Caitlyn Maio
We all know that Facebook and Twitter have been at the top of social media for a while. In fact the majority of us probably have our own account on both platforms, but now a new set of social media platforms are on the rise and have become a lifestyle for most of us. Today, Instagram is growing with users and has become one of the most popular social media platforms to date. Instagram grew in “150 million monthly active users in half the time that it took Twitter and in two years less than Facebook” (D’Onfro 1). Whether it is going out with friends, cooking a meal, or being on vacation, Instagram users like to express and show their daily lifestyle through pictures on this social media platform. Photo engagement has expanded quickly with Instagram as people upload, comment, and like photos. Its photo engagement is “40 times higher than that of Twitter, and 15 times higher than that of Facebook” (Overmyer 1). This photo engagement has not only boosted up the amount of active users, but it has also boosted up brand engagement as well. With “1,000 comments per second and 8,500 likes per second,” I don’t blame brands for wanting to become engaged with this social media platform (D’Onfro 1). Today, Instagram is made up of about 16 billion photos currently, bringing it to the top. In this case, sharing visual content seems to be playing a huge part in social media users’ lives. “Visual content makes a powerful impact” (Overmyer 1).
Even though
Instagram is growing with its visual content, so is Vine. This social media platform is growing in
numbers with its creation of short videos by users. “It was the fastest growing app of 2013,
expanding its audience by an estimated 403 percent” (O’Neill 1). Creating videos on Vine has become a
lifestyle for most people. In fact,
people have become popular on Vine gaining over 1,000 followers by uploading
videos each week. Although Instagram has
recently introduced a video option on their app too now, Vine still continues
to grow. The app’s growth may have
slowed down, but it has added “27 million members just since Instagram
introduced its video feature” (O’Neill 1).
Other social
media platforms, such as Tumblr and Snapchat have grown significantly. Tumblr is surprisingly the fastest-growing
social media platform to date, and Snapchat has become the fastest-growing
app. “Tumblr’s active user base in the
last six months grew by 120%” (Lunden 1).
With the rise of smartphones, Snapchat has certainly risen to the top as
the most popular app. Users can connect with
family and friends by sending no more than 10 second pictures and videos to
show what they are doing daily. What a
lot of people like about this is that the picture or video goes away in
seconds. Like Instagram, Snapchat is
starting to be seen as a potential place for companies to boost engagement with
audiences. With Snapchat’s new Discover
platform, companies such as ESPN, Food Network, CNN, People Magazine, and
National Geographic can reach out to users.
While people go on Snapchat to share what they are doing on their
Snapchat stories, they can take a quick glance at what these companies are up
to and get the latest news. This helps
companies reach out to more people by getting them to watch and read more based
on what was shown on Snapchat. On top of its Discover platform, people can now
privately message each other and video chat.
The “high engagement level among users has become the most notable thing
about the service” (Waters 1). I think
Snapchat not only engages users, it also provides a different sense of fun by
giving users options. They can take
videos and photos, message people, and video chat, but the best part is that
this all disappears in seconds. Here is a video that talks more about the growth of Snapchat:
Overall, I think
social media is changing society’s lifestyles in a variety of ways. Social media users live their daily lives
through Instagram, Vine, Tumblr, and Snapchat.
Even companies now are starting to use some of these platforms to grow
their business and advertise. As a
frequent Instagram and Vine user, I even see celebrities going beyond Twitter
and sharing photos and videos on these social media platforms. Even Pinterest has become popular, especially
among women, allowing users to share recipes, new clothing styles, home décor,
and other lifestyle interests. Our
society is starting to become social media reliant, and I think it will
continue to grow as the years go on.
Works Cited
D'Onfro,
Jillian. "This Chart Shows How Instagram Reached 150 Million Users In Half
The
Time Of Twitter." Business Insider. N.p., 18 Feb. 2014. Web. 20
Feb. 2015.
Lunden, Ingrid.
"Tumblr Overtakes Instagram As Fastest-Growing Social Platform,
Snapchat
Is The Fastest-Growing App." TechCrunch. N.p., 25 Nov. 2014.
