Remember the “old days” when all you needed to do to have a solid social media presence was to join Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn? Today it is not as simple. Get ready for “Rumble” and don’t forget to keep an eye on the up-and-coming sleeper “Triller.”

“’Triller’ what?” You might understandably ask. Triller is an AI-driven music-video app that allows users “to create professional-level videos in seconds,” according to the Influencers Marketing Hub’s website.

Triller has been listed as the number one site to watch in 2023 by Influencers Marketing Hub. Triller already has features similar to TikTok and millions of worldwide users. And while some have heard of the YouTube-alternative Rumble, it is still far from mainstream.

Yes, it IS a lot of keep track of. There are so many “alternative” social media sites today. MeWe is a Facebook alternative. “Cohost” is a new, supposedly warmer and friendlier social media site. And the long list goes on. 

Certain events have increased segmentation in the social media sphere. Elon Musk’s buyout of Twitter, which was completed in October 2022, resulted in an exodus of some Twitter users. Many of those who fled found a home in Mastodon, an open-source social media site. Other Twitter refugees landed on the Tumblr site, which has been around since 2008. Tumblr, which allows for microblogging, has experienced a resurgence since Musk’s Twitter buyout. 

Politics have divided us in both real life and in our online lives. Some liberal Twitter users have gathered at Mastodon. Conservatives, too, have had it with what is often called “content moderation.” Many on the right have signed off of Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube for the last time.

Political Divide: Conservatives Look for a New Social Media Home

For conservatives who don’t like to be censored, there’s a number of alternatives.  Prominent among those options is former President Donald Trump’s twitter-alternative Truth Social. A year before Truth Social’s 2022 launch, former Trump spokesperson Jason Miller launched his own Twitter rival, Gettr. Prior to the creation of either Truth Social or Gettr, there was Twitter alternative Parler. Launched in 2013 as a “free speech” Twitter alternative, the site became enormously popular with conservatives.

At Parler’s peak, the site had 12 million users. Parler’s user numbers surged after the contested 2020 Presidential Election. But after the Jan. 6th 2021 Capitol riot, Parler was deplatformed by the Google Play store, the Apple App Store and Amazon’s AWS. While Parler came back online in the spring of 2021, the site never regained it pre-shutdown popularity among users.

Elon Musk has offered an olive branch to conservatives. He ended Twitter bans on many prominent conservatives, restoring their accounts. In late 2022, Musk also restored Donald Trump’s Twitter account, which had been suspended in January 2021.

Musk invited the now-2024 Republican presidential candidate to come back and Tweet. Nevertheless, Trump has said he has no plans to return to the platform that helped him first win the presidency in 2016.

In February of this year, Facebook and Instagram also unsuspended former president Trump’s account. But Trump has not returned to either social media site at this point.

Dave Nourse, an assistant professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas’ Hank Greenspun School of Journalism and Media Studies, says the former president is unlikely to come back to Facebook, Instagram or Twitter anytime soon.

“Donald Trump will be (allowed) on Facebook and Twitter. But Trump said, ‘Thanks, but no thanks. I will stay on Truth Social,’” Nourse says. “At the end of the day, (Trump’s) followers will still follow the man.”

As Trump has invested much of his own money and brand identity in his Truth Social, jumping back to other social media sites would not be in his best interest at the moment.

“While Donald Trump has been reinstated, he has a vested interest in his own platform, Truth Social,” the professor explains. “He is making money. Why would he leave his platform?”  

As Donald Trump has declared his candidacy for the presidency in 2024, the now-candidate might change his mind if it is politically expedient.

“If his campaign takes off, Trump campaign staff will use Facebook and Twitter, etc.,” Nourse predicts. “For branding, (Donald Trump) reached a lot of people (in 2016) through Twitter.”

Nourse suspects the recent moves to allow Trump back on mainstream social media were spurred in part by the massive amount of attention the former president still attracts. The move to reinstate Trump on Twitter also come at a time when Elon Musk’s newly-acquired site has lost some users due to his handling of the social media giant.

“Free Bird”: Elon Musk Makes Massive Changes at Twitter 

In October, billionaire Elon Musk completed his $44 billion buyout of Twitter. As the head of electric-car company Tesla and SpaceX, Musk was mostly admired as a genius — albeit eccentric. 

That image took a hit during the contentious months leading up to the completion of the Twitter purchase. After taking over Twitter in October, Musk almost immediately changed standards, fired top executives and laid off about half of Twitter’s employees. 

Again, the reaction to Musk’s Twitter takeover was divided along party lines. Conservatives applauded the move, especially after Musk started releasing the “Twitter Files” in early December. The “Twitter Files” are a series of internal documents from Twitter, showing what some claim to be evidence of government-encouraged content censorship. Among the most prominent examples was said to be the censorship of the New York Post’s October 2020 Hunter Biden laptop story.

Liberals, on the other hand, were rapidly growing to despise Musk. Many liberal Twitter users sought out new social media homes, such as Mastodon.

“I think there is a definite correlation between Elon (Musk’s) purchase of Twitter and some people leaving Twitter,” Nourse says. “Elon Musk has really turned into this polarizing figure over the last couple of years. A lot of people don’t like Elon Musk. They say, ‘I am done with Twitter. I don’t care for this man or his politics.’”

The trend of Twitter flight is not likely to sink the giant social media site, Nourse maintains. Twitter may just be too big to fail.

“I think the core groups will still stay on Twitter — the  journalists, reporters, celebrities (and) sports stars,” the professor continues. “But you can find estimates that millions will abandon Twitter.”

While the social media grass may look greener, people tend to have a hard time quitting Twitter.

“I think some people spend some time looking on other social media alternatives like Mastodon, for a minute and a half,” Nourse says “What is the non-Twitter Twitter? It turns out that Twitter is still here.”

A Look Around the Social Media Landscape

Other social media sites have their niches, such as Snapchat. High school and college students still use Snapchat a lot, Nourse explains. Users can send snaps to each other. Snapchat users can also update their status every 24 hours, just like WhatsApp and Instagram.

One highly anticipated social media site is the upcoming Bluesky Social, from Twitter creator Jack Dorsey. Twitter developed Bluesky in 2019, as an initiative to develop a decentralized social network protocol. The non-profit Bluesky will allow users to control their own information and algorithms. The site already has a waiting list. 

BeReal is another  growing social media app. BeReal doesn’t allow the use of filters, or allow followers. The goal is to give BeReal users an authentic experience. Meanwhile, Rumble wants to be an alternative to YouTube.

Nourse, however, sees TikTok as the real social media video threat. “YouTube is more worried about TikTok than Rumble,” he says.

More often, new social media platforms face an uphill battle to become the “next Facebook” or the “next Twitter,” Nourse points out.

“The (giant social media companies) will just imitate their own version of TikTok SnapChat,” he says. “So, it is hard for a new company to gain a foothold.”

Valerie Miller is an award-winning Las Vegas Valley-based journalist. She can be reached at (702) 683-3986 or valeriemusicmagic@yahoo.com.