The document provides information on top social media sites including their category, description, when to use them, Alexa rank, and year since founded. Some of the key sites mentioned include Facebook (social networking), YouTube (video sharing), Twitter (microblogging), LinkedIn (professional networking), Pinterest (visual discovery), Instagram (photo sharing), and Google+ (social networking). The document serves as a useful reference for the most popular social media platforms and when each one might be best used.

1. Top Social Media Sites Database
Website Category Description When to Use Alexa Rank Since
Use on any web page that you would like users to
Helps website publishers and bloggers spread
share. New sharing tools are added frequently
their content across the web by making it easy
www.addthis.com Social Bookmark Sharing and free analytics provides insight into sharing 410 2006
for visitors to bookmark and share content to
trends, top content shared, top services, and top
their favorite social destinations.
continents.
Bebo is a social networking site that connects you
Bebo connects your brand with influencers and
with relevant content by combining community,
their circle of friends. The Livestream Platform
self-expression and entertainment, enabling you
www.bebo.com Social Networking delivers real-time updates from Facebook, 238 2003
to consume, create, discover, curate and share
Myspace, YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, and Delicious
digital content.
(with more to come).
One of the premiere social blog directories on the If you want to promote your own blog or find
www.blogcatalog.com Blog Community 299 2004
internet. blogs on various topics.
Research, express, communicate with customers
Free, automated weblog publishing tool that
or prospects, develop an online brand or
www.blogger.com Blog sends updates to a site via FTP. Owned by 7 1999
dialogue. Tap into real insights, views and
Google.
opinions on various products, brands and issues.
Launch, maintain and measure their social media
The Buddy Media Platform empowers brands and
efforts - all in one easy-to-use interface. From
www.buddymedia.com Social Media Aggregator agencies with the tools and technology needed to 143502 2007
publishing offers on a Facebook wall to measuring
easily control their social media efforts.
your Twitter share of voice.
Community-based news article website, much like
Use when publishing interesting news stories.
User-Generated Content Digg, that combines the features of social
www.buzz.yahoo.com Buzz will allow you to provide a link back to your Yahoo!
Aggregator bookmarking and syndication through a user
site where the full story can be found.
interface that allows editorial control.

2. New or existing products can be reviewed by
Provides information, tools, and advice that can CNET if selected. The best way to get your
www.cnet.com Opinions Site help you decide what to buy and how to get the product reviewed is to pitch it via email to the 68 1994
most out of your tech. right editor. Visit the website for a listing of
review coverage.
Enables web publishers to distribute their content
When you want to increase site traffic, revenue,
and applications via its on-demand platform.
and brand loyalty while simplifying access to the
www.conduit.com Custom Toolbar Conduit provides a free browser-based solution 52 2000
content, communities and applications that your
through white-label, customizable community
subscribers care about.
toolbars and cloud computing SaaS platform.
Get customer reviews, manage customer reviews
and publish customer reviews. Reviews through Customer Lobby can help to increase conversion
www.customerlobby.com Opinions Site Customer Lobby can generate sales growth and rates. Use when looking to get more of your web 100468 2007
helps to create protection from negative online site visitors to become customers.
comments.
Use to narrow the scope and relevance of search,
Social bookmarking web service for storing, increase search ranking, to help develop a
www.delicious.com Social Bookmarking sharing, and discovering web bookmarks. Owned personal brand/position yourself as a thought Yahoo! 2003
by Yahoo! leader, and to expand your network. Also, view
bookmarks added by similar-minded users.
Technology focused news site where the stories
Use when publishing interesting news stories.
User-Generated Content are chosen by community members rather than
www.digg.com Digg will allow you to provide a link back to your 113 2000
Aggregator editors.
site where the full story can be found.
Web Highlighter and Sticky Notes, Social Annotations can be kept private, shared with a
www.diigo.com Social Bookmarking Bookmarking and Annotation, and Social group within Diigo or a special link forwarded to 2263 2004
Information Network. someone else.
Discover, create, and share Microsoft Office Use when collaborating with friends, co-workers,
www.docs.com Document Editing 68845 2010
documents with your Facebook friends. colleagues, family, etc.

