7 Social Networks to Watch in 2013 Ryan Holmes in Fortune
An article by HootSuite CEORyan Holmeswas featured in Fortune Magazine yesterday. Ranging from business to entertainment,Holmes looks at the 7 social networks to watch in 2013.
In December 2010, a little-known app for sharing photos with funky, retro filters announced it had signed up its millionth user. Fast-forward two years, and Instagram is a social media titan, with more than 100 million users and some58 photos uploaded every second.
While Facebooks acquisition had a lot to do with Instagrams growth, the reality is that new social media leaders are now emerging in a matter of months, not years. So what does 2013 hold for the social media landscape? Heres a look into the crystal ball at the hottest social networking trends of 2013.
The pay-as-you-go social network Why share your gorgeous photos, funny videos and brilliant observations with the world for free on Facebook and Twitter, when you can sell them? Thats the logic behind Pheed, a new social network launched in October 2012 that gives users currently mainly celebrities, musicians and entertainment types the option of monetizing their pheeds. For a monthly subscription fee, ranging from $1.99 to $34.99, pheeders can offer subscribers access to a media-rich stream of text, photo, audio, video and even live broadcasts. Stars like Miley Cyrus and Paris Hilton are already on board.
Personal crowdsourcing Say you have no idea what shirt to match with your new jeans. Snap a photo, upload to Thumb and crowdsource the decision. Simple questions typically generate hundreds of thumbs up or thumbs down, plus comments, from the networks very active user base, sometimes within minutes. Appealing to the twin social impulses of vanity and voyeurism, Thumb generates serious engagement among users (reported to be around four hours a month, second only to Facebook among established networks) and seems poised for growth in 2013.
The invitation-only social network Social networks have dramatically lowered the bar for sharing information with people around the globe. But has the bar slipped too low? Thats the question posed by Medium, a new, invitation-only network from the creator of Twitter. In an attempt to wean us off of cat photos, Gangnam Style and Justin Bieber updates, Medium emphasizes longer form, carefully crafted content (like this story on growing up in Saudi Arabia) from users with something of deeper value to share. In many respects, it resembles a carefully curated blog network. While creators are limited to the select few, everyone can read and comment.
Social networking for companies Full disclosure: Conversations, a tool that brings social networking into the office, is made by my company, HootSuite. But Im not the only one excited about it. ReadWrite called it AIM on steroids. Instead of getting lost in long email chains, team members collaborate in real-time by posting on message boards, Facebook-style. Anyone can be invited to join a conversation, enabling customer support teams to rally around issues, marketing teams to coordinate campaigns, etc. Social media has revolutionized how we communicate in our personal lives Why not bring some of those benefits into the workplace?
Buy with one Tweet Remember how revolutionary it felt when Amazon introduced 1-Click payments for online shopping?Chirpify takes that concept into the social media era. Sellers offer stuff for sale on Twitter or Instagram (T-shirts, concert tickets, new albums, whatever). You reply with the word buy and its yours. No credit card. No proceed to checkout or add to cart. The entire transaction is conducted through your Twitter account. Apart from buying and selling, Chirpify can also be used for fundraising, giveaways and most fascinating of all peer-to-peer payments. Need to pay a buddy back for this mornings coffee? Just tweet pay and the amount to his Twitter handle. Chirpify is free to use but takes a five-percent cut anytime you get paid.
Bringing order to photosharing Smartphones have made it ridiculously easy to take photos and video, but gorgeous shots from last week can end up lost deep inside the camera roll. Flayvr may be the most intuitive and aesthetically pleasing of a wave of new social apps bringing law and order to your collection. Photos and videos are automatically organized into eye-catching albums based on date, complete with location and even titles sucked in from your iPhone calendar. With a tap, you can share the album as a splashy HTML5 webpage via social networks or email. Its also a great alternative for privately sharing big collections of photos.
Sharing using sound For sheer wow factor, Chirp may take the prize in 2013. Say you want to instantly share a photo or link with a roomful of people. There are plenty of options out there, but they all have drawbacks. Networks like Instagram or Facebook are members-only. Email requires typing in multiple addresses. Bluetooth has to be paired device by device. Chirp, however, is different. Your phone emits a high-pitched, two-second-long, robotic squeak. Other phones within audio range pick up the sound and instantly download the photo or message. Chirps can be shared in a boardroom or a crowded bar, broadcast over loudspeakers to reach huge audiences or even embedded in YouTube videos or TV programs.
