Business Advice for Startups: 5 Trending Social Media Platforms in 2016

A Courteous Communications welcomes all startup business owners to the digital social world of 2016! We all know the social sites that have proved their lasting power in the fickle IoT (Internet of Things); Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest and other household name platforms. But what about the trending underdogs jumping into the market? In order to be a success, all business owners need to stay up to date with new social marketing opportunities available. We want to help.      

In our special series, Business Advice for Startups, we want to guide you through the top 5 trending social media website and platforms to look out for in 2016.

5 Social Media Platforms You Should Use in 2016

1. Peach

Showing just how popular and trendy they are, Peach throws out the .com in their website url and replaces it with a .cool instead. This trending social network is contained within an iOS app and was created by a co-founder of Vine. Peach gives its social users a unique way to share their lives with an internal search engine; they call it magic words. Using magic words is similar to how a hashtag is used.

If you type in GIF, you can then start searching for photos to post on your social profile. Type in HERE, and you will be directed to tagging your current location. Type in MOVE, and you can add your daily steps, miles and distances traveled. There are currently 20 magic words supported by Peach at this time.      

Learn More. The NY Times offers a detailed article on the specs of this new social network, Peach App for the iPhone Stakes a Social Media Claim      

2. Periscope

Social Media Week explains to us what exactly this year-old social network is, “Periscope [is] your own live TV station. In more technical terms, Periscope is a live video streaming platform that allows you to video-record and broadcast to anywhere in the entire world.”

Periscope brings teleportation just a step closer to our reality. By focusing on giving users the ability to upload their video content to the masses, this social network encourages connections through video and personal experiences. Want to see what it’s like the ride in a hot air balloon? Or perhaps be on the frontlines of a peaceful protest? Search the network’s video content to be able to explore the world through someone else’s eyes.

Learn More. Watching Periscope videos is probably the easiest way to truly grasp the creative power of this video social network. Check out the social site’s recent article that lists favorite broadcasts from 2015, An Almost Year in Review.

3. Wanelo

Have you heard of Wanelo? This social shopping network first introduced in 2012 is pronounced wah-nee-loh and is derived from the combination of Want, Need, Love. Now, a little more than 3 years later, this mall on your phone has over 550,000 participating stores and 30 million products showcased.  The site is used by millions of people who post tens of thousands of new products on a daily basis.

Deena Varshavskaya explains the reason she developed and created Wanelo, “[My] personal style didn’t fit a simple category and [I] wanted to shop in more unique places. [I wanted to create] a social network that would make it easy to discover amazing stores and products from anywhere online.” Our business advice for startupsthat are in the retail industry is to jump on this social shopping band wagon and give your products one more location to be found by consumers.

Learn More. Tiny independent boutiques and large name brand organizations are both welcome as retailers on this social, digital mall. Click here to learn more about placing your products on this trendy social network.  

4. YikYak

This anonymous, location-based social network first hit the scene on an Atlanta college campus back in 2013. Now, just a few short years later, YikYak acts a community bulletin board for over 2,000 college campuses around the nation. This intimate social network, “helps people discover their local community, letting them share news, crack jokes, offer support, ask questions, and interact freely.”

Exclusively accessible to college students –recently banning high school and middle school YikYak wannabees– this social community hopes to provide assistance to collegians around the U.S. The founders strived to make a social community that made the world feel small again. This platform allows you to share casual, relatable, informative and even silly things with others in your area.  

Learn More. Web Crunch recently highlighted YikYak’s push towards evolving from just a social app to a functioning social site, YikYak Launches on the Web.

5. This.

If you haven’t already, you must check This. out. No really, This. is no longer used as just a simple pronoun, but also is the name of a growing link-sharing social network site. The site’s description of their trendy company is simply, “This. is a place to find and share the web’s best entertainment, art and journalism. Each member can share just one link a day.”

Launching at the end of 2014, this link-sharing social network has grown to become a great source for sifting through all of the Internet noise and reaching high quality content that interests you most. Limiting each person to just one link shared per day ensures that all the fluff of article sharing is bypassed, and you get to the meat and potatoes of what you are searching.

Learn More. In a recent interview by the Knight Lab, creator Andrew Golis explained the need for limiting article sharing, “We tried to step into that space using this one-a-day thing to flip the equation away from volume and towards quality, and get people the ability to really mark something as special.” Click here to read the full interview.

Our Business Advice for Startups: Focus on Creative Social Marketing in 2016

We hope that highlighting these top 5 trending social media platforms has given you some fresh, creative ideas for building your brand socially. Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin are still the monsters of social networking sites, but as you can see, there are many other sites that could help your brand better target your desired audience.

If you want to dig in a little deeper into the digital world of 2016, we suggest visiting our recent article, Business Advice for Startups: 10 Creative Ways to Help Your Business Standout in 2016. In this series, we are devoted to helping new business owners make informed decisions. 

Our digital call center has been providing quality telephone answering services for businesses since first opening in 1986. We have seen it all in the past 30 years of operations and welcome any questions you have in making your business successful and profitable.