3. Real-time collaboration means you can upload or
www.docs.google.com Document Editing Create and share your work online. create new files, share your work, and access 1 2009
files anywhere (computer or smart phone).
Upload and share documents with the world.
One of the premier online community and
Documents can be easily searched, previewed
www.docstoc.com Social Network (Content Based) marketplace to find and share professional 1077 2007
and downloaded. Create a profile and develop
documents.
your personal or company brand.
Owned by CNET. Download shareware, freeware
and Demo software for PC, Mac, Linux, and Excellent distribution channel if you are offering a
www.download.com Software Download 141 1996
Handhelds categorized into categories, plus free trial of your software platform.
software reviews.
Lets you bring your photos, docs, and videos If you need to share files and/or access files from
www.dropbox.com Document Management 835259 2007
anywhere and share them easily. different locations.
Drupal is a free software package that allows you If you need a CMS, this is a great one. In fact,
www.drupal.com CMS to easily organize, manage and publish your our site (www.demandmetric.com) was built on 399 2000
content, with an endless variety of customization. the Drupal open source platform.
Consumer-generated reviews, buying tips and
New or existing products can be reviewed by
advice, ratings, price information, and searchable
www.epinions.com Opinions Site consumers. Use to monitor your products reviews 1906 1999
in a variety of ways from price to product type.
and to obtain customer feedback.
Owned by EBay.
Use to narrow the scope and relevance of search,
Save your ideas, things you see, and things you increase search ranking, to help develop a
www.evernote.com Social Bookmarking like. Then find them all on any computer or personal brand/position yourself as a thought 8672 2000
device you use. leader, and to expand your network. Also, view
bookmarks added by similar-minded users.

4. A social utility that connects people, to keep up A good way for loyal users to engage and take
www.facebook.com Social Networking with friends, upload photos, share links and ownership of your brand is to have them 2 1997
videos. participate in fan and group pages on Facebook.
Let people know where you've been, where you're Can be used as part of a larger social marketing
www.facebook.location.cm Location Based 2 2010
headed and where you are now. strategy.
Use to narrow the scope and relevance of search,
increase search ranking, to help develop a
The Faves toolbar makes it easy to save
www.faves.com Social Bookmarking personal brand/position yourself as a thought 5270 2004
bookmarks with thumbnail images and notes.
leader, and to expand your network. Also, view
bookmarks added by similar-minded users.
Publish regular updates to web-based content
Provides custom RSS feeds and management instantly and make it "subscribable." Keep track
www.feedburner.com Network Aggregation tools to bloggers, podcasters, and other web- of a large number of your favorite websites or 703 2003
based content publishers. blogs, without having to remember to check each
site manually or clutter your email inbox.
As a blogger, flicker can be used to share photos.
If there are any visual elements to your
company, or the products and services you offer,
Picture galleries available with chat, groups, and Flickr offers a new avenue for spreading the word
www.flickr.com Photo Sharing 33 2003
photo ratings. about who you are and what you do.
Read more:
http://www.smallbusinesssem.com/articles/mark
Foursquare is a location-based mobile platform
that makes cities easier to use and more
Merchants and brands leverage the foursquare
interesting to explore. By “checking in” via a
www.foursquare.com Location Based platform by utilizing a wide set of tools to obtain, 594 2008
smartphone app or SMS, users share their
engage, and retain customers and audiences.
location with friends while collecting points and
virtual badges.
Allows you to build a customized feed of made up
of content your friends on other collaborative Use this to network with others, share
www.friendfeed.com Social Media Aggregator 695 2007
sites have shared, including news articles, information, and expand your research.
photos, videos and comments.

5. Google's web-based messaging and collaboration
Web-based email, calendar and documents for apps require no hardware or software and need
www.google.com/business Social Apps 1
teams. minimal administration, creating tremendous
time and cost savings for businesses.
Google Latitude lets you stay close with your Business can track employees by their mobile
www.google.com/latitude Location Based 1 2010
friends from your phone, computer, or both. devices.
Use the social web to launch marketing
HootSuite allows you to connect to multiple social campaigns, identify and grow audience, and
www.hootsuite.com Social Media Aggregator 214 2008
networks from one website. distribute targeted messages across multiple
channels.
Joomla is a content management system (CMS),
www.joomla.org CMS which enables you to build Web sites and online Use to create a new website. 270 2000
applications.
Use to narrow the scope and relevance of search,
Social bookmarking web service for collecting, increase search ranking, to help develop a
www.jumptags.com Social Bookmarking storing, sharing and distributing web bookmarks, personal brand/position yourself as a thought 3600 2006
notes, rss feeds, and contacts. leader, and to expand your network. Also, view
bookmarks added by similar-minded users.
New or existing products can be reviewed by
Shopping community where people recommend
www.kaboodle.com Opinions Site consumers. Use to monitor your products reviews 1111 1995
and discover new things.
and to obtain customer feedback.
Create your own online community. Includes Power audience growth & engagement on your
custom social networking, message boards, video website. Build your own community with social
www.kickapps.com Social Media Aggregator 16418 2005
sharing, viral widgets, and other user generated networking and photo & video sharing; create
content. your own widgets, custom video players, etc.