Web. 20 Feb. 2015.
O'Neill, Mark.
"Vine Continues Growth Despite Challenge From Instagram." Small
Business
Trends. N.p., 15 Jan.
2014. Web. 20 Feb. 2015.
Overmyer,
Krystal. "Instagram Demonstrates Power of Visual Content to Boost
Engagement."
The Content Standard by Skyword FastGrowing Instagram
Demonstrates
Power of Visual Content to Boost Brand Engagement Comments. N.p., 23 Aug. 2014. Web. 20 Feb. 2015.
<http://www.skyword.com/contentstandard/news/fast-growing-instagram-demonstrates-power-of-visual-content-to-boost-brand-engagement/>.
Waters, Richard.
"Loyal Users Key to Snapchat and Twitter Fortunes."
FT.com (2014): n. pag. ProQuest. Web. 20
Feb. 2015.
<http://search.proquest.com.libraryproxy.quinnipiac.edu/docview/1558343691?pq-origsite=summon>.
Danielle Morin
ReplyDeleteI agree with Caitlyn, our society has become dependent on social media. And while many make light of this with clips of people walking into signs because they’re checking their Instagram, it really is taking away from living in the moment. Society is obsessed with sharing many aspects of their private lives through multiple media platforms. Many do so not only to show family and friends what they’re up to, but they use the hash tag to get more likes, comments and attention. Becoming “instafamous” is even a goal for some.
Like Caitlyn said social media platforms like Facebook have been at the top of social media, but there are others that are growing exponentially and adding to our list of apps we need to have to stay as connected as possible. “In mobile apps specifically, while Facebook is the largest app today, Snapchat — with an emphasis on teen and 20-something users — is the fastest growing of them all, up 56% this year” (Lunden). With Snapchat’s new “discover” feature, we are even more exposed to updates from CNN, Food Network and National Geographic to name a few. Caitlyn mentions this as well, and talks about the high engagement levels. The social media platforms we use have to keep evolving to further engage us and offer more connectivity and entertainment.
Instagram is another social media outlet that is extremely popular. While they haven’t disclosed how many monthly active users since September 2013 their numbers are impressive. “Instagram also gets 1,000 comments per second and 8,500 likes per second, totaling 1.2 billion likes per day, according to L2. About 16 billion photos have been uploaded to the app since it launched” (D’Onfro). While Instagram had a couple of tweaks to make such as editing captions and not having video those have been fixed, only furthering the experience you are able to have.
Vine is another platform that has something thing in common with Instagram, video clips. While Vine was the fastest growing app of 2013, it has slowed because of Instagram. “But Vine continues to grow and added 27 million members just since Instagram introduced its video feature, Venture Beat reports” (O’Neill). Since we are so used to this new lifestyle of being connected it has created a never-ending competition to evolve and offer the consumer more and more. We see this with the rivalry between Instagram and vine. Personally, I never got the Vine, because I already had an Instagram account where I could do practically the same thing. Facebook, as stated before, is at the top of social media. It combines picture sharing, video, and text updates all in one. Which is why it may be so popular. Another big part of Facebook that was mentioned in some of the articles was the Messenger app that goes along with Facebook. This also incorporates a way to chat privately with friends.
All of these social media platforms discussed, plus many more, form a plethora of what many consider to be “necessary” apps. Each one has a different niche and influences us to become media reliant. These apps and platforms have shaped our society to be more demanding and crave the ultimate social connectivity. They are causing us to stop living in moment and being worried about snapping a picture to share, or recording a video so everyone can experience what we are. While this is troubling, I myself have Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
Works Cited
D'Onfro, Jillian. "This Chart Shows How Instagram Reached 150 Million Users In Half The Time Of Twitter." Business Insider. 18 Feb. 2014. Web.
Lunden, Ingrid. "Tumblr Overtakes Instagram As Fastest-Growing Social Platform, Snapchat Is The Fastest-Growing App." Tech Crunch. 25 Nov. 2014. Web.
O'Neill, Mark. "Vine Continues Growth Despite Challenge from Instagram." Small Business Trends 15 Jan. 2014. Web.
