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How to Create a Survey

1. Choose the right platform.

2. Make the survey as short as possible.

3. Don't ask "yes" or "no" questions.

4. Randomize your answer options.

5. Keep your question text neutral.

6. Use matrix questions judiciously.

7. Make sure your question text and answer options allow for every type of survey respondent.

8. Include a "red herring" question to weed out inattentive or fake respondents.

Over the years, I've received my fair share of bad surveys. These tend to be easier to identify than good ones -- in fact, you've probably taken some yourself. These surveys often have poorly-worded questions and tend to drag on forever. You might find yourself unable to complete this survey due to boredom, frustration, or the time investment required.

Good surveys, on the other hand, are merely forgettable. The best experience you can aim for as the creator of a survey is for the respondent to a) finish and submit the survey, and b) think, "Well, that was tolerable."

Are you ready to learn how to create good surveys that your customers will actually fill out to provide you with valuable feedback and insights? There are some basic guidelines to make sure people walk away without feeling frustrated from an overly complicated survey wording or design. Below are a few tips you should follow -- along with specific instructions for creating surveys using different tools. (Skip ahead here to read the step-by-step instructions with screenshots.)

How to Create a Survey

1. Choose the right platform to create your survey.

Choose the right platform to create and share your survey. If you're trying to survey your Facebook fans, your survey should probably live on Facebook. If you want to email your customers a survey, you might want to make your survey using Google Forms.

Additionally, think about how you want to use the data. If you're collecting a ton of data that you want to break out and analyze, you should create your survey using Microsoft Excel so you can download the results as a spreadsheet.

2. Make the survey as short as possible.

Focus on what's really important. What data do you need to make your argument, launch your campaign, or change a product? Extraneous, "good to know" questions bog down surveys and deaden their focus. Remember that your survey respondents don't really care about what is interesting to you or your company -- they care about how quickly they can finish the survey.

It's important to note that drop-offs happen more with longer surveys. What would your boss prefer: A nice and thorough survey with only 15 completed responses, or a shorter, tighter survey with 200 responses? Probably the latter.

If your survey is on the longer side, guide your respondents through the sections. Let them know what you're going to ask them. Give them cues when they're almost done ("In this last section, we're going to ask you ..."). If your survey tool allows it ( Google Forms does), show them a progress bar so they know how much of the survey is left. And always thank them for taking the time to give feedback.

3. Don't ask "yes" or "no" questions.

Respondents have a tendency to answer yes when asked a "yes" or "no" question. It's a psychological bias (unless you ask if they've done something wrong).

Instead of asking directly, try to get at the answer in a more roundabout way. Give them a list of options and ask if they use or know any of the items listed. Only let respondents move on if they happen to select the item(s) that you are interested in. Then, you can be sure the people who answer your question are more likely to know what they're talking about.
Don't do this: Do this:
4. Randomize your answer options.

There's also a first-choice bias in surveys, where people automatically click the first answer listed. It's prevalent in "select all that apply" type questions. Randomizing your options helps to combat a survey taker's tendency to check the first option they're given.

Most survey tools will allow you to anchor options such as "Don't know" or "None of the above" at the bottom of the list and exclude them from randomization.
Not so great: Great:
5. Try to keep your question text neutral.

You'll influence your respondents if you ask a leading question. That could suit your needs, but be aware that if you publish your results and people see the leading question text, they may end up questioning the authority of your data. Here's an extreme example to show you what I mean: "Don't you think product X is amazing in the following ways? Yes, it is amazing because of x. It's amazing because of y. It's amazing because of z."

Instead, ask: "How would you rate product X on a scale of 1 to 5?" And if you want to know what specifically they like, you can follow up with people who answer 4 or 5 on why they love it. You can do that with the people who answer the lower ratings, too. This gives you way more actionable data on what people love about your product and what you need to work on.
Leading question that is clearly pushing an agenda: Neutral questions that will get you honest feedback:
6. Use matrix questions judiciously.

Your survey should not have more than a few matrices. These are for asking complicated questions -- so only use them for questions that really matter.

Additionally, each matrix should have no more than 5-7 row or header options to prevent survey recipients from being visually overwhelmed.
This is manageable: This is terrifying:
7. Make sure your question text and answer options allow for every type of survey respondent.

You may live and breathe your product or industry, but you should not assume your survey respondent knows what you're talking about. It never hurts to give examples and explain concepts or jargon to educate respondents who are less knowledgeable than you. Likewise, make sure you give answer options that give your respondent an out if they don't know an answer.

A simple example of this is asking if someone's team got bigger or smaller. While it may seem innocuous on the surface, you're actually excluding some possible answers. Maybe the respondent's team stayed the same or the respondent is a new hire and does not know how big the group was a year ago. Make sure you have options those people can select.
Not quite right: Right:
8. Include a "red herring" question to weed out inattentive of fake respondents.

As a quality check, you can ask a simple demographic question at the beginning and end of each survey. This is especially important when you're designing longer surveys -- because you may be surprised (and dismayed) to see how many respondents forget what country they're from or how many employees their company has.

You shouldn't always toss out respondents based on just the red herring mismatch, but you can use it in conjunction with other checks to validate the quality of a respondent's answers. For example, only remove a response if the survey taker failed the red herring and answered "Don't know" for 5 out of 10 questions in your survey.

