Dark Social and the #1 reason Social Media lives-on
Facebook’s audience is maturing as we speak. The younger generations are leaving in favour of Instagram and Snapchat, while LinkedIn is becoming more like Facebook with pretty pictures, memes and even gifs.
Google+ was a bit of a non-starter, Twitter is jammed with so much content that you can’t find anything and advertisers are looking into how to talk with ‘Dark Social’.
Dark Social, which sounds much cooler than it is, is the social media channels which aren’t publicly open, like Snapchat and private messaging platforms. Advertisers know that you’re ignoring promoted tweets and sponsored Facebook posts, so they want to appear in your IMs. Rude, right? Yes, but that’s not going to stop hungry marketers from finding any way they can to reach their consumers. The trick is, make advertising that doesn’t look like advertising. Look out for colour combinations that remind you of a brand or product. Did you know that LastMinute.com trademarked that particular pink.
So, in typical article-writing etiquette, I mentioned the number one reason why social media will always be around but made you read some things you already knew and here it is. Vanity. Facebook and Instagram are the best ways to share a filtered version of your life. From the 10 selfies you took, the best one goes up online to show your friends and followers how good you look in a spontaneous super-cool event that you squeezed into your social calendar.
While the platforms may update and change the way we share, we’re always going to need that little ego-boost that a ‘like’ will provide.
So, when you see those ‘Social Media is Dead!’ articles, remember that people don’t change, and hopefully never will.
Leave a Reply