build communities, set up customer service agents, and broadcast curated content to their audience, all without being at the mercy of algorithms. Brands can also sell their products directly in-app using Telegram’s handy bots.

• Excellent for direct audience engagement.
• Robust privacy, ideal for private community-building.
• In-app purchases let businesses drive engagement and conversions in one place.

With more than 900 million monthly active users, Snapchat is still a top choice for brands looking to connect with younger audiences through viral marketing. One in five Snapchat users is aged 18-24 , with women of the same age range making up 17.2% of all users.

The platform’s main selling point is its short-form content model. Stories disappear after 24 hours and messages vanish after they’re read, making interactions feel more authentic. This makes Snapchat ideal for informal behind-the-scenes content and trend-based marketing.

• Perfect for capitalising on trends and appealing to Gen Z and Millennials.
• Augmented reality (AR) opens the door to creative marketing campaigns.
• Great for authentic content and creating real-time connections.

Sitting at 766 million active users, Douyin is the second-most popular Chinese social app behind WeChat.

Think of Douyin as China’s answer to TikTok. It works in much the same way and has similar features, such as in-app purchases and payment functionalities. However, it’s specifically tailored to the Chinese market.

• A must-have when trying to capture the Chinese market.
• Short videos with high engagement and strong viral potential.
• All-in-one payment and ecommerce functions help to drive in-app sales.

Let’s touch on some of the other notable platforms that didn’t quite make it into the top 10. These platforms aren’t as popular as the big players like Facebook and Instagram, but they each have their niche, and all can be useful as part of your social media marketing strategy.

• LinkedIn - A professional networking platform. LinkedIn is perfect for B2B marketing and industry thought leadership, helping businesses build trust and credibility in their field.
• X (Twitter) - A great platform for talking to customers directly, capitalising on trending topics, and providing real-time customer service updates.
• Reddit - Has many topic-based discussion communities, making it an ideal way for niche businesses to engage with their audience and gather feedback.
• Pinterest - A visual site largely focused on art, DIY, fashion, and lifestyle. Can help to drive traffic to your ecommerce store or blogs through appealing images.
• Twitch - Video streaming sites like Twitch can be lucrative for brands targeting younger demographics. Partnering with streamers can bring real-time brand visibility.
• Quora - A question-and-answer platform. Answering common questions on Quora can help you demonstrate authority and experience in your niche, building trust.

There are a lot of platforms to choose from, but fortunately you don’t need to have a presence on every single one. It’s all about knowing what you want to achieve and the channels that are best suited to your needs. Here are four questions you can ask to narrow the scope.

First, start with your objectives. Platforms like Facebook, YouTube and Instagram are great for building brand awareness because they have a large, broad user base.

If you’re more interested in retaining existing customers, you might want platforms like WhatsApp, Messenger, and Telegram for their community-building and customer service features.

Decide on which platforms align with the goals you’re looking to achieve and hone in on them.

Naturally, you’ll want to focus on platforms that your audience frequents. For younger audiences like Gen Z, TikTok, Snapchat, and Instagram are top choices. For millennials and above, Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, and Reddit tend to have a wider range of ages.

Or, if you’re targeting a B2B audience, LinkedIn is always going to be your first port of call.

Different platforms work with different content styles. If you excel at short-form video, TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube are leading the way in this area. For images, try Instagram. If direct customer engagement is your strength, opt for Facebook or WhatsApp.

Lastly, consider your resources. Apps like X, WhatsApp, and Messenger often need daily monitoring to respond to queries and engage customers.

This is excellent if you have a dedicated employee to manage your marketing communications; however, if you’re short on time or lacking in resources, you might prefer social media apps that allow for scheduled posts like Instagram or Pinterest.

Let’s wrap things up with some of the trends that are changing business strategies for social media in 2025.

• AI content creation - Top brands are now using AI for everything from generating visuals and drafting posts to analysing content performance. Chatbots also play a key role in customer service, giving customers real-time answers to queries 24/7.
• Micro-influencers - Influencers that have between 1,000 and 100,000 followers are currently providing a better ROI for businesses over much larger creators. Why? They’re cheaper, they have higher engagement rates, and their followers trust their opinions.
• Integrated commerce - Social apps are becoming the new all-in-one ecommerce platforms. From TikTok Shop and Instagram Checkout to WhatsApp and WeChat, businesses can now manage awareness to conversion in one place.
• Authenticity is everything - Customers no longer seek out polished product shoots and studio-lit videos. With the rise of user-generated and AI content, people want authenticity and sincerity from their brands. Behind-the-scenes content and genuine customer engagement are now key to getting customers on side.

With the majority of the global population using at least one social platform, there’s still no better way to build brand awareness and deliver personalised customer experiences.

Be aware, however, that spreading yourself too thin will dilute your strategy. Succeeding means choosing platforms that align with your goals and focusing your efforts in the places that are going to bring the biggest returns for your brand.

The challenging part of any social media strategy is connecting the dots to transform awareness into sales. Salesforce Commerce Cloud along with Agentforce can help you connect the entire sales pipeline, from capturing attention on the biggest social media platforms, to order management, payment processing, analytics and retention - all in one place.

Our social commerce solution will help you unify your data and personalise every touchpoint, so you can deliver seamless shopping experiences to every customer, no matter which channel they frequent. Watch the demo today to find out more.