8 Emerging Social Media Platforms You Need to Know

It’s no surprise that the average American adult spends at least two hours on social media daily. After all, for a world always in motion, social media almost always manages to be one step ahead. From global news to pop culture moments, everything is captured, discussed, and amplified online—often through a social media platform.

And it’s not just private individuals online; businesses have caught up with the hype. Many companies across industries use social media marketing to boost their image and cast their net wide to reach millions of people. With a single post or video, they can enhance their branding, communicate their message, and rapidly grow their audience.

Other advantages of social media marketing include:

• Creating transparency and building trust with your audience
• Effective and timely distribution of messaging
• Trackable progress and low-cost options for business accounts

Social media offers a powerful marketing opportunity for businesses. However, capturing attention is only the first step. Maintaining a consistent brand personality across every platform helps ensure a clear message to your audience. 

Whether it’s Facebook, Instagram, X, or LinkedIn, every post should align with your company’s identity. But with the social media giants dominating the space, is there still room for new kids on the block? These eight social media platforms seem to think so.

These emerging platforms have carved out unique niches, combining strong branding with loyal user bases that continue to grow through word-of-mouth and community engagement. With their expanding subscriber bases, they’ve secured a place for themselves in an already crowded social media landscape.

In the fast-paced online world, the ability to genuinely connect with your audience is a major strength for any company. What may seem simple is actually remarkable—organically building an online community with long-term growth potential is something more companies need to catch up on.

Explore these eight up-and-coming platforms. Your company just might discover a new way to connect with its community.

Users: approximately 8.1 million (as of June 2025)¹

Best for: Connecting with various communities

Social networking—done in moderation. Mastodon stands out as an open-source, decentralized social media platform developed by a non-profit organization. It gives users control over their social media presence and activity through unique servers, giving online communities autonomy and flexibility in a safe online space.

Users: 10 million (as of January 2025)

Best for: Expanding your network and building local connections

Never lose track of your friends on the location-based social media platform Jagat. The app allows users to share real-time location updates and connect with like-minded individuals within the area. Mapping a new world and communities through chats and videos is possible through this emerging platform.

Users: Over 15 million (as of March 2025)

Best for: Effective brand messaging

A lifestyle community platform that actively chooses quality over quantity, Lemon8 is considered TikTok’s sister app and is slowly gaining ground among Gen Z and millennial women. The platform’s magazine-like approach to lifestyle content and topic-driven engagement are both key features that make it stand out.

Users: Over 20 million monthly active subscribers (as of January 2025)

Best for: Reaching the target demographic with long-form content

Hey, you’ve got mail! Check your inbox, it’s from Substack. This online platform hosts paid newsletters written by authors from all kinds of industries and fields, covering everything from politics and pop culture to tech, travel, and more. Readers can support writers directly through subscriptions, making it a powerful tool for long-form, subscriber-driven content.

Users: Over 35 million (as of July 2025)²

Best for: Connecting with local and international communities

Talk about everything under the sky in the open network, micro-blogging platform BlueSky. Heralding the social internet, this social media platform allows users to curate their timeline and media consumption through filters and other tools. Users can keep track of broad networks such as global news, as well as micro-networks such as friends and family, ultimately aiming for a better online experience.

Users: 200 million global monthly users (as of May 2025)³

Best for: Engaging and connecting with communities

Originally for gamers, Discord has since blossomed into a social media platform for all kinds of communities. With voice, video, and text features organized into servers, it’s now a platform for creators, brands, and fans alike. Its community-first model continues to attract new users daily.

Users: Over 300 million users (as of May 2025)

Best for: Reaching the target demographic with short-form content

A short video lifestyle and social media platform primarily catering to Chinese users, many users crossed the ocean to access RedNote during the TikTok ban that occurred earlier this year. Its unique algorithm is one of the key reasons why users stay, creating an authentic online experience in an already noisy online world.

Users: Over 320 million monthly users (as of July 2025)⁴

Best for: Sharing short-form content and joining real-time conversations

The Robin to Instagram’s Batman, Threads, was launched in 2023 and has quickly climbed the ladder towards the social media giants. With a text-based social media platform similar to competitor X, this social media platform brings micro-blogging to the Metaverse. Users can interact with one another by starting conversations, posting updates, and sharing short-form videos and pictures.

Staying current with the evolving social media landscape can help your business get an edge in an already fast-paced environment. Relying on the same old tricks and skills no longer cuts it—your strategy needs to evolve to stand out.

At Global One Media, we make social media marketing easier for you. Our success in elevating the social media presence of our clients, from small to mid-cap listed companies across industries, proves just how impactful the right strategy can be.

Our current work with Arctic Minerals, detailed in our case studies, dramatically boosted their social media engagement. After modernizing and sharpening their brand image, Instagram visits increased by 230.8%, and Facebook visits surged by 1,600%. While many factors can influence stock performance, this digital impact aligned with a notable upward trend. Between November 2024 and June 2025, ARCT stock rallied 127% from its lows and is currently up +49.63% over the 7-month period. Beyond social media management, we also offer website design, email marketing, and more.

Ready to jump ahead? Contact us and start upgrading your company‘s social media presence today!

¹ Mastodon has around 8.1 million registered accounts as of June 2025, with around 300,000 active users on Mastodon.social’s main server.
² BlueSky reportedly has over 35 million registered users and 4.1 million daily U.S. and U.K.-based active users as of June 2025.
³ Discord has over 614 million registered users and 200 million monthly active users as of May 2025.
⁴ Threads has over 320 million monthly active users, with around 115.1 million daily active users as of July 2025.