Microblogs and Social Networks – 2015 and Beyond

Twitter bird hatching

In 2015, shotguns will trump rifles, says NYTimes bestselling author Jay Baer. And he isn’t even talking about the hunting season. A “rifle” means focusing on a single platform, while a “shotgun” approach is spreading out and being everywhere, within reasonable limits, of course.For long, the rifle has been really popular, thanks to Facebook and its billion-strong audience. However, that’s changing. Five years ago, Instagram, Vine and Pinterest didn’t exist, and Tumblr was barely a blip in the radar. Today, they are where all the “cool kids” hang out….being cool!I believe that social media in 2015 will be far more fractured than it already is. Microblogs and image-and-video-sharing platforms like Tumblr, Instagram and Vine, not to mention Twitter, will be far more important for marketers than they are today and marketers will surely but steadily start shopping around for alternatives for Facebook. Already, reports from Gartner is rocking the boat with bold claims that brands are wasting money on FB (http://goo.gl/IpYMNN)!As usual, numbers help walk the talk:1. Twitter, it is estimated, will post double-digit growth right up to 2018. And guess where most of that growth is going to come from? That’s right – Asia, which will account for 40% of the platform’s user base (http://goo.gl/f4M9iB). Yes, a declining quarter does matter but the large numbers of Asian users is just what the doctor ordered.2. Instagram already has 200 million active users worldwide (Of which 40%+ is in the 16 – 24 segment. Remember what we said about the “cool kids”?), and 30% of young people, in the US, call it the “most important” social network (http://goo.gl/LhoHrA).3. In the meantime, Tumblr just became the fastest-growing social media platform in the world, with 120% growth in active users in just 6 months. (http://goo.gl/NDtNij). Guess who comes next? Pinterest at 111% and Instagram at 64% growth rates.Social media in 2015 is going to be all about finding out where your niche is. The good news is, once you do, it’ll be easier to reach them with content they love and a voice they are in tune with. So pump that shotgun and take aim.