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First, Let’s Take a Selfie

This week, I decided to take a closer look at the platform I use the most: Instagram. Since this is our last switch-up, and I have learned so much about platforms-like Snapchat and Facebook- I thought I solidly knew about, I wanted to take a deeper dive and explore my favorite social media platform. 

Let’s get a little background on the platform... Instagram began development in San Francisco as Burbn, a mobile check-in app created by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger. Realizing that Burbn was too similar to Foursquare, they refocused their app on photo-sharing, which had become a popular feature among Burbn users. They renamed the app Instagram, a portmanteau of instant camera and telegram. On April 9, 2012, Facebook, Inc. bought Instagram for $1 billion in cash and stock, with a plan to keep the company independently managed. I joined Instagram before Facebook bought them and my first photo, with heavy handed sepia tone, was posted on January 1, 2012. See below for my limited artistic skills:

For the sake of showing that I have made progress in the last eight years using the platform, below is one of my most recent posts from Instagram:

Let’s face it, that was just an excuse to post a photo of my puppy.

Back to business. Who all is using Instagram? As of April 2020, it was found that 13 percent of global active Instagram users were women between the ages of 18 and 24 years old. More than half of the global Instagram population worldwide is aged 34 years or younger. As one of the biggest social networks worldwide, Instagram is especially popular with teenagers. As of spring 2019, the photo-sharing app ranked second in terms of preferred social network among teenagers in the United States, second only to Snapchat. Teenagers are highly engaged social media audiences: In an April 2018 survey, 43 percent of teen respondents confessed to checking their social media on an hourly or more frequent basis. Teens report feeling more confident, popular, and better about themselves when using social media, and less lonely, depressed and anxious. (Clearly they never had to deal with ‘Top Friends’ on MySpace...)

So what does this mean for companies and businesses that want to utilize this platform? Simple: content is king. When you have people, especially a younger audience logging in multiple times a day, almost hourly, you have to make sure that you are creating content to feed the beast. This begs the question which companies are killing it on Instagram? 

Entrepreneur.com has an amazing round-up of the top 25 companies which use Instagram the best. The companies on the list range from Sharpie to Ikea and American Express to Oreo. The theme throughout the list which illustrates why they best of the best is that these companies are posting content which encourages people to to interact with their brand. An example would be how Lowes does a smart job of promoting its products on Instagram: The company connects with users by showing people real-world applications for the products it sells.

As far as advertisements go, I think that the best ads that are out there are the ones that blend in to the timeline of the users. This means that brands and businesses will have to make sure they are doing an adequate level or research on their target audience to make sure that they are hitting the mark. 

All in all, these assignments were at a minimum interesting and consistently informative and helpful. I learned a lot about platforms I don’t use and ones that I do use. I think that they serve as a great reminder to never become complacent in professional development. Thank you!

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Geriatric Platform?

This week, I wanted to take a closer look at a platform that I am using less and less: Facebook. 

I was listening to The Daily podcast Monday where the topic of discussion was how Facebook and Twitter are handling misinformation in the 2020 presidential election. The host of the podcast, Michael Barbaro concluded that social media platforms were essentially having to pick which political side they would support because they could no longer be neutral arbiters of the political conversation.  Barbaro and his guests asserted that Twitter chose the more liberal side of the aisle which better lined up with the political leanings of their users, while Facebook has decided to side with the more older and conservative users that dominate their platform. This podcast made me want to do a deeper dive into what Facebook looks like now and how it is being used by companies and consumers. 

Before researching this week, I was under the assumption that more and more older people were using Facebook. I was basing my assumption on my own personal newsfeed which I felt, featured more than its fair share of grandchildren, fake news, and “back in my day” posts. Turns out, my assumption was right. According to the AARP, the go-to old folks’ group, 52 percent of people ages 50 to 64 have their own Facebook pages, an 18 percentage point increase since 2011. Similarly, they found that Facebook use among people 65 and older has risen from 18 percent to 32 percent, a 14 percentage point jump. 

Another interesting statistic that I found was that of the 69% of adults in the United States who have Facebook, 74% of them visit the page multiple times a day. This is a huge deal for advertisers right now because it means that millions and millions of American adults are going back multiple times a day to the platform and therefore have a greater chance of seeing and interacting with an advertisement or a brand. 

I wanted to do a quick scan at what type of advertisements I was receiving on Facebook so I logged in and found that most of the advertisements directed to me are images, not videos. However, for a lot of the pages I follow, like Tasty (the cooking arm of Buzzfeed), almost all of their posts are videos. Facebook posts are different than Facebook advertisements, however, you can “boost” a Facebook post which would of course make it a quasi advertisement. However, it would then be labeled “sponsored.” In the photo below, I included a screenshot of what one of the advertisements from my personal feed looks like. 

Almost every notable brand uses Facebook for advertising. Advertisements can be simple posts with just words or they can have a graphic or video that helps attract views. However, in recent weeks, some brands have vowed to stop using the platform for advertising purposes because of Facebook’s perceived bias towards President Trump and conservatives. Patagonia is the most notable brand to date that has stopped using Facebook ads. 

