It is usually the younger generation who lead the trends in social media. The platforms that become popular with teenagers today will be the ones that dominate tomorrow. So what are the trends with teens? What is their motivation for using them? How can brands get involved?

As a general rule teens use the platforms that will let them get closer to their favourite celebrities and away from their parents so it’s important to not only monitor their social media activity, but also their influencers.

Below I list my top 3 trends we are seeing in social media and how they are influenced by the younger generation.

1. Dark Social

Social profiles are becoming a thing of the past. Facebook is viewed by young people as the family party they are forced to attend. They see Twitter as a business marketing tool, rather than a genuine social media site. Young consumers want to take their social media back from brands so it’s more important than ever to be genuine in a social strategy.

Instant messaging platforms such as Snapchat and Whatsapp are proving popular with the younger demographic and are much harder to monitor. The link shorteners (such as; bit.ly and ow.ly) have never been more useful as we try to monitor this ‘dark’ social sharing.

2. Tinderisation Vs Vertical Advertising

Snapchat are still working out ways to be a useful marketing tool to businesses and have been testing out features such as their ‘Discover’ platform. The vertical advertising imitates the way we scroll through our phones down news feeds from Facebook to Twitter. It competes with the other trend of ‘Tinderisation’ advertising which is flick-through adverts inspired by the beloved Tinder app. Both focus on the way people use their smart phones and we are now seeing a larger gap between mobile advertising and desktop advertising.

3. Live Video

Meerkat and Twitter’s Periscope have charged their way into the social media world. They’ve both been smart in focusing on visual platforms which are growing massively in popularity as Instagram has now over-taken Facebook as the most used platform in the UK.

Periscope and Meerkat use the live feature of Twitter and the visual feature of Instagram. They’ve created what could be the new wave of social media platforms; ‘livestreaming video platforms’. These livestreaming videos make social media even more current.

But how will marketers be able to utilise these platforms?

I see them as a means to get even closer to favourite celebrities with Q&A sessions and perhaps a new type of webinar; perhaps an ‘appinar’? It would be a great way for B2C brands to broadcast new products or B2B to broadcast their knowledge. I’m interested to see how these platforms will expand to be of better use for marketers.

What is popular with teens today is likely to become the key platform tomorrow as those teens mature and enter the work force. The business that is ahead on that will be ahead of its competitors. I’m not suggesting you start stalking teenagers, but it is well worth finding out where they’re virtually hanging out and why.

 

By Gabriella Cantelo, Communications Manager at Onyx. 

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