Now that you know what makes a good survey, it's time to learn how to actually start creating one. Keep reading (or skip ahead) to learn how to create surveys in Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word, Google Forms, or on Facebook.

How to Create a Survey in Excel
1. Log into your Microsoft Office 365 account on OneDrive, or create one for free. 2. Select "Forms" from the starting menu in the upper left-hand corner of OneDrive to get started. Select "New Form" to get started creating a new survey.
How to Create a Survey in Word
3. Give your form a title and a description that recipients will read when they receive it. Then, click "Add question."4. Select which type of answer recipients will be submitting. 5. Fill in the questions you want to ask, the options you want to offer, and repeat this process, creating new questions until your form is complete. Make sure you flip over the "Multiple answers" or "Required" buttons, if applicable. 6. Send it to recipients using the "Share" button in the upper right-hand corner. 1. When you open Microsoft Word, start with a blank document, or search for "form" in the Templates gallery. Choose the template that best meets your needs, and click "Create."2. Show the developer tab on a PC by clicking "File" > "Options" > "Customize Ribbon" > "Main Tabs" > "Developer" > "OK." Show the developer tab on a Mac by clicking "Word" > "Preferences" > "Authoring and Proofing Tools" > "View" > "Show developer tab."
How to Create a Survey in Google Forms
3. Click where you want to add content to your survey in the template, then choose the type of control you want to add to the survey field. For example, if you want respondents to type in an answer, choose "Text Box," or if you want respondents to select from a group of answers, select "Combo Box." (The control will appear as a grey box in Word.)4. Input instructional text or drop-down menu options by clicking "Options" in the developer tab where you've already dropped a control. 5. Once you've completed your survey, click the "Review" tab, click "Protect," then select "Protect Document." That will protect recipients from editing the questions while allowing them to fill in their own answers. 6. Share your form with recipients, which they can fill out and print, or print and fill out by hand. 1. Open your Gmail account menu, and select "Forms." (You may have to click "More" to see that option.)2. Select a blank form, or use a template from the gallery that best suits your needs. 3. Write a title and description of your survey for recipients.
How to Create a Survey on Facebook
4. Start creating your form questions by selecting the type of question you're asking, and then entering options for recipients to choose or write in answers. (Make sure to flip over the "Required" button for mandatory answers.)
Facebook offers two options for creating surveys: a simple poll, or the Survey app. The poll option only allows you to ask one question, whereas the Survey app allows you to customize and expand your survey to multiple different types of questions. Read below for instructions for creating both:

Poll
5. Add multimedia elements, different sections, or different formatting options to your form using the sidebar menu. 6. Adjust settings in the "Settings" gear, including options to make the form include a quiz, a confirmation message, and collecting email addresses of recipients. 7. Send the survey to the email addresses of your choosing and add collaborators to your survey by clicking the "Send" button in the upper right-hand corner.
Survey
1. Navigate to your personal profile or your business Page, and head to the post option to create a new post. 2. There, you'll select the option to create a simple poll to share with your friends or followers as a status update. 1. Enter "survey" in your Facebook search bar, filter the results by clicking "Apps," and select the first option that appears ("Survey").2. Name your survey.
At the end of the day, you're asking busy people to take time out of their day and give you data you want. To ensure that they have the best experience possible, and that you get the best quality data, try to incorporate the tips above.
3. Give Survey permissions to use your profile information.
And if you're interested in building forms directly on your website to capture valuable information about your customers, you can try HubSpot's free form builder tool.
4. Customize your survey questions and answer options. 5. Preview your survey. 6. Publish your survey on your profile or business Page.

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Choose the right platform. Make the survey as short as possible. Don't ask "yes" or "no" questions. Randomize your answer options. Keep your question text neutral. Use matrix questions judiciously. Make sure your question text and answer options allow for every type of survey respondent.

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Please ensure you have JavaScript enabled in your browser. If you leave JavaScript disabled, you will only access a portion of the content we are providing. Here's how.

The key to obtaining good data through a survey is to develop a good survey questionnaire. Whether you are conducting interviews or mailing out surveys, you will need to know how to design a good survey questionnaire.

What is a survey questionnaire?

Survey questionnaires present a set of questions to a subject who with his/her responses will provide data to a researcher. On the surface, it seems a fairly simple task to write up a set of questions to collect information, but there are many pitfalls that should be avoided to develop a good survey questionnaire. We will focus here on describing some of the key elements in designing a survey questionnaire, and then highlighting some tips and tricks to for creating a good survey questionnaire.

Objectives

The key to developing a good survey questionnaire is to keep it short while ensuring that you capture all of the information that you need. This is not an easy task. Before you even begin to design your survey questionnaire, you should develop a set of objectives for your research and list out the information that you are trying to capture. This list of objectives and research goals will serve as your plan for the survey questionnaire.

Now that you know what you are looking for, you can begin to structure the questions that will help you capture the information. Once you have developed your survey questionnaire, you can use your objectives to go back through the questions and determine if each of the questions is providing you with information that you need. Any question that is not providing necessary information should be removed.

Types of Questions:

There are two different types of questions that can be used to collect information. The first is called a structured or fixed response question and the second is called non-structured or open question. It is important to understand when and how to use these questions when designing your survey.