As diverse as these platforms are, they are all taking social networking into deeper, more focused directions: from business-specific channels like Conversations and cerebral platforms like Medium to entertainment-based networks like Pheed. Facebook will continue to reign supreme in 2013, Twitter will thrive and Google+ will accrue critical mass. But in the shadow of these all-purpose social networks, some truly exciting transformations and specializations are underway.
Get more insight into the state of social media, by following him on his LinkedIn Influencer blog, a new resource that brings together regular insights from hundreds of thought-leaders around the globe.
Additional Fortune Magazine articles:
Read more:
7 Social Networks to Watch in 2013 Ryan Holmes in Fortune
- Mamdanis Wife Admits Shame Over Social Media Posts From Her Teens - The New York Times - April 17th, 2026 [April 17th, 2026]
- Young Americans happiness is 'falling off a cliff,' expert saysits not just because of social media - CNBC - April 17th, 2026 [April 17th, 2026]
- Neal Milner: Social Media, Tradwives And The Manosphere - Honolulu Civil Beat - April 17th, 2026 [April 17th, 2026]
- What are the UK governments plans to regulate social media for under-16s? - The Guardian - April 17th, 2026 [April 17th, 2026]
- Meta and Facebook: From connecting college kids to changing the world - USA Today - April 17th, 2026 [April 17th, 2026]
- French president calls for ban on social media telling kids to read - Australian Broadcasting Corporation - April 17th, 2026 [April 17th, 2026]
- 15+ Years Later, 'The Social Network's Follow-Up Is Officially a Tense Courtroom Thriller in First Footage - Collider - April 17th, 2026 [April 17th, 2026]
- Is Bluesky down, are users unable to access it, what are they saying on Reddit - NationalWorld - April 17th, 2026 [April 17th, 2026]
- Ohio bill would require addiction warning labels on social media platforms - Ohio Capital Journal - April 17th, 2026 [April 17th, 2026]
- Are teenage girls addicted to social media? Richard M. Perloff - Cleveland.com - April 8th, 2026 [April 8th, 2026]
- Sam Hiner of the Young Peoples Alliance on holding big social media corporations accountable - NC Newsline - April 8th, 2026 [April 8th, 2026]
- "They got more first-round picks than the Mavs did for Luka" - Social media reacts to Angel Reese going to the Atlanta Dream - Basketball... - April 7th, 2026 [April 7th, 2026]
- Myseum (NASDAQ: MYSE) expands Picture Party to businesses and 10,000 weddings - Stock Titan - April 7th, 2026 [April 7th, 2026]
- Madurasa Indonesia hands social media remit to Volare Advertising Network - marketech apac - April 7th, 2026 [April 7th, 2026]
- How to Market Your Business on Social Media in 2026 - Shopify - April 7th, 2026 [April 7th, 2026]
- Which social media apps do people use in Iran instead of Facebook, Instagram? Answer will leave you shocked - news24online.com - April 7th, 2026 [April 7th, 2026]
- What Gen Z thinks about its social media and smartphone usage - The Harris Poll - April 7th, 2026 [April 7th, 2026]
- Mastodon is making its decentralized social network easier to use with its latest revamp - TechCrunch - March 28th, 2026 [March 28th, 2026]
- Beyond the Manuscript: How Social Media Is Redefining the Modern Oncologist - CancerNetwork - March 28th, 2026 [March 28th, 2026]
- Leveraging Social Media for Population Health Promotion: Evaluation of a Year-Long Nonprofit Public Health Campaign - Cureus - March 28th, 2026 [March 28th, 2026]
- Childhood social media use linked to depression in teenagers - Research Live - March 28th, 2026 [March 28th, 2026]
- Hundreds of teenagers to test social media limits in UK government trial - Computing UK - March 28th, 2026 [March 28th, 2026]
- What teenagers have to say about social media ban - The Hindu - March 28th, 2026 [March 28th, 2026]
- Chris Mason: How will the UK respond to US court verdict on social media? - BBC - March 28th, 2026 [March 28th, 2026]
