How have Social Media Platforms changed over the year?
01/02/2019 | Share:
If you’ve been using Social Media, in particular Social Media Marketing the last few years then you might have experienced some changes in how the top platforms have changed and evolved.
The main favourites remain ever popular, yet there are some that you may also recollect that have since slipped through the net.
Staying in the loop with these useful Social Marketing tools and their many changes will allow for a relevant and effective marketing strategy, especially within your business and sales lead generation.
You won’t be surprised to learn that Facebook is still used far more than the other platforms, it is set to stay this way for the foreseeable future as it targets the largest audience of every generation. Facebook allows for the best customisation and optimisation of marketing campaigns with excellent audience targeting tools. With the recent addition of the Facebook shopping catalogue, you are also able to directly shop items.
Youtube is a brilliant marketing platform and statistics claim it is the second most popular platform after Facebook, with 1.5 billion active users per month. This can be used as evidence that we all love video content! Youtube targets a lot of the younger generations that Facebook can’t reach, Youtube is the top platform for 18-24 year olds. It is an excellent tool for Video marketing content on Googles Display Network. If you are a gardening Ecommerce business, you’d easily be able to feature your products on relevant gardening videos. However, research suggests most users will not access this application daily.
If you aren’t already a user of this platform, you need to take a look. Instagram is rated the 6th most used social platform in the world. It is a great tool to show of the visual side of your business and as it is also the platform with the most engagement. Users of social platforms love visual posts and Instagram doesn’t feature many words, it is also highly optimised for mobile users; and you can edit, view and upload content on the go. With the introduction of its shopping tool, you can spend hours looking at beautiful visuals and shopping them straight away which is an easy effective way for smaller businesses to thrive and sell in a cost effective manner.
Where has Twitter gone? A few years ago, Twitter would rank in the most used Apps with Facebook and Instagram. Research suggests it is now only the 12th most used Social Platform. But it is still growing, quietly and surely in the background, with statistics pointing at six million new users in 2018. Twitter is still a very valuable business marketing tool, as you are able to target specific users that are hash tagging topics of interest. Within business, Twitter can help to raise brand awareness, along side giving customers an outlet to directly get in touch with you.
Pinterest is a visual social platform, despite research suggesting it is one of the least used social platforms, the research also suggests it still has over 200 million active users a month. It has changed from the original idea of pinning items and counting likes and has moved to an exciting algorithm that allows users to be presented with content that they will be interested in. Through ads alone in 2017 Pinterest had generated themselves over 500 million dollars in revenue. If you have a clothing E-commerce business, you’d benefit from showing full, purchasable outfits and even the potential to collaborate with other brands to grow your business.
In conclusion, Social Media platforms will continue to grow and change over the next few years, so monitoring changes will help you to ensure your marketing strategies remain active and prosperous. Knowing who your target audience is and what their preferred method of Social Media is a time efficient step to producing sales and maintaining your business presence.
