Most Common Channel Connection Pairings

Overview

This analysis looks at organizations that signed up since the beginning of 2025 and connected at least two channels to identify which platforms are most often connected together.

What We Found

Meta platforms are pretty clearly the most important to a lot of people. The most common pairing is Facebook users adding Instagram, followed closely by Instagram users adding Facebook. The third most common pairing is Instagram users adding TikTok.

There are also some interesting patterns with newer platforms: Bluesky users most commonly add X as their second channel, suggesting that users on decentralized social networks still tend to prefer text-based platforms.

Methodology

We joined the core_accounts and core_channels tables to identify organizations that signed up since January 1, 2025. For each organization, we identified:

1. Their first-ever connected channel
2. Their second connected channel
3. The pairing of these two service types

We excluded deleted channels from the analysis.

Data Collection

The SQL query uses window functions to rank channels by creation time within each organization, then joins the first and second channels to create pairings.

# Query for channel pairings - limited to orgs that signed up since Jan 2025
pairings_sql <- "
with new_orgs as (
  select distinct organization_id
  from dbt_buffer.core_accounts
  where created_at >= '2025-01-01'
)

, ranked_channels as (
  select
    c.organization_id
    , c.service_type
    , c.created_at
    , row_number() over (
        partition by c.organization_id
        order by c.created_at asc
      ) as channel_rank
  from dbt_buffer.core_channels c
  inner join new_orgs n
    on c.organization_id = n.organization_id
  where c.is_deleted = false
)

, first_channel as (
  select
    organization_id
    , service_type as first_service
  from ranked_channels
  where channel_rank = 1
)

, second_channel as (
  select
    organization_id
    , service_type as second_service
  from ranked_channels
  where channel_rank = 2
)

select
  f.first_service
  , s.second_service
  , concat(f.first_service, ' + ', s.second_service) as pairing
  , count(distinct f.organization_id) as org_count
from first_channel f
inner join second_channel s
  on f.organization_id = s.organization_id
group by 1, 2, 3
order by org_count desc
"

# get data from BigQuery
pairings_data <- bq_query(sql = pairings_sql)

# save data
saveRDS(pairings_data, 'channel_pairings_data.rds')

All Channel Pairings

The chart below shows the most common channel pairings, including cases where users connect multiple accounts of the same platform.

The Facebook + Instagram and Instagram + Facebook combinations are by far the most common, followed by Instagram + TikTok. Same-service pairings like Facebook + Facebook and Instagram + Instagram appear further down, around positions 6-7.

Second Channel by First Channel

Let’s break this down further by looking at what second channel users connect, grouped by their first channel choice.

A few patterns stand out:

• Instagram-first users most frequently add Facebook, then TikTok, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Same-service Instagram pairings rank 5th.
• Facebook-first users overwhelmingly add Instagram next, with same-service Facebook pairings a distant second.
• LinkedIn-first users are most likely to add another LinkedIn profile, but Instagram and Facebook are close behind.
• TikTok-first users most commonly add Instagram, followed by YouTube. Both of these platforms with strong video content overlap.
• YouTube-first users most commonly add TikTok, followed by Instagram, showing the strong connection between video platforms.
• Bluesky-first users most commonly add X, suggesting a preference for text-based platforms.
• Threads-first users are split between X and Instagram as their second channel, reflecting the platform’s position between text-based and visual social media.