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By Liam Dowd - January 21st, 2015
What’s your marketing roadmap for this year? Losing interest in social media. And who is catching YouTube to dominate social media video?
Catching up with YouTube
All corporate marketers know that video content has taken centre stage as the most popular shared online content over the last year or so. Of course all eyes look to YouTube in this sector, but a new report from eMarketer suggests that other social media networks are nipping at the heels of YouTube, as other channels leverage their support of video content.
The report states: “Facebook in particular is coming on strong and has the potential to put pressure on YouTube, which we estimate captures nearly 20% of US video advertising spending right now.
“Facebook isn’t the only one angling for a slice of the video advertising pie. Twitter is beta testing Promoted Videos, Instagram is rolling out video advertising, and Tumblr and Snapchat have new video ad products.
“Cisco Systems predicted in a June 2014 report that video would account for between 80% and 90% of global consumer Internet traffic by 2018. If Facebook, Twitter and others have their way, they will be the conduits through which a significant portion of that video moves. Facebook already ranks as the second-biggest online video property in the US, according to comScore data from October 2014. The ranking only includes desktop viewers, not mobile.”
With Twitter and Instagram looking closely at how their platforms can use video, corporate marketers will have rich multi-channel options when distributing their video marketing messages.
What’s your marketing roadmap for this year?
The online marketing landscape is always changing and there are some prominent themes you should keep in mind for this year—from the rise of interactive content to the changing buying process. This infographic created by Überflip, reveals that high quality content remains important for all marketers, as does an increase in the use of automated marketing platforms.
Losing interest in social media
The user levels of all the major social media networks have always come under close scrutiny. Headlines last year shouted that Facebook was haemorrhaging users, with younger consumers leaving to find new social media networks to make their own.
New research from Ofcom on social media activity with 12-15 year olds does indicate that the leading social media networks are seeing a dip in user numbers: According to the report, Facebook has lost 1% of its users in this age group with Twitter fairing worse used by 28% of 12-15 year olds when compared to 37% a year ago. Instagram though saw its share move from 16 to 36% with Snapchat seeing a meteoric rise from virtually nothing to a quarter of social media users in this age range.
And in a related study that looked at the geographical usage of social media, it appears that Germans are showing a marked lack of interest in social media networks according to Faktenkontor and Toluna.
Social Times reported: “A December 2014 Faktenkontor surveyed argued that “Facebook was dying”, and the new data seems to support that position, certainly in Germany – just 38% of German internet users were actively posting on Facebook in 2014, compared to 47% in 2013 and 58% in 2012.
“Additionally, one in four respondents to the new study said that they would stop using social networks in the future, which was up from 20% who said the same thing in 2013. And 44% of respondents said that concerns over privacy was their main reason for stepping back from social networking.”
Corporate marketers need not worry that their social media marketing campaigns are about to fail due to a lack of users, but more analytics is clearly need to track the ebb and flow of users across the social media channels your business is targeting.
Tweet to engage
There is little doubt that Twitter has become a major channel or customer engagement. Across 2015 corporations will be ramping up their use of this social media channel, but what levels of engagement can be expected? A study from last year from Stone Temple Consulting can answer that question to a degree.
Who is really using social media?
"Let's face it: As much as we complain about those over-sharers who inundate us with baby photos and vacation snapshots, we're still in love with social networking," said Debra Aho Williamson, eMarketer's principal analyst. "More than half the U.S. population uses social networks regularly, and Facebook continues to lead the market. But pay attention to mobile social networking, where Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and Tumblr are all significant players. That's where the next phase of growth is happening."
For your corporation the key takeaways are:
- Facebook grows and shrinks at opposite ends of the demographic spectrum. In 2016, Facebook will experience the largest percentage share increase in the Ages 65+ demographic. During that same period, eMarketer data suggests that the Ages 18-24 demographic share will decrease slightly.
- Instagram advertising is going to roll out… soon! When you look at the numbers – the incredible growth over the last couple years – it’s inevitable. Instagram is projected to have 60.3 million U.S. users in 2015.
The next 2 months will see the social media landscape change once again particularly as more ad-based services go live across the leading social networks. Corporations need to pay attention to this changing landscape to ensure their marketing messages are well targeted and can take into consideration how social media usage is evolving.
4 in 10 Facebookers now browsing the site passively
Facebook is still the largest social network in the world but the ways in which people use it are changing; for more and more users, it’s becoming a place to browse rather than post and share, according to Globalwebindex.
As a result, the number of Facebookers who identify themselves as active users has been declining steadily in the last few years - from 70% in 2012 to just 52% in late 2014. When users are on the site, they’re also doing less. Last month, 4 in 10 (non-Chinese) Facebookers ‘browsed their newsfeed for updates without posting/commenting on anything’, making this (un)activity almost as popular as updating one’s status.
There are many reasons behind the increasingly passive usage of Facebook, including the availability of other, newer social networks, the explosion in mobile messaging services and the rise of mobile networking more generally. Broadly speaking, mobile visits to social networks tend to be more frequent but shorter and less interactive than those made via other devices – a major trend considering that almost half of internet users are now mobile networking each month.
Until next time….
The Useful Social Media team.
Next Reads
The Corporate Social Media Summit New York 2015
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