6. Allows registered users to maintain a list of
A networking tool used to find connections, to
contact details of people they know and trust in
www.linkedin.com Social Networking recommended job candidates, locate industry 59 2002
business. Join groups and contribute in
experts and business partners.
discussions.
Help you engage social customers with habit-
forming community experiences in order to find
Business solutions for customer-driven
www.lithium.com Social Media Measurement your biggest advocates and motivate them to 25705 2000
Awareness, Commerce, and Service.
participate. Desired outcomes include better
customer service and increased sales revenue.
A service for journals and blogs, that also offers Research, express, communicate with customers
privacy controls, photo storage, publishing tools, or prospects, develop an online brand or
www.livejournal.com Blog 76 1999
style templates, and online communities for many dialogue. Tap into real insights, views and
interests. opinions on various products, brands and issues.
Use this site to obtain information & reviews on
The world's largest blog focused exclusively on new Web sites and services, breaking news on
www.mashable.com Information Resource 522 2005
Web 2.0 and Social Media news. what's new on the web and social media
resources and guides.
Helps groups of people with shared interests plan The Small Business Meetup section can be used
www.meetup.com Social Networking events and facilitates off line group meetings in to network, find new customers, get advice and 837 1998
various localities around the world. avoid costly mistakes.
Metacafe is a video entertainment site that
Metacafe offers incentives for user generated
focuses on: Short-form, Entertainment, Audience-
www.metacafe.com Video Sharing content. It is not a video sharing and hosting site 153 2001
driven, Community Auditions, Community
that allows any and every video to be posted.
Rankings and Community Rewards.
Use YourMixx to tailor content categories, tags,
Lists user-recommendations for stories, photos
User-Generated Content specific users and groups, and Mixx will deliver
www.mixx.com and videos. Customize the start page, join private 848 1995
Aggregator the top-rated content as chosen by you and
groups, and rate content.
people who share your passions.

7. Helps consumers make informed shopping
decisions. A potential shopper can find reviews on New or existing products can be reviewed by
www.mouthshut.com Opinions Site every business or brand right from large consumers. Use to monitor your products reviews 2355 2000
corporations to small local businesses, all written and to obtain customer feedback.
by an average consumer like him or her.
Users can create, share and discuss blogs, Use Multiply for collaboration and photo sharing.
photos, videos and music with others as well as Combines social networking with the usefulness
www.multiply.com Social Media Aggregator 218 2000
post reviews of movies and books, or share a of photo printing and photo-management
calendar of events. software.
Take advantage of your existing presence on the Research, express, communicate with customers
Web and ties it into communities of like-minded or prospects, develop an online brand or
www.mybloglog.com Blog 1320 2005
readers and authors to add context to the dialogue. Tap into real insights, views and
conversations in which you take part. opinions on various products, brands and issues.
Create a community on MySpace and you can
MySpace can be used by business people and co-
www.myspace.com Social Networking share photos, journals and interests with your 11 1996
workers interested in networking.
growing network of mutual friends.
Personal news aggregator with RSS and Atom Netvibes Enterprise delivers secure, scalable
www.netvibes.com Social Media Aggregator support. Comes with a set of predefined news personalized workspaces, portals and industry 1484 1999
feeds. dashboards.
Newsvine respects established journalism and
empowers the individual. Placement is
Use when publishing interesting news stories.
User-Generated Content determined by factors like freshness, popularity,
www.newsvine.com Newsvine will allow you to provide a link back to 4436 2005
Aggregator and reputation. Contribution is open to all, and
your site where the full story can be found.
editorial judgment is in the hands of the
community.
Free service for those looking to create,
customize and grow a network around a unique
An online service to create, customize, and share
www.ning.com Social Networking interest or passion. Can use a custom CSS for 130 2003
a social network.
branding purposes and integrates with other
social media services.

