In the long car ride I took with my kids (see my post on Monday), I found out, as I had suspected, that Facebook is not where the younger generation is spending their time anymore. They’ve moved to Instagram, Twitter and Tumblr! Forbes even verifies this with their own poll.
I have long suspected that the popularity of Facebook would wane over time and the statistics of how frequently young people log on to Facebook is now proving this trend.
Over the years I have seen how the young tech generation sets the trends, they were the first to move into Facebook and Instagram and now the first to move out. Adults will take a while to catch on, but I would expect that as my kids say Facebook is now the place to connect with family (older people) and not their friends.
What does this mean for business? First, don’t fold up shop at Facebook yet! Adults are still heavily involved at Facebook but are spending less time there already. Second, expect Facebook to rectify this, if they can, by implementing new strategies to keep visitors there longer.
For some businesses, due to their audience demographics, Facebook will be a great place to be for quite a while yet. For others, it’s time to expand to Instagram, Twitter, and Tumblr as Facebook will not provide the reach and platform that reaches potential prospects. That being said, I feel that the place for business on Facebook will move off the business page and into Facebook’s pay per click platform.
There are still plenty of people on Facebook, but keep an eye on when it is “right” or “wrong” for your own business.