The six types of social media are social networks, social news, microblogging, bookmarking, media sharing and community blogs. Pew Research Center's 2025 survey found that 84% of U.S. adults use YouTube, a media sharing platform, and 71% use Facebook, a social network. Each type has its own platforms, its own audience and its own PR use, covered below.
By Ronn Torossian. Originally published April 2022. Rebuilt October 2026.
On this page: the six types at a glance, social networks, social news, microblogging, bookmarking, media sharing, community blogs, messaging apps and review sites, platforms by age, choosing a type for PR, common mistakes and frequently asked questions.
What are the six types of social media at a glance?
The six types differ in what users do on them: connect with people, vote on links, post short updates, save ideas, watch and share media, or publish long-form writing. The table gives the key platforms, the best use and the reach data behind each one.
| Type | Key platforms | Best used for | Reach data |
|---|---|---|---|
| Social networks | Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn | Brand awareness, community building, B2B | Facebook 71% and Instagram 50% of U.S. adults (Pew, 2025) |
| Social news | Organic reach, niche community trust | Reddit 26% of U.S. adults (Pew, 2025) | |
| Microblogging | X, Threads, Bluesky | Real-time PR, thought leadership, news | Threads 8% and Bluesky 4% of U.S. adults (Pew, 2025) |
| Bookmarking | Pinterest, Flipboard | Visual brands, e-commerce, inspiration | Pinterest 640 million monthly users worldwide (Q2 2026) |
| Media sharing | YouTube, TikTok, Instagram Reels | Storytelling, video content, viral reach | YouTube 84% and TikTok 37% of U.S. adults (Pew, 2025) |
| Community blogs | Medium, Substack, Tumblr | Long-form authority, newsletters, niche publishing | Not tracked by Pew |
Some platforms straddle two types. Instagram is a social network for its feed and a media sharing platform for Reels, and LinkedIn is a social network that also works as a community blog through its articles. Classify a platform by the job you give it, not by a label.
What are social networks?
A social networking site connects people with similar backgrounds or interests around profiles, feeds and groups. Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn are the dominant platforms, and each serves a distinct audience.
Facebook is used by 71% of U.S. adults, and adults ages 30 to 49 are the group most likely to use it (80%), according to Pew's 2025 survey. It suits community groups, events and local business reach. Instagram is used by 50% of U.S. adults, but 80% of adults ages 18 to 29 use it, against 19% of adults 65 and older. That makes it the main home for visual storytelling and influencer marketing. LinkedIn is the leading professional network, and it is where executive voice and B2B PR work best. The LinkedIn thought leadership guide covers cadence, comments and measurement for executives.
For PR, social networks are where a brand's owned voice lives. Staff them every day, reply to comments in public, and keep one named person visible. Networks reward consistency more than any single post. The Kardashian case study shows what that consistency looks like at celebrity scale.
What are social news sites?
Social news sites let users post links and discussions that other users vote up or down, and the votes decide exposure. Reddit is the defining platform, organized into thousands of topic-specific communities, and 26% of U.S. adults report using it, per Pew's 2025 survey.
For PR professionals, Reddit is both an opportunity and a risk. Its users are highly resistant to anything that feels like marketing, so authenticity is not optional. The workable approach is to read a community's rules first, disclose who you are, and answer questions with real information instead of links to your own pages. Brands that arrive with a pitch are usually ignored or called out in public.
What is microblogging?
Microblogging platforms let users post short entries, often with links or media, to a followable feed. X (formerly Twitter) remains the most prominent, and it is especially important for crisis communications, media relations and breaking news because many journalists and officials post there.
Threads and Bluesky have split part of the audience, but their reach is smaller: Pew's 2025 survey found 8% of U.S. adults use Threads and 4% use Bluesky. Pew also found 24% of Republicans and 19% of Democrats report using X, so the audience mix matters when you choose a channel. A practical rule is to keep the main account where your reporters and customers actually are, and to use a second microblogging account only if you can staff it.
What are bookmarking sites?
Bookmarking sites let users save and organize links and images, usually with boards or tags for sharing with specific groups. Pinterest is the dominant platform, with 640 million monthly active users worldwide as of the second quarter of 2026, according to Pinterest's quarterly results filed with the SEC. Users save ideas in categories such as home, fashion, food and lifestyle, which makes the platform valuable for consumer brands in those areas.
Pinterest behaves more like a visual search engine than a feed. A pin can keep circulating long after it is posted, so evergreen images with clear titles and descriptions tend to work better than news-driven posts. Brands in categories where people plan purchases, such as weddings, home and recipes, get the most from it. The beauty visual content guide shows the image-led approach, and Everything-PR lists 50 beauty brands with great social media programs.
What are media sharing platforms?
Media sharing platforms let users post and watch video and images. YouTube is the largest by U.S. adult use: 84% of U.S. adults use it, and about half say they visit it daily, according to Pew's 2025 survey. Its video pages can show up in Google search results, so it works as a search asset as well as a social channel.
TikTok is used by 37% of U.S. adults, and 24% visit it daily. Roughly half of adults ages 18 to 29 visit TikTok daily, compared with 5% of adults 65 and older, per Pew. TikTok pushed other platforms toward short vertical video, and it reaches younger audiences that traditional media increasingly cannot. Its trends move fast, so it needs a native approach: see the guide to marketing on TikTok for seven working plays. Snapchat is a smaller media sharing platform with a young audience, covered in the Snapchat marketing guide, which reports 493 million daily users in the second quarter of 2026.
