Is Facebook Worth the Fight? Why Businesses Should Focus on Twitter, Tumblr and Instagram for the Teen Market

The day we never thought would come finally has.

While the age of the average Facebook user going up, teen usage has seen a decline. Naturally, most teens are not too excited about having their older family members scroll through their Facebook life. More and more teens are getting smart phones, thus, giving them access to all of the mobile sites and apps that most of their parents don’t use. Younger users are packing up to find new places to interact with their friends and find privacy from their parents.

What does this mean for businesses?

Bottom line, Facebook ads only get .05% click through. I would assume this is because when people are scrolling through Facebook it is not with the intention of buying something.

Does this mean we need to find the next social media platform to advertise on?

Maybe.

Or maybe creating a profile on that platform will allow users to connect and follow you. They want to see that you have a life. Show them what you do all day. Show them what you do in your free time. Show them the projects you are working on. They want to connect and relate to you, not be sold something.

Personally, I would be more inclined to buy something because of seeing someone using that product or service and liking it myself. I am more likely to click the “x” on an ad when it pops up on my social media sites. I don’t want to be sold. I want to want it for myself and for that reason-buy it. I’m sure you can relate.

With Facebook’s new “promote” feature the way things are sorted on people’s streams has changed. Ever noticed the high amount of wedding and baby photos? That’s because Facebook is keeping most of what people are sharing from you and instead showing you the most active posts. You don’t see what most people are posting.. If it is not liked, commented on or shared it basically falls away to allow the more active ones to take place. No wonder many businesses have been going through what I’ll call the “Facebook struggle”. Most people who have previously liked your page or friend-ed you haven’t even seen your posts.

What we need to do as businesses is use platforms that deliver our information regardless of how engaged users are with it. It should not have to take a like, comment or share to be worth viewing. Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr (so far) send what you post to all of your followers, not just the ones that are most engaged. These sites are even fields to be playing on. If you want to share your information with all of your followers Facebook may no longer be the best choice.

The Problem With Facebook video below explains everything in a nice and short 6 minutes.