- Newborn Town: Revenue and profit surged on strong AI-driven growth in social networking and innovative segments - TradingView - March 26th, 2026 [March 26th, 2026]
- Heavy social media users in the U.S. are more engaged with ads and buying across categories - YouGov - March 26th, 2026 [March 26th, 2026]
- Why social media bans are pushing responsibility back to the network: Q&A with Kyle Johnson - Light Reading - March 26th, 2026 [March 26th, 2026]
- Meta and Google found liable for intentionally creating addictive platforms - Computing UK - March 26th, 2026 [March 26th, 2026]
- Children's extended social media use linked to increased depression and anxiety - Medical Xpress - March 26th, 2026 [March 26th, 2026]
- How This Amount of Social Media Time May Be Hurting Teen Mental Health - SheKnows - March 26th, 2026 [March 26th, 2026]
- Tech giants To Pay $6 Million to Woman Harmed by Social Media - Men's Journal - March 26th, 2026 [March 26th, 2026]
- US jury finds Meta, YouTube liable in social media addiction trial - myRepublica - March 26th, 2026 [March 26th, 2026]
- 14 of the best social media analytics tools for your brand in 2026 - Sprout Social - March 26th, 2026 [March 26th, 2026]
- Analysis of Social Media Platforms Market Structure, Current Trends, and Key Player Insights - openPR.com - March 26th, 2026 [March 26th, 2026]
- eYou raises EUR 300,000 to develop to build a real-time fact-checking social network - Telecompaper - March 26th, 2026 [March 26th, 2026]
- Social network X quickly overcomes the incident after the interruption - Laodong.vn - March 26th, 2026 [March 26th, 2026]
- Teen influencer who is 'family's breadwinner' hit by Indonesian social media ban - Australian Broadcasting Corporation - March 26th, 2026 [March 26th, 2026]
- What humans can learn from the bot social network | Opinion - The Tennessean - March 18th, 2026 [March 18th, 2026]
- Leading Companies Reinforce Their Presence in the Decentralized Social Network Market - openPR.com - March 18th, 2026 [March 18th, 2026]
- Netflix just added a comedy-drama movie thats The Social Network for smartphones - Tom's Guide - March 18th, 2026 [March 18th, 2026]
- FIFA Selects YouTube as Its Preferred Platform for the World Cup 2026Will It Affect Streaming? - Tech Times - March 18th, 2026 [March 18th, 2026]
- CYBERCRIME Magazine Interviews ITP Alum Stacy Horn About the Backstory Of East Coast Hang Out (ECHO), The First Social Network Launched In 1989 - NYU... - March 18th, 2026 [March 18th, 2026]
- X hit by global outage; thousands of users affected - The Hindu - March 18th, 2026 [March 18th, 2026]
- 4chan owner Hiroyuki, Hideaki Anno and GACKT reveal details of their last human-made social network in the AI era, which shadow dropped today -... - March 18th, 2026 [March 18th, 2026]
- Meta Buys Moltbook, the Social Network Where AI Bots Chat With Each Other - Technology Org - March 18th, 2026 [March 18th, 2026]
- Meta just bought the social network for AI bots everyones been talking about - Egypt Independent - March 18th, 2026 [March 18th, 2026]
- Wallo Introduces the First Social Network Built on Gifting Instead of Posting - openPR.com - March 18th, 2026 [March 18th, 2026]
- Social network X is the main channel of disinformation against the EU and politicians are the biggest targets - Polskie Radio - March 18th, 2026 [March 18th, 2026]
- Report: Meta has acquired Moltbook, the AI-only social network - Sherwood News - March 11th, 2026 [March 11th, 2026]
- Meta Acquires Moltbook, the AI Agent Social Network With Nearly 200,000 Autonomous Bots - Bitcoin.com News - March 11th, 2026 [March 11th, 2026]
- Mark Zuckerberg's Meta acquires AI agent social network Moltbook that rival Sam Altman made fun of by s - The Times of India - March 11th, 2026 [March 11th, 2026]
- Periwinkle is making self-hosted social media on Blueskys AT Protocol even easier - TechCrunch - March 11th, 2026 [March 11th, 2026]
