From Social Media Today: Younger Users are Leaving Facebook – Here’s What to Do
At least once a year, a new study is released which shows that younger users are abandoning Facebook at a rapid rate, and suggests, in summary, that Facebook is slowly but surely going to become obsolete. I don't believe this for a couple of reasons but we cannot ignore stats, because there are always some truth to stats. So, here is the skinny!
With 2 billion users and counting, Facebook's reported a 71% increase in profit year-over-year. It's not likely to be going anywhere anytime soon. A recent study by eMarketer showed that teens and young adults are starting to spend more time on Instagram and Snapchat - here’s a summary of the data which indicates the trend:
Monthly Facebook users will rise 2.4% in 2017, but the 12 to 17 age group will decrease by 4%, the 2nd consecutive year of decline for that age group (there was a 1.2% decrease in 2016)
Snapchat projects 2017 user growth of 8% in the U.S., with users between 18 and 24 rising by 19.2%
Snapchat's projected to overtake both Facebook and Instagram in the 12 to 17 and 18 to 24 age groups with its share of U.S. social network users surging to 8%
Instagram's projected to grow 23.8% in the U.S., with users under 12 increasing 19% and the 12 to 17 year-old demographic rising 8.8%
Should you abandon Facebook in order to cultivate the younger demographics? No, put this data into perspective and use this takeaway: If your target is teens, remember that the parents are doing the buying. If your target is teens, test the waters (in Snapchat and Instagram), but know that younger viewers aren't going to read the same ads their parents are - in fact, they'll be more apt to turn off ads, any way possible. Bottom line, Stay the Course with Facebook
Facebook offers the most robust advertising management system available and since they own Instagram, you can use those capabilities to target teens on Instagram, as well as their parents on Facebook, all from one place. Keep calm and stay your course. Need more direction, let's talk
Keep calm, keep executing your strategy and be open to experimentation.