Ranked: The Social Media Brands Searched the Most

A new study has revealed that Instagram has the most searched branding for a social media platform in America.

Web design company Digital Silk analyzed search data for about 200 of the world’s largest brands by combining each name with the terms ‘logo,’ ‘brand,’ and ‘branding’ to see which brands people are searching for the most in America.

Top Searched Social Media Brands

1. Instagram: Topping the list as the social media platform with the most searched branding is Instagram, with an average of 145,810 combined monthly searches. The image-sharing site is many people’s social media platform of choice, also allowing users to share short-form video content with Reels, and recently launching X (Twitter) competitor, Threads. The current Instagram logo is a simplified camera icon colored in a gradient of yellows, reds, and purples.
2. YouTube: YouTube is the social media platform with the second most searched branding, with an average of 107,389 combined monthly searches. The video-sharing website has practically every niche covered in some way by its content creators. It is widely recognized for its logo, which features a rounded red rectangle with a white ‘play’ symbol in the center next to black YouTube text.
3. TikTok: Coming third is TikTok, with an average of 96,194 combined monthly searches. TikTok is now one of the largest video-sharing platforms alongside YouTube, providing a curated feed of short-form content that caters to every user’s taste. The TikTok logo features a black musical note made to look as though it has cyan and magenta chromatic aberrations next to the word ‘TikTok.’
4. Facebook: With an average of 95,052 combined monthly searches, Facebook ranks fourth for the social media platform with the most searched branding. Facebook is still many people’s social media platform of choice, allowing people to connect with others around the world. In recent years it has also attempted to branch into other areas, such as virtual reality with its Metaverse product. The Facebook logo is a lower-case white F in the center of a blue circle.
5. X (Twitter): X, formerly known as Twitter, ranks fifth for the social media platform with the most searched branding, accruing 67,794 combined monthly searches on average. Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter has seen many sweeping changes come to the platform, including a name change to X. Twitter’s old logo of a blue bird has been replaced in the rebrand to X, in favor of a white stylized X (Unicode character U+1D54F specifically) on a black background. 
6. LinkedIn: Coming sixth for the social media platform with the most searched branding is LinkedIn, with an average of 37,007 combined monthly searches. LinkedIn is the go-to social media platform for professionals, with many people now using it as their primary means of finding jobs and expanding their professional network. The LinkedIn logo is a lowercase I and N on a blue background.
7. Discord: With an average of 31,477 combined monthly searches, Discord is seventh for the social media platform with the most searched branding. Discord is a smaller social media platform compared to some others on this list, with its main user base being gamers and other people whose interests are mainly online. The Discord logo is a white, stylized game controller shape designed to resemble a face, overlayed on a lilac background.
8. Snapchat: Snapchat ranks eighth for the social media platform with the most searched branding, averaging 26,846 combined monthly searches. Snapchat is a video and image sharing platform where people can share short pieces of content or snaps to show what they are doing. These snaps disappear shortly after being viewed by the recipients, as determined by the sender. This “phantom” policy is reflected in Snapchat’s logo, which is a white ghost with a black outline on a yellow background.
9. Pinterest: Pinterest is the ninth most searched social media brand, with an average of 12,820 combined monthly searches. Pinterest is an image sharing service where users can gather images and video content to provide inspiration for themselves and others. This inspiration is often used for things such as design, cooking, motivation, and home décor, among others. Pinterest’s logo is a white cursive P on a red background that is styled to look like a drawing pin or thumbtack, with the round part of the P being the pin head, and the stalk of the P forming the pin body.
10. Reddit: Rounding out the top ten social media platforms with the most searched brands is Reddit, with an average of 10,323 combined monthly searches. Reddit is a link aggregator where users share content about topics they are interested in, then other users vote and comment on said links. The Reddit logo is a cartoon alien head on an orange background, also referred to as a “Snoo”.
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Methodology: Brands were selected first by finding keywords linked to the keyword ‘logo.’ Then, using search volume data for the U.S., the brands with the top 200 values for search volume were combined with ‘logo,’ ‘brand,’ and ‘branding’ and run through Google Keyword Planner to see which brand generates the most searches for those topics. 211 brands were selected due to a tie for 200th place.

Originally posted on Modern Salon