Structured (fixed response)

Structured questions are questions that offer the respondent a closed set of responses from which to choose. Structured questions make data collection and analysis much simpler and they take less time to answer. Structured questions are best suited in the following situations: (1) when you have a thorough understanding of the responses so that you can appropriately develop the answer choices (2) when you are not trying to capture new ideas or thoughts from the respondent.
Examples of Structured Questions

Do you have a driver's license?
( ) Yes
( ) No

Which subject do you enjoy the most at school?
( ) Math
( ) Science
( ) English
( ) Foreign Language
( ) History
( ) Government
( ) Art / Music
( ) Other

How many hours a day do you spend doing homework?
( ) 0 to 1 hour
( ) 2 to 3 hours
( ) 4 to 5 hours
( ) more than 5 hours

When writing the selection of responses for a structured question, you should make certain that the list covers all possible alternatives that the respondent might select AND that each of the answers is unique (ie they do not overlap). So for example, in the homework question above, we have included every option on the number of hours (from 0 to infinity). Also, you will notice that we were careful not to overlap the hours when defining the ranges by stating them as "0 to 1 hour" and "2 to 3 hours" rather than saying "0 to 1 hour" and "1 to 2 hours".

Sometimes, including general catch all responses (such as "Other", "Don't know", "None of the above", etc...) at the end of a list of answer choices will help to ensure that the data you are collecting will be accurate. In the school subject example above, you will notice that the last answer choice is "Other". Since the selection of non-required courses varies dramatically from school to school the option of "Other" helps to ensure that you are capturing the responses that do not fit into the broader subject areas already listed, rather than forcing respondents to select one of the other subject areas. Similarly, adding "Don't know" to a response list for a question that some of the respondents may not be capable of answering will help ensure you are collecting valid data. In general however, you want to use the "Don't know" option sparingly. You should try to ensure that your respondents are capable of answering the majority of the questions on your survey questionnaire.

You should also make sure that all of the answers are relevant to the question. Irrelevant responses may distract the respondent in addition to adding unnecessary length to your survey questionnaire. Consider the following change to the favorite school subject question.
Example of a Bad Question With an Irrelevant Answer Choice

Which subject do you enjoy the most at school?
( ) Math
( ) Science
( ) English
( ) Foreign Language
( ) History
( ) Government
( ) Art / Music
( ) Football Practice
( ) Other

If we added a choice of "Football practice", we may find that football practice is someone's favorite "activity" at school, but it is not relevant to this particular question which asks "Which subject do you enjoy the most at school?"

Consistency is very important in writing the list of responses. All of the responses should be similar so that no single response stands out to the individual except the answer that is true for them. Consistency simply helps to ensure that you are not leading respondents to a particular answer by making that answer different from the others. It also makes it much easier for respondents to find the answer that is relevant to them. Here's an example using the homework question you have already seen above:
Example of a Bad Question with Inconsistent Answer Choices

How many hours a day do you spend doing homework?
( ) 0 to 1 hour
( ) 120 to 180 minutes
( ) 4 to 5 hours
( ) more than 5 hours

In this example, the second choice is exactly the same as what we had before, but it is listed in minutes rather than hours making it inconsistent with the other answer choices. Listing answer choices in this way is very confusing for the respondent and makes it more likely that they will provide you with incorrect information.

Sometimes you will be interested in obtaining a person's opinion on a topic, subject, product, event, etc.... To capture varying degrees of emotion about a subject, it is best to use either a rating or a ranking question. A rating question asks respondents to explain the degree with which they feel about a certain topic, subject, event, etc... For example:
Example of a Rating Question
A ranking question asks respondents to explain how they feel about something by comparing it to other items in a list. For example:
Example of a Ranking Question

Please rank the following Homecoming activities in order of preference (starting with 1 for your favorite activity).

___Homecoming Pep Rally
___Homecoming Parade
___Homecoming Football Game
___Homecoming Dance

In general, if you are trying to get a respondent's opinion about something, it is best to have them do a rating rather than a ranking. A ranking asks respondents to list their responses in order of preference. This type of question leads you to an answer where the respondent is comparing one thing to another rather than giving you their feeling about each individual item. The disadvantage to a ranking is that if the respondent feels the same about two or more items, they are still forced to sort them into a ranking. The results of a ranking basically tell you which is the most preferred and which is the least preferred item on the list, but you do not know from a ranking if the respondent likes or dislikes any or all of the items on the list.