8. Social networking and discussion site operated by Orkut can be used by business people and co-
www.orkut.com Social Networking 133 2004
Google. workers interested in networking.
Photobucket can be used to share photos. If there
are any visual elements to your company, or the
products and services you offer, Photobucket
Provides image hosting for auctions, live journals,
offers a new avenue for spreading the word about
www.photobucket.com Photo Sharing blogs, message boards, personal websites and 41 2003
who you are and what you do.
online photo albums.
Read more:
http://www.smallbusinesssem.com/articles/mark
Save time by posting to multiple social networks
www.ping.fm Social Network Aggregator Update all of your social networks at once. 2708 2008
simultaneously.
Stay in touch with the people you care about. Use Pulse to see what your network is creating
Pulse is a dashboard for seeing what the people and sharing online — their blogs, their photos,
www.plaxo.com Social Media Aggregator 1416 2002
you know are creating and sharing all over the their reviews, etc. You can also use Pulse in all
open web. the places where you create or share your stuff.
Allows users to send updates (otherwise known
Use to share short messages, links, and videos
www.plurk.com Micro-Blogging as plurks) through short messages or links, which 1010 2008
with your network.
can be up to 140 text characters in length.
You can identify people as acquaintances, friends,
family or just somebody you're following. Adding
Google+ is an amalgamation of several Google
www.plus.google.com Social Networking a circle for colleagues and professional 1 2011
services.
connections only takes a few seconds. Click the
website link to read more.
Integrated and automatic posting to other social
A place to post everything. Just email Posterous
media tools such as Flickr, Twitter, and Facebook,
www.posterous.com Micro-Blogging your photos, video, MP3, and/or other files and 1553 2009
a built-in Google Analytics package, and custom
they will post your email to blog.
themes.

9. Users can post stories and vote for which stories Use when publishing interesting news stories.
User-Generated Content
www.propeller.com are to be included on the front page. Comments Propeller will allow you to provide a link back to 1674 1995
Aggregator
can be made on posts as well. your site where the full story can be found.
Social media listening, tracking, monitoring and
engagement tools allow organizations to Use if you're a heavy social media user and need
www.radian6.com Social Media Measurement successfully employ a social media strategy and software to help with reporting on metrics, 9831 2006
understand the impact the Social Graph and measuring sentiment and deep analytics.
Social CRM have on their success.
With your Google Reader public page, you can
share your favorite items with your friends,
Use Google's web-based feed reader to keep up
www.reader.google.com Social Bookmarking simply by sending them to relevant links. You can Google
with blogs and news.
also add a customizable clip that displays your
latest shared items in your site or blogs sidebar.
Use when publishing interesting news stories.
User-Generated Content User-generated news links. Votes promote stories
www.reddit.com Reditt will allow you to provide a link back to your 451 2005
Aggregator to the front page.
site where the full story can be found.
Upload Screencast videos and post them on your Use if you are looking for a video solution on your
www.screencast.com Video Sharing 4238 2002
website, blog or share with your network. website/blog.
Upload and share documents with the world.
A library of digital documents which allows users
Documents can be easily searched, previewed
www.scribd.com Social Network (Content Based) to publish, discover and discuss original writings 258 2007
and downloaded. Create a profile and develop
and documents in various languages.
your personal or company brand.
One-step sharing tool that saves you time and
Reporting and analytics will tell you the top
makes sharing online hassle free. You can share
shared content, how it's being shared and much
anything on the web to your choice of social
www.sharethis.com Social Bookmarking more. Customization ensures that the ShareThis 9348 1995
bookmarking options, post-to-profile and blog
widget blends in with your site.
choices, Email, AIM, or even as a text message to
a mobile phone.

10. Submit your stories or read interesting articles
Source for technology related news with a heavy
www.slashdot.com News posted by others and make comments. Good 1351 1997
slant towards Linux and Open Source issues.
source for tech info.
If you need to create & share presentations; gain
www.sliderocket.com Social Network (Content Based) Online presentation tools. 15640 2007
powerful insights with high security.
Upload and share your PowerPoint presentations,
Reach a large audience with your presentations &
Word documents and Adobe PDF Portfolios on
www.slideshare.net Social Network (Content Based) documents. Generate leads for your business with 456 2007
SlideShare. Share publicly or privately. Add audio
presentations & documents.
to make a webinar.
Share your interests, build your online identity
Allows anyone to post a lens about a topic that
www.squidoo.com News and credibility, and connect with new readers and 334 2005
they have expertise in.
friends.
Access all you Bookmarks and Favorites from Use to manage your bookmarks and view
www.startaid.com Social Bookmarking 13198 2004
anywhere! bookmarks added by similar-minded users.
Use to narrow the scope and relevance of search,
A web browser plug-in that allows users to increase search ranking, to help develop a
www.stumbleupon.com Social Bookmarking discover and rate WebPages, photos, videos, and personal brand/position yourself as a thought 288 2001
news articles. leader, and to expand your network. Also, view
bookmarks added by similar-minded users.
Use if you're a heavy social media user and need
A real-time social media monitoring and analytics
www.sysomos.com Social Media Measurement software to help with reporting on metrics, 15409 2007
platform.
measuring sentiment and deep analytics.