Saleena Glowik
ReplyDeleteI have a love hate relationship with social media. I think I’m going to have to love it regardless since my major is surrounded by it, but what the real problem is that social media is surrounding EVERYBODY, not just Communications majors.
Social media is great; it provides me with valuable information with updates on the world, it gives me access to communicate with friends and family, and it allows me to share my experiences to friends, family members, and even people I don’t know. The problem is I think people are missing out on valuable life experiences because of social media.
Everyday I use my phone to access, Instagram, Facebook, Vine, Twitter, and Snapchat. I post snap stories of some things that have happened throughout my day whether it’s funny, something weird that has happened, or just a photo of something I saw that I liked. I think we are so focused on letting other people know what we are doing and are constantly using our phones (using Instagram and Snapchat) to capture moments in our lives that we really could be capturing with our eyes. I think this problem is most related to Instagram and Snapchat.
According to an article by Ingrid Lunden from TechCrunch, Snapchat has grown significantly within the last 6 months (Lunden). It makes sense to me. Snapchat is one of those apps that feeds us into sharing our day with our Snapchat friends. My question is why do people care so much about sharing these moments? I think our moments in our lives are becoming less valuable because of social media, which leads me to my next point of how using Instagram also sort of devalues some important moments in our lives.
I am a fan of Instagram. I post probably once a week, sometimes twice, and I enjoy looking at other people’s photos. According to the Business Insider, Instagram gained more than 60 million monthly active users in December and I think it’s becoming more popular than social media platforms such as Twitter (D’Onfro). I think the reason why it’s becoming so popular is because it’s a photo sharing app. People want others to know what is going on in their lives, where they went on the weekend, what their engagement ring looks like, what countries they’ve traveled to, etc. I understand it but then again aren’t we missing out on the full experience? Sometimes when I am traveling or on vacation, actually ALL THE TIME when I’m traveling or on vacation I have my phone in my hand trying to take a picture of everything. I want to share my experience with others. I remember last spring I went to Barbados and during that time I swam with sea turtles. Every time one came close to me, I would use my iPhone with an underwater phone case to capture a picture. I was so focused on getting a good photo that I missed out on half of the real experience.
Aside from social media taking over people’s everyday experiences, I will say many companies are using social media to their advantage. They can use social media to promote products and services. Brands are constantly using social media. It’s great for the business and I think it’s a smart approach.
In the end I think social media will 100% continue to grow. This is just the beginning and I think more apps will be created in order to keep up with consumers. My question is will people still be interested in social media in 50 years? Will I still have my accounts when I am in my 40s? It’s weird to think about but since the social media phenomenon began during our generation I wonder if it will stay with us until we are a lot older than we are today.
Works Cited
D'Onfro, Jillian. "This Chart Shows How Instagram Reached 150 Million Users In Half
The Time Of Twitter." Business Insider. N.p., 18 Feb. 2014. Web. 23 Feb. 2015.
Lunden, Ingrid. "Tumblr Overtakes Instagram As Fastest-Growing Social Platform,
Snapchat Is The Fastest-Growing App." TechCrunch. N.p., 25 Nov. 2014. Web. 23 Feb. 2015.
Megan Maher
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree that social media is changing the way we live our lives. We can’t go a day without someone mentioning something they saw on Facebook or twitter. It seems like everyone now has a twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or some form of social media. Even celebrities, news anchors, journalists, or politicians are starting to go online. But people aren’t the only thing going online. Magazines, newspapers, or any kind of print media is now putting their content online because according to Key Research Findings’ “Magazine Readers Are Social,” Most respondents are using Facebook (91%), YouTube (61%) and Twitter (40%) as social media.”
Over one-third of the world’s population is on Facebook (Lunden 2014). Along with twitter, Instagram, and Vine quickly gaining the same amount of popularity (O’Neill 2014). Which means advertisers and publishers along with users know that social media is the new way to reach the public.
While more and more apps and websites seem to be popping up, like Tumblr, which grew by 120% in 2014, the new medium seems to be mobile (Lunden 2014). So not only do popular social media turn their sites into apps, the regular media seems to be doing the same thing. Another Key Research Findings called, “Magazine Media Readers and Smartphones,” says that 90% of their respondents downloaded three or more digital magazine apps onto their smart phones.
