# Understanding Social Networking: Platforms and Marketing Strategies

![Social Networking](https://www.investopedia.com/thmb/SVelZK_5qwSFqn68q_y0rXhPMKc=/1500x0/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/socialnetworking-13cadb0b8b5941ab999a13c06e468821.jpg)

*Marketers commonly use social networking to increase brand recognition and encourage brand loyalty. — Julie Bang / Investopedia*

> **Definition**
>
> Social networking uses internet-based social media platforms to connect with friends, family, or colleagues.

## What Is Social Networking?

Social networking uses internet-based social media sites to connect users with friends, family, and businesses. Social networking serves dual purposes: personal and business.

Facebook ranks as the leading social network, with over three billion people using the platform monthly as of 2025.

Social networking also offers marketing potential for businesses, letting them engage with new and existing customers while boosting brand loyalty and recognition.

### Key Takeaways

*   Social networking facilitates connecting and sharing content with friends, family, colleagues, or customers via internet-based platforms.
*   Popular social networks like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube boast billions of users and serve social and business purposes.
*   Marketers use social networking to enhance brand recognition, loyalty, and engagement with new and existing customers.
*   The ability to connect with new and existing clients makes social networking a powerful tool for businesses to promote products and services.
*   Despite advertising costs, social media can increase brand awareness and establish credibility and trustworthiness.

## Leading Social Media Platforms

*   **Facebook**: Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg and owned by Meta Platforms, Facebook connects individuals, businesses, and organizations. Users can post updates, respond to others, and share photos and links. Users can chat live and share videos. Users can communicate directly via Facebook Messenger. They can join groups with similar interests and be notified of friends' activities and pages they elect to follow.
*   **YouTube**: This site follows Facebook for most users. YouTube had over 2.5 billion users as of 2025. YouTube is a platform for creators to display their produced content. Creators monetize YouTube channels with ads, merchandise sales, and subscriptions.  
    
*   **Instagram**: Focuses on sharing visual media like photos and videos. It's similar to Facebook in that users create a profile with a news feed. Posts can be shared publicly or with followers. Instagram has features such as Instagram Stories and Instagram Reels. Instagram was founded in 2010 by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger and acquired by Meta in 2012. Instagram had 2 billion users as of 2025.
*   **X**: A social network that allows individuals to communicate with short messages called tweets. The social platform limits tweets to 280 characters for basic and 25,000 characters for premium. Posting (or "tweeting") is sometimes referred to as microblogging. X was founded as Twitter in 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams, and was bought by Elon Musk in October 2022. Musk changed the name to "X" in July 2023, and the site is owned by X Corp., one of Musk's holding companies.
*   **Pinterest**: This site was created by Ben Silbermann, Paul Sciarra, and Evan Sharp in 2009. Pinterest promotes image saving and sharing using a virtual pinboard. It's an innovative platform that facilitates cataloging and organizing creative information for individuals. Account holders find images by browsing the web or Pinterest. They then pin those images to an online pinboard.

> **Fast Fact**
>
> In 2024, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill requiring the Chinese-owned social network platform TikTok to divest from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, or face a ban in the United States. The action faces review by the U.S. Senate and the president of the United States.

## Effective Social Media Marketing Strategies

Family members and friends can connect through personal social networking sites like [Facebook](https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/120114/how-does-facebook-fb-make-money.asp), but marketers commonly use social networking to increase [brand recognition](https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/brand-recognition.asp) and encourage brand loyalty. [Social media marketing](https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/social-media-marketing-smm.asp) helps promote a brand’s voice and content. It can help make a company more accessible and prominent to new and existing customers.

Marketers use social networking to boost conversion rates. Building a following provides access to and interaction with new, recent, and longtime customers. Sharing blog posts, images, videos, or comments on social media allows followers to react and engage, visit a company’s website, and become customers. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to social media [marketing](https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/marketing.asp).

[Social networking companies](https://www.investopedia.com/social-networking-companies-6830677) encourage businesses to pay for advertising. That's why platforms often restrict a business's reach and the number of responses it may receive through unpaid posts. For example, if a company has 500 followers, followers may not all receive the same post.

> **Important**
>
> Conversion rates are used to evaluate the performance of website traffic and marketing campaigns. A conversion is any action a business wants the user to take, like purchasing a product and becoming a new customer.

## Benefits of Social Networking

*   Social networking allows individuals to make and stay in contact with family and friends.
*   People can also connect with unknown individuals and develop new relationships.
*   Social networking helps companies connect with new and existing clients.
*   Companies can boost brand awareness through social media.
*   Social networking can help establish a brand as legitimate, credible, and trustworthy.

## Challenges of Using Social Networks

*   Social networking can spread misinformation about people and companies.
*   Anonymity in online relationships requires vigilance.  
    