Non-structured (open-ended)

Non-structured questions, or open-ended questions, are questions where there is no list of answer choices from which to choose. Respondents are simply asked to write their response to a question. Here is an example:
Example of a Non-structured Question

What do you like best about the Science Buddies Classroom Scientists Program?
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________

It is best to use non-structured questions when you are exploring new ideas and you don't really know what to expect from the respondents. In some situations, you may have a partial list of answer choices, but you may still have some doubt or uncertainty about other possible responses. You can create a partially structured question such as the following:
Example of a Partially Structured Question

Why did you sign up for the Science Buddies Classroom Scientists Program (please select all that apply)?
( ) I really enjoy science
( ) My teacher asked me to sign up
( ) My teacher made me sign up
( ) My parents asked me to sign up
( ) I'm bored in science class & thought this would be fun
( ) I thought it would help me do a better project
( ) I thought it would help me win the Science Fair
( ) I thought having a Mentor to talk to would be fun
( ) I knew other students who were doing it
( ) Other _____________________

Open-ended questions let you get more insight into the respondents' thoughts and ideas about a subject. As we have already mentioned, open-ended questions are useful when you are trying to capture new ideas or information for which you have no basis to develop an all inclusive set of structured responses. The disadvantages to using open-ended questions is that it can be much more time consuming and difficult to analyze the data. In general you should try to minimize the number of open-ended questions in your survey questionnaire. If you find yourself designing a survey questionnaire where the majority of the questions are open-ended, then you may need to do more exploratory research to get a better foundation of knowledge for the subject you are researching.

Tips to creating a good survey questionnaire:

Here are some tips and tricks to help you ensure you are developing a good survey questionnaire:

Clearly state your intentions with the research.

Many people are hesitant to answer questions about themselves and their opinions. If you are developing your survey for a science fair project, people will probably be more willing to help if you clearly state your intentions. At the top of your survey, write a brief statement explaining why you are collecting the information and reassure each respondent that the information is entirely anonymous. If you need to know specifics about a person, respect their privacy by identifying them as subject1, subject2, etc...

Include instructions with your survey questionnaire

What may seem obvious to you probably is not very obvious to someone else. To ensure that you collect valid survey results, make sure you include instructions on how to answer the survey questionnaire. There should probably be a short introductory set of instructions at the top of the survey questionnaire, and additional instructions for specific questions as needed.

Your overall instructions may be something like:

Please mark the appropriate box next to your answer choice with an "x" ( X ). Please answer all of the questions to the best of your ability.

Don't ask for personal information unless you need it.

Asking individuals to provide you with personal or demographic information (age, race, income level, etc...) may irritate some respondents and prevent them from completing your survey questionnaire. However, in many instances, this information is necessary for the research. If you need to ask for this type of information it is best to place the questions at the END of your survey questionnaire.

Keep the questions short and concise

The wording for survey questions should be short and concise. Each question should be clearly stated so that there is no misunderstanding about what is being asked. The best way to ensure your questions are well worded is to test them by having other people review and test your survey before you distribute it to the full sample.

Ask only one question at a time (the double barreled question)

This is a very common mistake in survey questionnaires and one that will severely impact the results of your data. When you are writing a question, you must make sure that you are only asking one question at a time.
Here is an example of a double-barreled question:

Bad Question: Double-barreled Question

Good Question

How have teachers and students at your school responded
to the new 45-minute lunch period?
( ) Satisfied
( ) Unsatisfied

How have teachers at your school reacted to the new 45-minute lunch period?
( ) Satisfied
( ) Unsatisfied

How have students at your school reacted to the new 45-minute lunch period?
( ) Satisfied
( ) Unsatisfied

You notice that the double-barreled question is asking about teachers AND students. This means that a "satisfied" response could mean any of the following:

Teachers are satisfied
Students are satisfied
Teachers and students are satisfied

An "unsatisfied" response could mean any of the following:

Teachers are unsatisfied
Students are unsatisfied
Teachers and students are unsatisfied

Since the question was phrased in such an ambiguous way, you will not know what the respondent intended with their response unless you ask them, invalidating your data.

To solve this problem, you simply need to break this question into two separate questions, as shown in the example above.

You will also notice that the two rephrased questions above are very similar and that the key word (which differentiates the two questions) has been underlined. This is a good technique to ensure that the respondents are reading the questions correctly when the structures are so similar.

Make sure the questions are unbiased

When developing your survey questionnaire, you want to make certain that you are asking the questions in a neutral way, ie that you are not leading them toward a particular answer. This may seem simple, but when you are writing questions you will often find that the way you phrase the question may reflect your underlying opinion. Here is an example of a leading question:
Example of a Leading Question and How to Correct it

Bad Question: Leading

Good Question: Neutral

Do you think that the new cafeteria lunch menu offers a better variety of healthy foods than the old one?
( ) Yes
( ) No
( ) No Opinion

How do you feel about the new cafeteria lunch menu compared to the old one?
( ) The new menu offers a better variety of healthy foods
( ) The old menu offers a better variety of healthy foods
( ) The selections are similar
( ) No opinion

The leading question drives the respondent to the conclusion that the new menu is healthier than the old. A yes response to this question is the easiest, and many respondents may simply take the path that requires the least amount of thinking. The neutral question presents a better way to phrase this question by removing the bias.

Ask questions that can be answered by your subjects

Make sure that the questions you are asking are questions that people will be able to answer. The most common mistake is to ask questions that most people simply cannot remember. Here is an example:
How much did you spend on school supplies last year?
( ) $0 - $10
( ) $11 - $20
( ) $21 - $30
( ) over $30

While this question appears to be perfectly acceptable, it is unlikely that many students will really remember how much they spent on school supplies. Most responses will probably be guesses rather than actual numbers, and many respondents may become frustrated trying to calculate in their heads how much they spent. If a guess is all that you are looking for, then simply rephrasing the question to the following will make it much easier for the respondent.
How much do you estimate you spent on school supplies in the last year?
( ) $0 - $10
( ) $11 - $20
( ) $21 - $30
( ) over $30

Order/group questions according to subject

If you have more than six questions in your questionnaire, then you should make an effort to organize your questions so the respondents can answer them as quickly as possible. A good way to organize the questions is to group them together by subject. This way your respondents can focus their thoughts and answer a series of questions around these thoughts.

