There are so many reasons why people use social media. Aside from interacting with people around the world, re-connecting with the people who have lost contact before, you can express yourself on social media too. That being said, those are only few examples of why you and other people use social media. Business owners, however, see this in a different way. They see this as an opportunity to increase sales, seeing how many people use social media. With social media, a company can directly communicate with customers or potential customers as well as give them information without having to meet them in person one by one. After all, the key in having a business is to reach as many people as possible – and make sure they are your target audience – so that they can find your business.
With the majority of people using social media, a lot of social media platforms start appearing. Each social media platform offers different kinds of features that allow users to interact or communicate with other people easily, and thanks to those features, we have two of mostly used social media platforms; Facebook and Instagram. With Facebook reaching more than 2.19 billion users and Instagram reaching almost one billion users, no wonder business owners try to make social media campaign for their business. That being said, with Instagram also gaining more popularity as time goes by, Facebook is almost losing in terms of active users. How did this happen and why? Well, if you are you a business owner or someone working in the marketing team of the company you are working for, this article will give you insights on how to choose social media platform for your business wisely. Keep reading to find out!
Social media platforms have their own specialties and weaknesses. We can find things on Facebook that are not provided by Instagram, and vice versa. However, it has been said that Facebook is losing its younger audience aged under 25s. We have also seen many teenagers use Instagram a lot more than they use Facebook. Even if they do have a Facebook account, they are not as active as they are on Instagram. According to an article posted on theguardian.com, more than a million users from US and UK are expected to either quit using Facebook or just reduce the frequency of using it regularly. Therefore, if your business is targeting younger audience, it is in your best interest that you don’t use Facebook for your business. We are not saying that Facebook is lacking more than Instagram; both have their own strengths and weaknesses. However, since Facebook is losing its younger audience, it would be a waste of time for you to create a business profile on Facebook.
So, what could possibly cause younger audience to leave Facebook?
The major reason for that, as stated in the same article on theguardian.com, is their parents. We have noticed how many people aged from 40-60 joining Facebook more than teenagers. Now with the existence of their parents on Facebook, teenagers stop using it because their parents are watching them. It is quite obvious how Facebook’s social interaction is much more visible than Instagram. For that reason, parents can easily watch their kids and this makes them uncomfortable.
Following that reason, when some teenagers decided to leave Facebook one by one, their friends are also leaving Facebook, stating that “If my friends are not on Facebook, what’s the point?” This, of course, makes the number of Facebook’s younger audience drop in the past few years. With that in mind, when you, as a business targeting younger audience, are trying to create social media campaign by using social media, Instagram may be the best choice for that, as the majority of Instagram users are teenagers. If your business is more corporate, then Facebook is the right choice.
Remember, if you want your business to succeed, social media is one of the important components that can make it happen, but use it wisely and based on your target audience. If you need more knowledge about social media, feel free to contact us and our team will gladly help you.