Critics are blaming Facebook for the spread of conspiracy theories and false information surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as encouraging violence against Black Lives Matter protesters and allowing racist and dangerous groups to flourish. Despite the call to boycott the platform, most companies have yet to follow suit. 

I think that Facebook is still an incredibly relevant platform for people, brands, and companies to use. With millions and millions of users across the globe logging on every day, multiple times a day in most cases, companies should use this platform as a baseline to attract and maintain users for their digital media strategy. 

However, on a personal note, I think the time has come for me to take a break from the platform and maybe wait until I hit my golden years. I for one have had enough of the conspiracy theories and misinformation for a while. 

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Sleeping Giant?

This week, I wanted to take a closer look at a platform that I actually use to see if I would discover something interesting. I chose to look at LinkedIn. I have found myself going on LinkedIn more and more frequently over the past few months to just mindlessly browse through jobs, where my old co-workers are now, and at interesting articles being posted about the pandemic and shifts within office culture. It made me wonder if my sudden interest in the platform was out of boredom or if perhaps, just maybe, LinkedIn was becoming the new Facebook. 

Since its founding in 2002, LinkedIn has amassed more than half a billion unique users. This blew me away. But what was even more staggering was that their monthly users, meaning the number of people who log on to the platform at least once a month, tally at more than 675 million. Not only are the sheer number of users staggeringly high, the number of quality users is not something to be taken lightly. 61 million LinkedIn users are senior level influencers and 40 million are in decision-making positions. That statistical fact comes straight from LinkedIn’s Marketing Solutions Blog.

Another statistic that I found fascinating when researching was that of the 2 billion Millennials globally, 87 million of them are on LinkedIn. As I have alluded to in my past blogs, younger generations are finding their new, go-to, social media platforms like TikTok while older generations, particularly older millennials have largely been shying away from the newest trends. That left me wondering where all the millennials have gone. The answer is clear, they are turning towards LinkedIn. 

When it came to brands and companies that utilized LinkedIn, it was pretty much everyone. At this point, most businesses, large or small have a LinkedIn page or their employees have a LinkedIn. The larger businesses like SAP or Google, post frequently on the platform and just highlight the successes they have had in management techniques or hiring practices. I think that any company that wants or needs help promoting their image within the business community should consider utilizing LinkedIn. All of the companies and people who are successful in using LinkedIn attach a graphic or a video to their posts about their best practices and successes. This leads me into my last tidbit on the subject...

Something that I found compelling, but not all that shocking, is that LinkedIn profiles with pictures or videos on their page get 21x more views and 36x more messages. This further proves that no matter what platform you are utilizing, it is always important to include a visual component to your work. My new adage is that pictures are worth a thousand...likes?

^Made by Meredith. 

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So, You Think You Can Dance?

This week, I decided to look at TiKTok. Now, I have not, and will not ever use TikTok, but I wanted to take a look at what this app is and who all is using it. 

TikTok has been linked to the Communist Party of China (CCP) which is the main reason that I refuse to use the platform. The second reason, but potentially just as compelling reason, that I do not use TikTok is because I cannot dance. I simply have no rhythm and am not about to make and produce videos of me making a fool out of myself. As I have said in previous posts, I primarily use Instagram and Twitter when I go on social media websites. 

Enough about me though and a little more about the company... TikTok is labeled as a “lip-syncing” app but it reminds me way more of Vine (RIP). People who use the app will upload short 15 second videos of themselves dancing or lip-syncing to different songs or clips from TV shows. Some of the most popular songs overlaid on videos include “Old Town Road,” “bad guy,” and “Say So.” Audio clips from Riverdale and Peppa the Pig are also frequently used in videos. The Peppa the Pig compilation is below. If I am being frank I don’t quite understand the pull of the Pig, but hey, for each their own. Maybe I will change my mind when I have kids?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCnKLDb2FM4

TikTok was founded in 2016 in China and is now worth upwards of $75 billion. Chinese users account for 80% of the total time spent using TikTok in 2019. In less than 18 months, the number of US adult TikTok users grew 5.5 times and there are now more than 37.2 million total users in the United States. 

41 percent of TikTok users are aged between 16 and 24. By my own personal estimate TikTok seems to be filling the gap that was left open by Snapchat with the younger generation. It also appears that companies are beginning to see this potential and are using the platform to reach out to younger audiences. Chipotle, the NBA, and the San Diego Zoo are three of the top ten companies that are utilizing TikTok right now. I find the San Diego Zoo’s content particularly compelling. They just post videos of animals doing funny things and put funny songs in the clip. I particularly like this one of a meerkat. 

I think that this platform could be useful for companies that have the ability to post lighter content aimed at reaching a younger audience. I do not think this would be a practical outlet for any company looking to produce a serious message. TikTok is supposed to be light, fun, and humorous. 

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