If you’re trying to market your business online – you already know that social media plays a massive role in growth. From expanding into new market segments to engaging your current customers, social media marketing can generate great results and be an incredible cost-effective strategy to driving new business.

With that being said, it’s easy to rehash the same old social media strategies on the same old platforms used in the past decade, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram – which can lead to some impressive results. But if you really want to catch “lightning in a bottle” with your social media marketing strategies, you need to be willing to venture onto some new platforms.

New social media platforms can seem a little bit like the Wild West, with ever changing rules, strategies, and user bases – but if you hit at the right time, there is a HUGE potential for growth and massive success. So if you’re ready to explore the world of new and exciting social media platforms that you’ve never heard about, read on!

Artificial Intelligence is a huge buzz topic in today’s tech landscape, and Artifact is making a direct social media impact in that field. Artifact is an personalized news feed-based app that uses AI to curate topics, people, and region-specific points specifically to its viewer. It was created by Kevin Systrom & Mike Kreiger, Instagram’s co-founders who left the business in 2018. It is available for download today and has huge potential to be an online news aggregator and social media platform that takes off in the years to come.

Influencer and micro-influencer marketing has grown massively over the last few years, and are certainly not going away – which is what makes PearPop such an interesting platform for businesses. It’s a social media collaboration platform designed to directly connect content creators with businesses of all sizes. It uses “challenges” to activate specific celebrities, influencers, athletes, and more to promote their products or services in exchange for pre-determined monetary support. It’s a great platform to see what influencers would work best in your marketplace, and exactly how much it would cost to get them involved!

Where, when, and how advertisements are shown on social media platforms has been a very hot-button issue over the past few years. We Are 8 is a new social media platform that is designed to give the power and benefits of online advertising back to the viewer. Users are prompted to upload meaningful content to them, with a focus on positivity and inclusivity. They are then served video ads, print ads, and surveys that earn them legitimate money in their wallet that they can keep or donate to a plethora of nonprofits. Advertisers also are required to send a percentage of their ad spend to non-profits. We Are 8 is still a relatively new platform, and seems to be geared towards large brands, but could quickly become a staple in the social media industry.

This may seem like an obvious one, but it is crazy how many businesses have still refused to integrate TikTok into their social media strategies. TikTok is a video-based social media platform that allows viewers to create and share short edited video clips of anything they could want. It then gets sorted by an algorithm and shown to you based on your previous tendencies and views. It’s an incredibly addictive formula, and can be super effective for advertisers or businesses looking to expand their online presence. TikTok has some legal issues in the United States and other municipalities, but it’s hard to envision a social media landscape without TikTok at the forefront, so if you’re not currently using it – it’s probably time to give it a try.

Business-oriented social media over the last decade or two has been dominated by LinkedIn, but Polywork has an interesting premise to attract a new generation of working professionals. Polywork is focused on young professionals looking to make new connections, collaborate, and partner on side projects. In today’s age, people are constantly looking for more “side-hustles” and part-time work, rather than being tied down to full-time in-office positions and Polywork is there to help those opportunities be found and created! While LinkedIn is still a dominant force in this market, with changing philosophies and desires – Polywork could quickly find itself at the top of the mountain!

Video content is some of the most engaging and effective material in the digital marketing space, and Twitch is all about video – especially live video! Live streaming is now a massive industry across the world and Twitch holds a huge chunk of the market share, making it a very valuable tool. On Twitch, users can live stream video of themselves doing just about anything – playing video games, unboxing products, talk shows, and more! There are a large number of influencers who’s entire business model heavily relies on subscriptions and tips gained on Twitch streaming. Often they are sponsored streams where they show off products, services, video games, and more. If your business has any overlap with Twitch’s tech and video game obsessed market share, it’s absolutely worth looking into in detail.

Privacy and content moderation have massive implications on the success of social platforms in today’s climate, and we’ve all seen the turbulence Twitter has been navigating with its moderation policies. Mastodon offers a very similar Twitter experience where users can essentially micro-blog about anything they want, from events and sports to politics and personal stories. The twist is that they can also independently run “nodes” that are all moderated and differently, with varying points of focus. This allows for a much private and curated experience as opposed to the “wide-openness” of Twitter. Mastodon has experienced some very impressive growth in the past year and could become a mainstay in the very near future.

As we said before, the world of emerging and new social media platforms can be a bit of a mixed bag, but it’s essential to be constantly on the lookout for new opportunities to be on the ground floor of a booming platform. Not every new social media tool is going to continue to grow, but if it can help your business expand its footprint, it’s always worth exploring!