Present the questions in a clean and organized layout

A clean layout will make it much simpler for people to respond to the questions and for you to collect the data. Make sure that your method for marking answers is well explained and that your answer boxes are consistent throughout the questionnaire. See the following links for some sample survey questionnaires from Science Buddies.

Sample Survey: Science Buddies Advisor Survey
Sample Survey: Science Buddies Teacher Survey

Test the survey questionnaire

Once you have developed your survey questionnaire, you should conduct a small test (5 -10 people) to make sure that respondents clearly understand the questions you are asking and that you are capturing the information that you need for your study.

Credits

Source

Parasuraman, A. Marketing Research - 2nd Edition. Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc., 1991.

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Please ensure you have JavaScript enabled in your browser. If you leave JavaScript disabled, you will only access a portion of the content we are providing. Here's how. The key to obtaining good data through a survey is to develop a good survey questionnaire.

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We talk about how to make an effective survey.
Due to the importance of different kinds of surveys in data management.

Reference:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/curiosity/10-online-survey-tips/

https://blogs.constantcontact.com/how-to-write-survey/

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Top 10 Biggest Social Media Websites & Apps

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Top 10 Biggest Social Media Websites & Apps; social media has very much become a part of daily existence for many people but which sites are the most popular and why? Find out the biggest social media sites here on Most Amazing Top 10.

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article about the top 12 popular social media app

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article about the top 12 popular social media app

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Last Updated on by Karl

Social networking platforms are locked in a never-ending game of musical chairs.

Every year, the whims of a fickle public, the introduction of new players, and shifting global trends trigger a shuffle in social media's most important leaderboard.

Aside from these shifts just being "generally quite interesting" to industry watchers, they're also super useful for savvy digital marketers.

Knowing how deeply each of these platforms reaches into the global online community is critical to your company's social media marketing strategy. As is understanding other nuances relating to the platform's growth.

Choosing which social network your brand is going to focus its marketing efforts on is a very important decision, and one that shouldn't be taken purely on a hunch.

Sure, a particular social media platform may "feel right" for your brand, but we recommend that you take a bunch of other variables into consideration before making the leap. Amongst these, "relative popularity" and "growth" are two of the most important factors.

So, to help your brand with this crucial decision, Dreamgrow maintains this post: An up-to-date view on the movers, shakers, newcomers, and immovable monoliths that make up the social media landscape.

Let's jump in.

The Top 15 Social Media Sites and Apps by Active Users

The metric we use to determine a social network's size is "number of active users" - the total amount of unique users currently registered on the platform. It's a metric that's used throughout the tech industry as a key indicator of popularity, engagement, and growth.

Below is a graph depicting the top 15 social networking sites and apps as calculated by industry-leading provider of business data, Statista.

A Closer Look at the Top 15 Social Networks

1. Facebook - 2.74 Billion Active Users

Facebook is the undisputed heavyweight champion of social media platforms.

While it can't take credit for getting everything started, that honor goes to SixDegrees (RIP), Facebook is the social media juggernaut that not only showed the world what the internet can be, but also fundamentally changed the way humans interact with each other.

The company's turbulent early days and continued association with epic controversies haven't stopped it from achieving mind-boggling growth since its 2004 launch.

It took Facebook only ten months to reach a million subscribers and only eight years to reach a billion. As of January 2023, Facebook boasts 2.74 billion active users - a number that grows with roughly 500,000 new users every day, or six new users every second.

Despite its immense popularity, Facebook isn't the most visited website in the world. Somewhat surprisingly, its 25.5 billion monthly visits are bested by YouTube's 34.6 billion and totally eclipsed by Google's 92.5 billion.

In comparison to other social media platforms, Facebook is the most popular amongst users aged between 12 and 34 years, although their US-based share of this demographic is most definitely shrinking.

The Infinite Dial reports that the 58% of survey respondents in this age group who identified Facebook as their favorite social network in 2015 has shrunk to 32% in 2020. The biggest culprit - Instagram. The photo and video-sharing social network saw its share of this demographic go from 15% to 27% in the same time period.

Here are some other interesting facts about Facebook usage:

2. YouTube - 2.291 Billion Active Users

The second-most popular social media platform on our list, YouTube comes in at a super-impressive 2.29 billion registered users.

However, since ANYONE can enjoy YouTube content, regardless of whether or not they're a registered user, this figure may not be the most accurate representation of the platform's true popularity.

Launched in 2005, the video-sharing platform was initially intended to be a dating service, with the founders reportedly publishing ads on Craigslist to entice women into posting videos of themselves talking about their ideal partners.

The (rather understandable) lack of response resulted in the site being opened up for videos of any kind - a decision that would ultimately make Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim multi-millionaires.

The company overcame numerous technical and legal obstacles on its way to becoming not only the world's leading video-sharing platform but also the target of a $1.65 billion acquisition by Google. All of this by November 2006 - only 16 months after its official launch.

