As we embark on the last month of winter, perhaps now is a good time to pump some life into your content marketing and content creation practices. News of how young adults are using social media more than ever and how a startup is saying it will obliterate fake news should pique your interest as you determine what information you need to keep on your radar.
New social media trends emerge for young adults
Over the last few years, marketers and others have come to expect that Facebook will remain at the top of the social media food chain and that YouTube will also continue to be a popular channel for social sharing. So, forgive us for yawning at news of Facebook and YouTube dominating the competition. However, new research shows there are some significant trends and practices among young adult social media users of which marketers should take note.
For example, this week, Pew Research Center released a study that found not only that young adults would rather use Snapchat and Instagram, but also that the rate at which they are consuming content from these channels is quickly increasing.
What’s new
Pew’s study shows that nearly 80 percent of 18-24 year-old Americans now use Snapchat. Even though having 4 out of every 5 young adults using the social channel is impressive, perhaps what is even more remarkable is that more than 70 percent of these users visit Snapchat several times per day.
Snapchat has had its share of drama thus far in 2018, so it will be interesting to see if the channel continues to grow with this age group or if usage will decrease. In recent weeks, Snapchat has taken strides to be provide better analytics to marketers, which could be a slippery slope as far as user retention is concerned, since the experience young adults want often doesn’t gel well with the experience marketers desire.
“Am I happy about the Snapchat update? No, as an avid Snapchat user, I really don’t like it. I don’t like the way things are laid out. It’s really ugly,” e-commerce specialist Zach Inman recently shared on his YouTube channel. “However, looking at it from a business perspective, it makes sense. You really can’t get mad at Snapchat.”
According to the study, Snapchat isn’t the only channel experiencing growth among young adults. More than 70 percent of 18-24-year-olds are also using Instagram. A little less than half of these young adults (45 percent) use Twitter.
What’s the same
Facebook and YouTube are still dominating everybody else when usage is examined across all age groups. More than 2/3 of U.S. adults are Facebook users, and 75 percent of those users access the site at least daily. YouTube is even more ubiquitous —with nearly 75 percent of all U.S. adults being users of the channel. Among young adults, an astounding 94 percent use YouTube.
What’s next
Over time, social media users are likely to become even more dependent on their favorite social channels. While only 33 percent of respondents ages 50+ said it would be hard to give up social media, more than half of respondents between the ages of 18-24 answered the same.
Over time, young adults’ dependence on social media, as well as their propensity to use multiple channels multiple times per day, is bound to have a major effect on how content is delivered and how it is consumed.
Ad Age has announced the list of finalists in its second annual Creativity Awards. The list includes some examples of unique and creative campaigns from brands such as Nike, Adidas, Audi, and Ford.
Facebook has ended its video-heavy “Explore” feed test, only four months after starting. A company representative claimed the evidence from the test was conclusive that “people don’t want two separate feeds.”
In a rollercoaster week, social app Vero was everything from an “Instagram killer” to yesterday’s news. The company claims the app received 3.5 million new users, though many of them were turned off by tech issues and concerns about the company’s founder.
NewsGuard — a start-up that claims it will be able to identify fake news — may change the way news is delivered and distributed on social channels like Facebook and Twitter. The company will use human reviewers to evaluate the 7,500 news sites that account for 98 percent of online news in the United States.
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