The report also said that the respondents were more likely to go onto social media if an article prints a special hashtag or page to look up (Key Research Findings). Personally I think this is because people like to be involved with what they like. With the example of the use of hashtags, I think people like wanting to be recognized by the magazine. They want other people to know they are reading that magazine, and if they use that hashtag they might get more friends or followers that like the same things because of it.
It’s the same with Facebook and posting articles and pictures from pages you like. Or instagramming and picture of something, or snapchatting your favorite place to eat. People like to be noticed because of what they enjoy in life. That’s why sites like Instagram and Vine are gaining so many users because of how easy it is to post a picture or video of your daily life (O’Neill 2014).
People can interact with each other easier than they could without it. If you don’t know a person, you can use Facebook or Twitter to find them and contact them. You can create groups, gain followers, or find new friends based on similar interests. Everything has just changed so much within the past decade because there no longer needs to be a face-to-face social interaction with someone. All you need to do is look online and find them through social media.
Magazines and periodicals are finding this kind of person because not only do they not want to buy a magazine from a store, it’s easier to just download the app or use their website to find and read articles (Key Research Findings). Whereas before all magazines and newspapers had to be bought in a store or sent to your house through a subscription. Now people can get articles in the moment while still getting the actual magazine as well. It just goes to show how much power our phones and the Internet has over us. Pretty soon almost anything can be done online.
Works Cited
Kevorkian, C., Eadie, W., & Bell, F. (n.d.). Magazine Media Readers are Social. Key Research Findings.
Kevorkian, C., Eadie, W., & Bell, F. (n.d.). Magazine Media Readers and Smartphones. Key Research Findings.
Lunden, I. (2014, November 25). Tumblr Overtakes Instagram As Fastest-Growing Social Platform, Snapchat Is The Fastest-Growing App. Tech Crunch.
O'Neill, M. (2014, January 15). Vine Continues Growth Despite Challenge From Instagram. Small Business Trends.
The way companies reach their target audience and demographics has begun to change thanks to many different social media platforms. For example, different companies such as ESPN has began to use Snapchat as a way to market what they were doing to their fans and users of Snapchat. Snapchat is just one of many social media platforms that are continuously growing with users and followers, which makes it that much more enticing for companies to use these social media platforms as marketing tools. “Instagram grew its user base to 150 million monthly active users in half the time that it took Twitter and in two years less than Facebook, according to research by the think-tank L2 Intelligence. During 2013, the company gained more than 60 million new monthly active users. By comparison, Twitter only gained 37 million new users in the same time period. Instagram also gets 1,000 comments per second and 8,500 likes per second, totaling 1.2 billion likes per day, according to L2. About 16 billion photos have been uploaded to the app since it launched.” With these staggering numbers and statistics, one can see why companies would continue and begin to turn to these different social media platforms. For instance, Facebook for years has been a huge way for companies to market and advertise their brands and what they’re selling. Twitter, Vine, and Instagram have exponentially grown the number of users it has in recent years. “Research out today from the Global Web Index notes that Tumblr’s active user base in the last six months grew by 120%, while Facebook’s grew by only 2%. Instagram topped the list for fastest-growing social network. It’s now dropped down to number three, both in terms of overall members and active users.”
ReplyDeleteAs these recently knew social media platforms have began to rear their head along with Facebook and Twitter are just more ways for companies to market and advertise. These different applications have given companies the abilities to reach such a wide demographic and blast what their companies are doing all over the world. I think that social media platforms have made the world of marketing and advertising a lot simpler due to the amount of users that are on these different social media websites. These applications are also more easily accessible since there are applications now on cell phones that people can get to in an instance. “As we are seeing played out at companies like Facebook and Twitter, who both now make more from mobile ads than from desktop ads, mobile devices are really leading the charge for social networking services. But overall they are not outweighing usage on PCs and laptops just yet. Although usage on the bigger screens is “contracting”, in the words of the report, 6 out of 10 users are still accessing social networks via a PC/laptop, while 4 in 10 are using mobiles. The younger the consumer gets, the more prevalent mobile becomes. In the 16-34 age group, mobile is the social platform of choice for more than 50% of users.” It is and will continue to be amazing to see how different social media websites and applications fade out, such as Facebook has begun too, as well as how they will continue to reach different demographics and affect marketing and advertising for different companies in either positive or negative ways.