YouTube is also one of a tiny selection of social media platforms that reaches very young age groups. A 2020 study conducted by Pew Research revealed the following about the viewing habits of US children under the age of 11.

80% of parents say their children watch YouTube videos.

Only 19% of parents say that their children don't watch YouTube videos.

More than half of parents said their children watched Youtube at least once a day.

Despite its popularity amongst a younger audience, YouTube also boasts some remarkable stats for reaching the adult demographic. Almost three-quarters (74%) of all adults in the US use YouTube. Facebook comes in second at 68% and Instagram is third with 40%.

When it comes to national demographics, more than 30% of all YouTube's traffic originates from only three countries. At 16.4%, the United States contributes the biggest percentage. India is second with 9.2% and Japan grabs the bronze with 4.8%.

3. WhatsApp - 2.0 Billion Active Users

Founded in 2009 by two former Yahoo! employees, WhatsApp's original goal wasn't to be an instant messaging (IM) app, but rather to simply show "statuses" next to the names of each entry in a user's address book.

"At some point it sort of became instant messaging," Alex Fishman, a friend of founder, Jan Koum, told Forbes.

This accidental evolution led to the app dominating the free IM market and would also end up making the founders immensely wealthy - the latter thanks to Facebook's $16 billion acquisition in 2014.

WhatsApp is one of only three social networking platforms with a user base of over 2 billion - a milestone they reached in 2020. The app's recent growth rate has been astonishing, with the last billion users hopping on in only four years!

Because WhatsApp has resisted integrating traditional advertising into their revenue model, the platform doesn't offer the width of marketing options that many other social networks do. But that doesn't mean that the app doesn't offer enormous marketing value for businesses who use it as a communications tool.

Despite a recent PR catastrophe surrounding an ill-advised update to their privacy policy, WhatsApp is still the most popular mobile messaging app on earth, beating Facebook Messenger, WeChat, QQ, Telegram, and Snapchat to the title.

4. Facebook Messenger - 1.3 Billion Active Users

It says a lot about the power of Facebook that a service WITHIN their main platform reached the number four spot on this prestigious list.

It also says a lot about WhatsApp that they were able to dramatically outperform Messenger despite the latter being embedded into the world's most popular social network.

Messenger's initial incarnation was "Facebook Chat" - a simple IM feature that was launched into the Facebook environment in 2008. Noting Chat's potential as a standalone app with its own unique commercial ecosystem, Facebook overhauled the service and rebranded it as "Facebook Messenger" two years later.

Unlike WhatsApp, Messenger's proprietors had no issue with introducing monetization features into the app's core functionality. As a result, Messenger offers businesses an unparalleled level of contact with their customers and prospects.

There are more ways to interact with your leads on Messenger than you can shake a stick at. From automated chatbots that field incoming queries and promote products, to advertisements displayed in the user's inbox, Messenger is a B2C marketer's dream.

Facebook gleefully reports that over 40 million active businesses use Messenger to interact with their potential customers and that over 20 billion messages are sent between businesses and regular users every month.

Interestingly, while Messenger still lags behind WhatsApp in terms of total number of global active users, Messenger is comfortably the more popular choice amongst users in the United States.

Statista's most recent figures on US IM engagement reported that 12.1% of US mobile owners were using WhatsApp, compared to Messenger's 56.8%.

Age-wise, there's one group that towers above the rest when it comes to Facebook Messenger adoption in the United States:

13 - 17-year olds account for 1.7% of the app's usage.

18 - 24-year olds account for 14.7%.

25 - 34-year olds represent 27.3% of Messenger's US user base.

35 - 44-year olds come in second with 21%.

45 - 51 year olds account for 14.7% of the country's Messenger's user base.

5. Instagram - 1.221 Billion Active Users

The world's most popular photo-sharing app comes in at number 5 with a total of 1.22 billion global active users.

Founded by former Google employee, Kevin Systrom, in 2009, Instagram is the product of an incredibly diligent analysis of the social media landscape at the time.

An early round of seed funding allowed Systrom to pivot the app, which initially focused on attracting whiskey and bourbon aficionados, into something broader. Something with industry-defining image manipulation tech and a far more immersive social experience than any other image-sharing service at the time.

The result was an absolute beast of a social network. By April 2012, the month Facebook acquired it for $1 billion, Instagram had grown its user base to 35 million. Three months later, it stood at 80 million users. By June 2016, it reached the landmark 500 million figure.

One of Instagram's most enduring contributions to the world of digital marketing was the creation of "influencers". For better or worse, certain users' popularity gave their profiles an "aspirational" slant, which soon resulted in the birth of a whole new marketing channel that empowered regular folk to monetize their fame.

Demographically, Instagram appeals primarily to users under the age of 35, with 71% of the app's user base falling into this category.

It's also an immensely popular platform for B2C marketing, with more than 70% of US businesses actively using it as a marketing channel. Instagram offers incredible engagement rates in comparison to Facebook, its biggest competitor. Despite offering relatively similar functionality and engagement mechanisms, Instagram posts see, on average, a 23% higher engagement rate than images published on Facebook.

At 140 million users each, the US and India represent the platform's two biggest national demographics. Brazil (99 million) is ranked second and Indonesia (88 million) third, while Russia (56 million) misses out on a podium finish.

