Startups are usually the home of the most innovative outlooks in social media. Any startup with a different approach or technology, like Instagram and Periscope, is often bought up by the larger networks. But others, like Snapchat, choose to go it alone. The 2016 State of Social Marketing report from Simply Measured gives us an insight into how these services are leading the industry in different ways.
The report notes that Snapchat’s innovative approach has led it to a unique position in the market, making it:
[A] hub for robust brand content and discovery, event-based interaction and visual communication, Snapchat is an extension of many brands’ identities, and it is emerging as a core component of the social strategy for brands … Its most recent evolution came in March with what the network deemed “Chat 2.0,” including features like auto-advancing stories, instant video and audio chatting and sticker enhancements.
Snapchat recently crested 150 million daily active users, and it has a 100 percent mobile audience. Despite being relatively young, it has managed to tap into the market by offering an experience that no other network was offering at the time, and we’ve since seen most of the other networks scramble to catch up. To do well on Snapchat, your business must be like the service: open to change, agile and ready to move quickly with the demands of your audience.
Social blogging site Tumblr has been around since 2007, but it was acquired by Yahoo In 2013, and it has also been a testing ground for new marketing tactics. The site has 550 million active users and is one of the most trafficked websites online. Despite the quick amplification power and high engagement on Tumblr, only 54 percent of the Interbrand 100 use the site and only 30 percent post monthly. However, brand adoption on the network grew 15 percent since last year, partly because brands are starting to understand the platform better.
Tumblr’s strengths lie in its focus on highly visual, sharable content. Marketers that create GIFs, capitalize on Tumblr trends or just behave strangely enough to be intriguing can rally a very loyal user base that’s itching to share their latest content. Posting the same content to Tumblr as you do to all your other networks is a wasted opportunity on Tumblr, and it likely won’t have enough originality to see vital shares.
Each time one of these more agile services makes a change, we see others pivot in order to follow them. While it may seem like a risk to invest in less proven services, marketers that get it right early can really capture audiences and write the playbook for an emerging network.
[Source:- Social times]
