Twitter and Facebook no longer reign supreme among the teenagers online today. The crown for most-used social media platform has been passed to Instagram.
The news comes after a study called “Taking Stock with Teens” from Piper Jaffray, an assent management and investment banking firm. The study covered 7,500 teenagers with an average age of 16.4 and rated the three top social media platforms in order of importance.
Stats from the Global Web Index reported that in 2013, Instagram had the fastest increase in popularity over Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Google+, Tumblr, and Pinterest combined.
The popularity of social media platforms rise and fall in accordance to what allows its users – teens or otherwise – to garner the most hits or rise in social media popularity. Last fall, it was Twitter who was on top, with both Instagram and Facebook tying for second place. And two years ago, Facebook unsurprisingly beat out both Instagram and Twitter.
So while Instagram may remain on top now, don’t except it to stay there long. New social media apps like Vine and Snapchat are steadily gaining popularity among teens and young adults. There may even be a new social media platform in the works that will topple all of the above listed; Snapchat’s popularity began rising in mid-2012, and by December of last year, they had roughly 60 million installs. The same can be said for Vine: it was officially debuted last January, and by August, they had 40 million registered users.
So what does this mean for marketers who especially want to reach the teen and young adult demographic? It means getting very familiar with the platforms in question, of course. Staying ahead of the game and tracking the popularity of social media platforms will give your company an edge and ensure your audience that you are familiar with their demographic. And, as is the case with Instagram and Twitter, adding hashtags to your photos or posts makes your content searchable and therefore more easily sharable.
Source: https://www.business2community.com/social-buzz/instagram-surpasses-facebook-twitter-usage-among-teens-study-0842905#!EbC5r
Image: Jason A. Howie