Owen Andrew is a journalist in Southern California. He enjoys using his business experience to inform and educate others. On his free time he enjoys attending EDM concerts, and looks forward to Comic Con and E3 every year.
Virtually everyone is on Facebook, and nearly as many people have a Twitter account. However, because of this ubiquity, they have become less popular and engaging, particularly for younger generations. Citing the overall lack of privacy and general “noise” of advertising on the major social networks, teenagers and young adults are migrating to new social messaging apps and other services in growing numbers.
A Worldwide Trend
While the popularity of messaging apps is a relatively new thing in North America, the biggest names in social messaging have been extremely popular in China, Japan and India for some time now, with Brazil and other South American companies close behind. This is likely related to the fact that users in these countries are primarily accessing the web via a smartphone rather than a computer, so the ease of use is one of the reasons for their popularity.
Beyond their accessibility, messaging apps make use of the ways younger generations are already communicating–namely text messaging and through social media–and provide a platform in which what both of these mediums have to offer are working in tandem. Although messaging apps don’t match texting or social networking individually, as a whole, they are essentially a more comprehensive communication platform, and additionally address younger generations’ concerns with noise and privacy online..
Why Mobile Messaging Has Become Popular
Millennials and their younger counterparts are increasingly attuned to inauthenticity and overt advertising messages, and Twitter, Facebook, and even LinkedIn are most certainly flooded with those. Granted, the newer sites also have ads, but it typically done in a more focused and creative way. These are the types of ads and messages that are personalized and users have to opt in–to some extent–before receiving them.
Essentially, the rising popularity of messaging apps in the U.S. is due to their simplicity. Practically everyone has a smartphone nowadays, especially if they are under thirty years old. This makes mobile messaging apps a natural fit for ultra-connected generations. After all, they can quickly fire off a text, voice, or picture message and keep their network constantly aware of what they are up to, without needing to be sitting in front of a computer.
In addition, the growing “unbundling” trend plays a role. Younger users are growing tired of having everything in one place or hub like Facebook, and are preferring single-use social media platforms–each with its own appeal and purpose.
Apps You Should Know About
Now owned by Facebook, WhatsApp is a real time messaging tool (audio, video, images, and text) that works across virtually all devices and allows for exchanging messages without incurring SMS charges. It has a huge international presence, and has already been successfully used by business owners both large and small to communicate directly with their clientele, providing customer service, letting them know about sales or special deals, and other types of events.
Facebook has also recently released Rooms, which allows users to join private message boards (the “rooms” from which it gets its name) using QR code scanning. Interestingly, other popular sites are integrating QR code functionality as well, meaning that this technology, long seen as somewhat irrelevant, could play a role in the new messaging app-dominated social landscape.
Snapchat allows for quick and easy picture sharing – with an extra bonus of serious privacy, since the service doesn’t store your photos or texts. It is perhaps the most popular network with teenagers and twentysomethings, and with the addition of geo-filters, labels, and location-based “geo-filters” in July 2014, it holds even more value for brands.
“Geo-filters” are basically custom filters (similar to Instagram) that can be triggered by the user being in a specific location or at a certain event – which have excellent potential for marketers. For instance, there was a filter for the Cannes film festival this summer, so people snapchatting from the event could show off to their friends. “Labels” are similar to emoji, but they can be added to photos sent on Snapchat. Brands can also add logos and such to their photos as well. Taco Bell is one example of a brand that has used Snapchat particularly well.
Mostly used by college students, Yik Yak is a geographically-focused social messaging app (it only works within a ten mile radius of your current location). While it may seem limiting for marketers, it could be excellent for real life deals, promotions, and events that people need to attend in person.
Why Should You Take Notice?
All of these and other social media messaging apps offer a very personalized way for companies to engage their users. For sellers on Fiverr, these can be a great way to communicate quickly and directly with customers who are forward-thinking or invested in staying ahead of the technological curve. Of course, in the near future that might not be the case, and these apps could be the mainstream of social communication.
Before engaging with users on messaging apps however, their own particularities should be understood. Most interestingly, stickers are having a significant impact on how their users communicate. The next logical step after emojis, stickers are downloaded in sets and, due to the variety resulting from the multitude of artists creating them, they are capable of expressing a wider variety of thoughts and feelings than the emojis with which most are currently familiar. If you’ve ever felt uncreative or out of the loop when trying to communicate in emojis, stickers could be the next best thing.
Ultimately, anybody in the marketing or advertising profession should understand the various types of services and the international impact they could have on their brand(s) and companies they are responsible for, whether they are a small business owner or a marketer for a global corporation. And for those more socially-minded than business-minded, keeping up-to-date with the popularity of messaging apps will be just as valuable, offering a chance to stay current with trends of the near-future.
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