6. Weixin/WeChat - 1.213 Billion Active Users

With an incredibly wide range of functions that allow users to do everything from sending text messages and conducting video calls to processing digital payments and playing video games, it's no surprise that WeChat has such a high position on our list.

It's also a testament to WeChat's immense usefulness that the app achieved this level of popularity despite actively sharing users' private information with the Chinese government as part of the latter's mass surveillance and censorship efforts.

Regardless of this unfortunate collaboration, WeChat has blasted its way into virtually every aspect of Chinese life - a notion underscored by the fact that the app's adoption by older age groups is extremely impressive.

In 2018 an astonishing 98.5% of Chinese mobile users between the ages of 50 and 80 are registered WeChat users. While 60% of WeChat users over the age of 60 use more than half of their mobile data on the app.

For social media marketers in the US considering WeChat as a possible marketing channel, it's useful to know that 23% of America's mobile internet users between the ages of 18 and 24 are registered on the app.

7. TikTok - 689 Million Active Users

There are overnight success stories and then there is TikTok. The video-sharing platform burst onto the international scene in 2017 and quickly started racking up adoption figures that made competitors weep onto their keyboards.

Two years after its emergence onto the social media landscape, TikTok was in the top five of the world's most downloaded apps. A year later, it was number one. And not by a small margin, either. The fledgling social network outperformed its nearest rival, WhatsApp, by a staggering 250 million downloads.

Have a look at the table below for some more context. The difference between WhatsApp and the third-placed Facebook is only 60 million downloads!

TikTok still has a ways to go to catch up with its competitors in terms of the breadth of its demographic reach. In the United States, 47% of the platform's user base is between the ages of 10 and 29.

8. QQ - 617 Million Active Users

Another property owned by the Chinese conglomerate Tencent (the other is WeChat), QQ has been around forever (in internet years).

Launched under the name OICQ in 1999 as a downloadable instant messaging service, the platform quickly became China's most popular digital contact platform and played a pivotal role in "killing" email in the world's most populous country.

QQ's early rise to dominance as a business communication platform was helped by the software's exceptional handling of file transfers. This created a network effect where companies simply HAD to be on QQ because, well, all their partners, vendors, and clients were already using it.

Being first to market with such a useful platform, especially in a territory that actively blocks so many external cloud-based apps, helped build the foundation for QQ's enormous success.

Despite its ubiquity in China, QQ hasn't managed to make its mark on the rest of the world. International versions of the platform weren't integrated with many valuable QQ products, rendering it mostly valueless outside its home territory.

9. Douyin - 600 Million Active Users

To keep it simple, Douyin is TikTok for a Chinese audience. The two platforms have the same parent company and the same core functionality but are most definitely two different apps, marketed to two different demographics.

In China, Douyin has become one of the most popular marketing channels for luxury brands. Many have struggled to create meaningful engagement with the platform's young user base, but there have been some success stories.

Unlike TikTok, Douyin has embraced user-monetization and provided content creators with more concrete mechanisms to generate revenue stream from their videos - mainly by integrating with popular Chinese e-commerce platforms like Taobao.

10. Sina Weibo - 511 Million Active Users

Sina Weibo is a Chinese property that started out as a micro-blogging site and has evolved into the country's third-largest social network.

Unlike the other Chinese platforms on this list, Weibo's focus is very much on the creation, delivery, and consumption of user-generated content. It's an information center that's been adopted by businesses, journalists, influencers, and regular folk alike.

Companies, especially, have taken to Weibo as a marketing platform, with several international brands even succeeding in tapping into the massive Chinese market. The most successful of these has been Tourism Australia who won Weibo's "most promising and popular outbound destination award" at a Chinese influencer summit in 2019.

Sadly, as can be expected, the information that's distributed on Weibo is subject to strict government scrutiny and censorship. But this hasn't stopped continued efforts by foreign companies wanting to market themselves to a third of China's population.

11. Telegram - 500 Million Active Users

No social network with an instant messaging focus has benefited more from WhatsApp's recent PR disaster than Telegram. When WhatsApp announced impending changes in their privacy policy, the ramifications were instantaneous.

Users left the Facebook-owned chat app in droves - the majority of them trading it for Telegram, a hyper-secure IM and social networking app favored by blockchain enthusiasts and cryptocurrency traders.

The Guardian reports (via data obtained from App Annie) that between January 1 and January 12 of 2021, WhatsApp had fallen from the 8th most downloaded app in the UK to the lowly position of 23rd.

During roughly the same period of time (January 1 - January 21), Telegram gained approximately 25 million new users. That's a 5% increase in their user base in just three weeks! It also became the world's most downloaded app for both Android and iPhone users during a month that WhatsApp would rather forget.

From the graph above, it's very clear that Telegram's adoption saw a massive boost between March 2018 and January 2021. During these three years, the app saw its monthly active users grow by a staggering 150% - going from 200 million to 500 million users in only 34 months.

According to data published by Hootsuite, Android Telegram users spend more time on the app than those using Facebook Messenger. The social media specialists report that the average user spends 2.9 hours per month on Telegram, vs Messenger's 2.7.

12. Snapchat - 498 Million Active Users

Few people would have guessed that an app rejecting the notion of "once it's on the internet, it's forever" would thrive the way Snapchat has.

