Most of us know someone who has either taken a hiatus from Facebook or cancelled their account altogether. With waning interest from so many – how is it that Facebook continues to post growth quarter after quarter?
It’s a bit of smoke and mirrors – according to Pew Research, Facebook is rapidly declining in markets such as the U.S. and the U.K. Sources like this article from Mashable suggest that Facebook’s growth is coming from emerging markets and is tied to Facebook’s attempts to make the platform synonymous with the web for those markets.
But perhaps the most significant decline that Facebook is facing is among the 18-24 age group – a group headed directly toward its prime purchasing years. Pew cites reasons such as failure to innovate, failure to provide a rich mobile experience, and an aversion to ads as some of the primary motivators for young people turning away from the platform. In fact Facebook even reported to the Securities and Exchange Commission that young people appear to be turning more and more to image-based and live chat platforms.
So it is a scramble among advertisers and their agencies to find the next innovation that will reach the millennial market. Whether the answers lie with Vine, Instagram, Snapchat or one of the many other thousands of apps, marketers’ time is dwindling. We must be innovative in discovering how to mobilize these platforms in ways that are relevant to this young consumer. What are some of the innovations that you have come across?