11. Research, express, communicate with customers
Real-time search for user-generated media
or prospects, develop an online brand or
www.technorati.com Blog (including weblogs) by tag or keyword. Also 642 2002
dialogue. Tap into real insights, views and
provides popularity indexes.
opinions on various products, brands and issues.
ThisNext is a social shopping network where
New or existing products can be reviewed by
people interact with community-validated taste
www.thisnext.com Opinions Site consumers. Use to monitor your products reviews 5711 1999
makers and influencers to discover recommended
and to obtain customer feedback.
products.
Tumblelogs create more of a rich-media
Blogging platform that allows users to post text, experience by allowing you to quickly post the
www.tumblr.com Micro-Blogging images, video, links, quotes, and audio to their most interesting snippet of a website you read, 312 2007
tumblelog, a short-form blog. embed the entire video you found on YouTube, or
even upload a picture from your cell phone.
Update social networks in a click, manage
Personal browser for staying in touch with what’s
conversations, stay organized, save time with
happening now, connecting you with your
www.tweetdeck.com Social Media Aggregator shortcuts, follow topics in real time, manage 5510 2008
contacts across Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and
multiply twitter accounts, see who is following
more.
you, share photos and video.
Collect content and connect with people who
Use this to network with others, share
www.twine.com Social Media Aggregator share your interests. Use Twine to track, find, 12136 1998
information, and expand your research.
and share what interests you.
Twitter can be used as a research tool, to build
your personal brand, to promote content, to
Social networking and micro blogging service
expand your outreach/audience, for networking,
www.twitter.com Micro-Blogging utilizing instant messaging, SMS or a web 13 2000
to provide previews to your audience, to
interface.
speedlink, to gather info on relevant & breaking
news.
Research, express, communicate with customers
Service for hosting and publishing weblogs and or prospects, develop an online brand or
www.typepad.com Blog 191 2003
photo albums. dialogue. Tap into real insights, views and
opinions on various products, brands and issues.

12. Upload pictures to a site dedicated to serving
ÜberTwitter users, making your tweets reach a
An application for posting updates to Twitter on
wider audience then just people following you on
www.ubertwitter.com Twitter Application BlackBerry devices and locating other ÜberTwitter 34277 2008
Twitter, update your location based on the cell
users.
tower information, send videos, see other posters
nearby
Allows registered users to maintain a list of
A networking tool to find connections to
contact details of people they know and trust in
www.viadeo.com Social Networking recommended job candidates, industry experts 2060 2004
business. Join groups and contribute in
and business partners.
discussions.
Video-centric social network site that supports
Use if you are looking for a video solution on your
www.vimeo.com Video Sharing embedding, sharing, video storage, and allows 430 2004
website/blog.
user-commenting on each video page.
Use if you're a heavy social media user and need
On-Demand Software for Public Relations
www.vocus.com Social Media Measurement to find influencers and monitor conversations, 19541 1991
Management
mentions and trends.
Wetpaint lets anyone create a free hosted website
Wetpaint sites work like a wiki which significantly
in minutes. Wetpaint sites are different because
increases the number of people who can easily
www.wetpaint.com Social Network (Content Based) anyone can easily add text, photos, or links to 1928 2002
participate in helping grow and edit content of the
other websites just by clicking on the EasyEdit
site.
button.
Use for research. Also, having a Wikipedia entry
www.wikipedia.com Content An online collaborative encyclopedia. for your company that shows up in search results 6 2001
can lend credibility to your organization.
Free blogs managed by the developers of the Research, express, communicate with customers
WordPress software. Includes custom design or prospects, develop an online brand or
www.wordpress.com Blog 18 2000
templates, integrated statistics, automatic spam dialogue. Tap into real insights, views and
protection and other features. opinions on various products, brands and issues.

13. Research, express, communicate with customers
or prospects, develop an online brand or
www.xanga.com Blog Personal publishing. Free weblogs. 589 1999
dialogue. Tap into real insights, views and
opinions on various products, brands and issues.
New or existing products can be reviewed by
www.yelp.com Opinions Site Members share their favorite recommendations consumers. Use to monitor your products reviews 339 2004
and to obtain customer feedback.
Use to share photos & video using Twitter. Yfrog
www.yfrog.com Photo Sharing (Twitter) Share your photos on and videos on Twitter makes it easy to re-tweet and it optimized for 1292 2008
mobile viewing.
YouTube is a way to get your videos to the people Use YouTube to host your videos. You can create
www.youtube.com Video Sharing who matter to you. Upload, tag and share your a corporate channel where interested parties can 4 2005
videos worldwide! subscribe. Owned by Google.
Create profiles, share images, blog and create Use this to network with others, share
www.yuku.com Social Networking 1171 2000
discussion boards all in one place. information, and expand your research.