*   Building and maintaining a company profile can be costly.
*   Businesses need many followers before a social media marketing campaign generates a positive [return on investment (ROI)](https://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/returnoninvestment.asp).

Pros

*   Allows people to connect with friends and family
    
*   Companies can reach new and existing clients and strengthen their brand
    
*   Corporations can demonstrate their customer service excellence
    

Cons

*   Helps spread misinformation
    
*   Costs to advertise and develop corporate profiles can be high
    
*   User anonymity can require vigilance
    

## Impact of Social Media Influencers

Tapping into social media can be [a good business practice](https://www.investopedia.com/use-social-media-to-grow-business-8391642). Influencers build large followings and impact product placements and purchases. These content creators can impact industries with their presence on Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok.

*   **Kylie Jenner**: With more than 397 million followers on Instagram, 36 million on Snapchat, and 40 million on X, this influencer and reality television star uses social media platforms to boost her image and brand name. She is also an entrepreneur who uses social networking to promote her business, Kylie Cosmetics. The beauty brand earned her a spot on Forbes' list of self-made women, [young billionaires](https://www.investopedia.com/articles/insights/052416/top-10-wealthiest-families-world.asp), and the Celebrity 100 of 2020.
*   **MrBeast**: James Stephen "Jimmy" Donaldson is MrBeast, an American YouTuber, known for his fast-paced and high-production videos featuring elaborate challenges and lucrative giveaways. In 2023, Donaldson partnered with Samsung, making the Samsung Galaxy smartphone the official vlogging camera of MrBeast.
*   **Tasty**: Tasty is a division of BuzzFeed that produces and shares content on its Facebook page. The YouTube channel is the 114th most subscribed YouTube channel in the United States.

## What Is the Purpose of Social Networking?

Social networking connects individuals and businesses by allowing them to share information, ideas, and messages. Companies also use social networks to create and strengthen brand recognition, promote products and services, and answer customer queries and concerns.

## Why Are Social Networks Important?

Social networks allow people to develop relationships that might not be possible due to distances of place and time. They also help boost business productivity for public relations, marketing, and advertising purposes.

## What Are the Top 10 Social Networking Sites?

In 2025, the top social networking sites by user traffic are Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, WhatsApp, TikTok, WeChat, Telegram, Facebook Messenger, Snapchat, and Douyin.

## The Bottom Line

Social networking serves two purposes: personal connections and business marketing. For the latter, social networking plays a role in increasing brand recognition and encouraging brand loyalty. Businesses can also sell products, grow their customer base, and strengthen customer relationships and service on social media.

Some of the most popular social networking platforms include Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, WhatsApp, and TikTok, with almost 11.2 billion users combined as of 2025.

The marketing advantages that social networks offer to businesses include increased accessibility to new and existing customers and improved conversion rates. The marketing disadvantages include the spread of misinformation and the costs of creating and maintaining an online presence.

Influencers impact social media and can drive product placement and brand visibility.

> **Article Sources**
>
> 1.  Statista. "[Biggest Social Media Platforms](https://www.statista.com/statistics/272014/global-social-networks-ranked-by-number-of-users/)."
>     
> 2.  History. "[Facebook Launches](https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/facebook-launches-mark-zuckerberg)."
>     
> 3.  YouTube. "[How YouTube Creators Earn Money](https://www.youtube.com/howyoutubeworks/product-features/monetization/)."
>     
> 4.  Meta. "[Facebook to Acquire Instagram](https://about.fb.com/news/2012/04/facebook-to-acquire-instagram/)."
>     
> 5.  PBS. "[Elon Musk Announces He Is Changing Twitter's Brand and Logo to 'X'](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/elon-musk-announces-he-is-changing-twitters-brand-and-logo-to-x)."
>     
> 6.  TechCrunch. "[Twitter, Inc. Is Now X Corp](https://techcrunch.com/2023/04/11/twitter-inc-is-now-x-corp/)."
>     
> 7.  Pinterest. "[All About Pinterest](https://help.pinterest.com/en/guide/all-about-pinterest)."
>     
> 8.  Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "[The Potential Chinese Responses to a U.S. Ban on TikTok](https://carnegieendowment.org/posts/2024/04/the-potential-chinese-responses-to-a-us-ban-on-tiktok?lang=en)."
>     
> 9.  Forbes. "[Kylie Jenner](https://www.forbes.com/profile/kylie-jenner/?sh=b1d5d9c55b5f)."
>     
> 10.  Samsung. "[Behind the Scenes with MrBeast](https://www.samsung.com/us/explore/brand/mrbeast-x-samsung/)."
>      
> 11.  Buzzfeed. "[Buzzfeed Tasty](https://www.buzzfeed.com/in/tag/buzzfeedtasty)."