The photo and video-sharing platform became famous for only displaying users' posts for a limited time before it's deleted. Forever. This infused each Snapchat interaction with an immediacy that resonated with a younger generation of mobile internet users.

It also helped that the app broke the mold when it came to augmented reality filters and lenses - features that instilled Snapchat interactions with a creative irreverence missing from other social networks.

Snapchat has shown some seriously impressive growth in its daily active users (DAU) outside of the United States and Europe.

In the four years between Q4, 2017 and Q4, 2020, the app's usage in these two regions has maintained a steady rate of growth. DAUs in the rest of the world, however, have skyrocketed in this timeframe, going from 47 million to a whopping 99 million.

As of December 2020, Snapchat DAUs in the "rest of the world" now outnumber their US and European counterparts.

From a demographic perspective, two statistics stand out:

13. Kuaishou - 481 Million Active Users

China's 1.5 billion people absolutely love video-sharing and live streaming. So much, in fact, that we find ourselves talking about the second app of its kind that's focused exclusively on the Chinese market.

Kuaishou is the territory's second-biggest video-sharing social network, currently sitting with around 80% of Douyin's total active users.

Functionally, it offers very similar features to Douyin, but there are key differences in the type of content the two networks create and how it is curated and displayed.

Kuaishou is the more popular platform for live streaming, serving double the amount of live streams in its local content section than Douyin.

Kuaishou has a stronger relationship-driven approach to content recommendation. Around half of the content in a user's feed comes from accounts the user already follows.

The vast majority (up to 90%) of content displayed on a Douyin user's feed is from accounts that have gained popularity amongst other users.

Chinese social media experts, Walk the Chat, believe that Kuaishou's stronger community focus is the main reason why it boasts e-commerce conversions that are 5 - 10 times higher than Douyin's.

14. Pinterest - 442 Million Active Users

As little as a year ago, Pinterest wouldn't have made it onto our list of the 15 most popular social networking sites and apps. The image-sharing platform saw a record growth year in 2020, gaining more than 100 million new monthly active users between January and December.

Important information for brands looking to promote themselves on Pinterest is that the social media platform is only now starting to make its mark outside of the United States.

As of January 2021, the vast majority (roughly 23%) of the social media platform's users all find themselves in the US. The next closest territory is Germany which accounts for a mere 3.9%. France is third with 2.7%

Having made this point, it's important to note that the incredible growth Pinterest experienced in 2020 was largely due to increased international adoption.

Speaking to shareholders in their Q4 earnings report, the company announced that it saw an astonishing 46% increase in international monthly active users (MAU). During the same period, the network saw a more modest domestic increase of 11% new MAU.

Demographically, Pinterest has largely been dominated by female users. Currently, the gender split is sitting at approximately 60/40 percent. This gap is narrowing, however, with the platform reporting a 50% increase in male users in 2020.

15. Reddit - 430 Million Active Users

Fittingly, the "front page of the internet" manages to remain on our list despite some strong opposition and numerous shakeups in the leaderboard.

Reddit is a haven for the niche-obsessed. No matter what your interests are and where your passions lie, you're virtually guaranteed to find a like-minded community ready to embrace, educate, and make fun of you.

Founded in 2005, Reddit is one of the oldest social networks featured on our list, a fact that's evidenced by its uncanny similarity to old-school discussion forums. This clearly hasn't damaged the platform's ability to continually attract new users, though, as Reddit has consistently maintained a year-on-year MAU growth of 30%.

Reddit thrives in the US, where 25% of the country's adults actively use the platform to read and share information. Reddit.com is currently ranked as the country's 8th most popular website and boasts an average visit duration of 20.06 minutes - comfortably longer than Amazon, Wikipedia, Yahoo, Twitter, and eBay.

50.8% of Reddit's desktop traffic originates from America, with the UK (7.85%) and Canada (7.76%) taking up the next two spots. Australia (4.34%) misses out on the podium.

Currently, Reddit has just over 2.2 million subreddits. These are largely independent communities that exist with minimal moderation and interference from the platform itself. This autonomy has played a big part in Reddit's success. Users are able to form thriving communities around some pretty obscure topics - something that breeds fierce loyalty to a platform.

In Conclusion

There you go. The 15 most popular social networking sites and apps. Hands up if you never thought we'd get to the end of this gigantic list.

In all seriousness, knowing as much as possible about a platform before you start promoting your brand on it is absolutely critical to social media marketing success.

Different functions and features make certain platforms more appropriate for one brand than another. At the same time, different legacies and cultures also attract specific audience demographics.

Build solid insight into all of these variables and your next social media campaign is far more likely to show the returns your business deserves.

Looking to use social media to make money? Consider starting a dropshipping business, getting into selling on Amazon with tools like JungleScout, or build a blog! If you found this post through some of the recently trending courses, I'd encourage you to read my Hustlers University 3.0 Review for a good overview of that space.

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The 15 Biggest Social Media Sites and Apps [2023] - Dreamgrow

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Last Updated on by Karl Social networking platforms are locked in a never-ending game of musical chairs. Every year, the whims of a fickle public, the introduction of new players, and shifting global trends trigger a shuffle in social media's most important leaderboard.