Work Cited
D'Onfro, Jillian. "This Chart Shows How Instagram Reached 150 Million Users In Half The Time Of Twitter." Business Insider. Business Insider, Inc, 18 Feb. 2014. Web. 23 Feb. 2015. .
Lunden, Ingrid. "Tumblr Overtakes Instagram As Fastest-Growing Social Platform, Snapchat Is The Fastest-Growing App." TechCrunch. N.p., 25 Nov. 2014. Web. 23 Feb. 2015. .
I would also agree that social media will continue to be a dominate medium into the future. However, I would argue that, as Caitlyn detailed with the rise of other social media platforms, that it will grow to get more and more segmented while also being interconnected as well. I remember years ago early on in high school many people would talk about how dominate of a social media platform Facebook was and how it would likely remain the next big thing for all time. However, Facebook’s hegemony in social media may not be forever and now we may very well be seeing a transition to new forms of social media which could ultimately replace Facebook.
ReplyDeleteAs Ingrid Lunden mentions Facebook still has a massive audience; it has a user base of some 1.35 billion people, a considerable share of the entire world. However, despite this huge number of users it appears that Facebook is beginning to plateau in growth. Lunden also provides statistics stating that growth in active users is only at 2% which is small when compared to Tumblr, Pinterest and Instagram. In my opinion, what is problematic for Facebook is that many of these new social media platforms replace many of the functions that the website pioneered. Facebook’s signature wall feature with “statuses” and updates can be replaced with Twitter’s ultrafast and streamlined newsfeed. While picture sharing, a signature aspect of Facebook, now has to compete with apps such as Instagram which have allowed users to share and put filters on photos. Jillian D’Onfro in her article mentions that Instagram ultimately ended up acquiring Instagram. However this reflects how Facebook can use its massive brand to acquire potential competition.
However, as growth slows it is hard to see if strategy will hold up. D’Onfro also details the incredibly fast rate at which these new platforms have taken off. According to her article Instagram was able to reach a 150 million users in half the time it took Twitter and apparently it took Facebook two years to complete the same thing. This considered new social media outlets are becoming exponentially popular and very quickly when compared to Facebook. I am curious for about how long we can expect to see these other forms of social media continue to grow their user bases. While Facebook is beginning to level out it seems that Instagram, Pinterest and Tumblr.
I would argue that one of the problems Facebook is facing is the fact that its core app was not built or designed in a mobile first world. While Facebook now has a mobile app many of the new social media platforms seem to be specifically designed with mobile in mind and I believe that most audiences are now moving towards handheld devices to get their media. Lunden mentions that while mobile has yet to outpace desktop use 50% of 16 to 34 year olds prefer to use mobile. I believe that over time we will see this percentage grow as mobile becomes more prevalent. Facebook, in my estimation, was built primarily as desktop website which for many people may not seem as useful in today’s mobile heavy world especially when there are other alternatives. Facebook has made some moves to adjust to a more mobile world. They created the messenger app which supplements the regular Facebook app allowing the user to use their list of friends as a contacts list for texting. I believe this has been tremendously useful since it allows users to access one of Facebook’s most useful features from a mobile device. I believe this has helped make Facebook still relevant however it remains to be seen if Facebook can outlast the new social media platforms.
D'Onfan, J. (2014, February 18). This Chart Shows How Instagram Reached 150 Million Users In Half The Time Of Twitter. Retrieved February 24, 2015, from Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/instagram-growth-chart-2014-2#ixzz3QSbB8XQt
Lunden, I. (2014, November 25). Tumblr Overtakes Instagram As Fastest-Growing Social Platform, Snapchat Is The Fastest-Growing App. Retrieved February 24, 2015.