For PR, video is the format that travels furthest and ages best when it carries a transcript or captions. Publish the same idea in different cuts for different platforms, and avoid posting one identical file everywhere. Athletes, teams and entertainers treat these platforms as owned media, as the sports PR guide and the celebrity PR pillar show.
What are community blogs?
Community blogging platforms let a brand or communicator reach an audience without maintaining a self-hosted website. Medium remains popular for long-form editorial content and thought leadership. Substack is a leading platform for newsletter publishing, letting writers build direct subscriber relationships outside the algorithm-driven feed. Tumblr, once a dominant multimedia blogging platform, keeps a niche but loyal creative community.
These platforms suit PR because the work lasts. A long essay under a named author can be linked from press releases, quoted by reporters and found in search for years. The trade-off is effort: a community blog only helps if you publish regularly. See the content marketing guide for how to plan that cadence.
What about messaging apps and review sites?
Messaging apps and review platforms are often counted as extra types, and PR teams should plan for both. WhatsApp, Telegram and Discord are messaging apps built around private groups and direct conversation. Pew's 2025 survey found 32% of U.S. adults use WhatsApp, and the share is much higher in many other countries, so it matters for brands with international customers.
Review platforms such as Yelp and Google Reviews work differently: customers, not brands, write the content, and the brand can only respond. They still belong in a social media plan because a reply to a public review is a public post. Assign an owner, set a response time, and treat negative reviews the way you would treat a complaint in a feed. The social media marketing guide covers response-time targets and service workflows.
Which social media platforms do which age groups use?
Age changes the choice of platform more than any other factor. Pew's 2025 figures show a sharp split: 80% of adults 18 to 29 use Instagram against 19% of those 65 and older, and roughly half of adults 18 to 29 visit TikTok daily against 5% of those 65 and older. Facebook leads among adults 30 to 49 at 80%.
| Audience | Lead with | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Adults 18 to 29 | Instagram, TikTok, YouTube | Highest use of visual and short-form platforms |
| Adults 30 to 49 | Facebook, YouTube, Instagram | Facebook use peaks in this group |
| Adults 65 and older | Facebook, YouTube | Instagram and TikTok reach is low |
| Executives and B2B buyers | LinkedIn, X | Professional and news-driven use |
Which type of social media is best for PR?
The best type of social media for PR depends on the goal. The most effective strategies map each platform to one communication objective instead of trying to be everywhere.
| PR goal | Best type | Lead platform |
|---|---|---|
| Crisis communications and real-time response | Microblogging | X |
| Executive thought leadership and B2B positioning | Social networks | |
| Earned media from organic reach with younger audiences | Media sharing | TikTok and short-form video |
| Long-lasting authority and search presence | Community blogs and media sharing | Medium, Substack, YouTube |
| Visual product discovery | Bookmarking |
Two companion guides cover the next steps. The social media PR playbook sets rules, a daily cadence and a deepfake policy, and the social media marketing guide covers sales, leads, ads and customer service. For a category example of platform choice under tight rules, see alcohol brand social media. The wider discipline is mapped in the marketing pillar. 5W delivers this work through its social media marketing practice, and Everything-PR lists 50 hospitality brands with effective social media programs and keeps an index of social media PR since 2009.
What mistakes do brands make when choosing platforms?
The most common mistakes are being on every platform, treating every platform the same, and ignoring who actually uses each one. A brand that opens six accounts and posts the same image on all of them ends up with six weak accounts. A better start is two platforms, run well, chosen from the audience table above, then expanded only when the first two have a steady rhythm.
The second mistake is measuring by followers. Count replies, shares, saves, referral traffic and inquiries, because a small audience that acts is worth more than a large audience that scrolls past. The third is leaving accounts dormant. An abandoned account still shows up in search, and a stale last post tells a journalist or customer that nobody is home.
Frequently asked questions
What are the main types of social media?
The six main types of social media are social networks, social news sites, microblogging platforms, bookmarking sites, media sharing platforms and community blogs. Each type serves a different communication purpose and attracts distinct user behavior.
How many types of social media are there?
Most frameworks identify six core types, though some add messaging apps such as WhatsApp, Telegram and Discord, or review platforms such as Yelp and Google Reviews. Pew's 2025 survey found 32% of U.S. adults use WhatsApp.
What type of social media is TikTok?
TikTok is a media sharing platform focused on short-form video. It is used by 37% of U.S. adults, according to Pew's 2025 survey.
What type of social media is X (Twitter)?
X, formerly known as Twitter, is a microblogging platform. It lets users post short text entries, with links and media, to a follower feed, and it is particularly important for real-time news and PR.
What type of social media is LinkedIn?
LinkedIn is a professional social network. It is the leading platform for B2B marketing, executive thought leadership and professional relationship-building.
What is the most popular type of social media?
By U.S. adult use, media sharing and social networks lead. Pew's 2025 survey found 84% of U.S. adults use YouTube (media sharing) and 71% use Facebook (a social network), the two most widely used platforms in the survey.
What type of social media is best for marketing?
It depends on the audience and objective. Social networks offer broad reach and ad targeting, media sharing platforms suit video storytelling, and microblogging is most important for real-time PR and news-driven brands.
Ronn Torossian is the founder and chairman of 5W AI Communications and the publisher of Everything-PR. He is the author of two best-selling editions of For Immediate Release.