- Meta takes over Moltbook, the viral social media website for AI chatbots - Firstpost - March 11th, 2026 [March 11th, 2026]
- Meta to acquire Moltbook, the social network for AI agents - The Independent - March 11th, 2026 [March 11th, 2026]
- Meta introduces enhanced teen protection measures for its social media platforms - phnompenhpost.com - March 11th, 2026 [March 11th, 2026]
- Unauthorized TikTok account concerns Manitoulin Minor Hockey Association - The Manitoulin Expositor - March 11th, 2026 [March 11th, 2026]
- Winnipegger charged with threatening prime minister on social media - CBC - March 4th, 2026 [March 4th, 2026]
- Iranians flood social media with videos of them 'doing the Trump dance' to thank president for eliminating Khamenei - Daily Mail - March 4th, 2026 [March 4th, 2026]
- 8 facts about Americans and TikTok - Pew Research Center - March 4th, 2026 [March 4th, 2026]
- How social media killed the food festival stars. And created others - NBC 6 South Florida - March 4th, 2026 [March 4th, 2026]
- 35 arrested in Nepal for misuse of social media and AI ahead of elections - Asia News Network - March 4th, 2026 [March 4th, 2026]
- Newborn Town (9911.HK) Issues Positive Profit Alert; AI Drives 2025 Net Profit Attributable to Owners Up Over 87% YoY - TradingView - March 4th, 2026 [March 4th, 2026]
- Should AI Bots Run Their Own Social Media Network? Not If Its Like Moltbook - Forbes - February 18th, 2026 [February 18th, 2026]
- Death isn't the end: Meta patented an AI that lets you keep posting from beyond the grave - Business Insider - February 18th, 2026 [February 18th, 2026]
- Perhaps we should all be banned from social media - Financial Times - February 18th, 2026 [February 18th, 2026]
- Meta patents AI system that could keep your social media alive after death - Audacy - February 18th, 2026 [February 18th, 2026]
- Meta patents AI that lets dead people post from the great beyond - Fast Company - February 18th, 2026 [February 18th, 2026]
- Meta Patented AI That Takes Over Your Account When You Die, Keeps Posting Forever - Futurism - February 18th, 2026 [February 18th, 2026]
- "Repulsive and immoral": Backlash grows after Meta obtains patent for AI bots to take over a dead user's account - The Daily Dot - February 18th, 2026 [February 18th, 2026]
- Portugal joins international push for limits on social media access by teens - TechCentral.ie - February 18th, 2026 [February 18th, 2026]
- posterly Launches AI-Native Social Media Scheduler Supporting 9 Platforms Starting at $7/Month - openPR.com - February 18th, 2026 [February 18th, 2026]
- They dont deserve to hear this God-level talk - Kevin Durant jokes hed quit social media before video games - Basketball Network - February 18th, 2026 [February 18th, 2026]
- Death is only the beginning? Meta patents tech that'll let AI run your social media from beyond the grave | WION Explains - WION - February 18th, 2026 [February 18th, 2026]
- What is Moltbook? Inside the AI-Only Social Network Where Humans Arent Allowed - The Bridge Chronicle - February 18th, 2026 [February 18th, 2026]
- Social network X experienced an outage, with complaints coming from various countries - () - February 18th, 2026 [February 18th, 2026]
- Were you one of the affected users of X outage yesterday? Service was restored to Elon Musk-owned social network X after it had failed to show posts... - February 18th, 2026 [February 18th, 2026]
- AI Agents Get Their Own Social Network - And It's Existential - The Tech Buzz - February 2nd, 2026 [February 2nd, 2026]
- OpenAI Wants To Use Biometrics To Kill Bots And Create Humans Only Social Network - Forbes - February 2nd, 2026 [February 2nd, 2026]
- AI agents social network becomes talk of the town - The Economic Times - February 2nd, 2026 [February 2nd, 2026]
- What a Chaotic Social Network for AI Agents Reveals About the Future of Booking - Skift - February 2nd, 2026 [February 2nd, 2026]