When examining any potential marketing outlet, it’s important to know certain stats – audience demographics and psychographics, consumption details (when, where, and how the audience uses the outlet), etc. It’s also a good idea to look at trends such as how the audience has changed over time, whether there’s an increase or decrease in consumption of the outlet, how/whether the main content of the outlet has changed. Not only does this give you information about the outlet itself, it gives you an idea as to whether your audience is there, and if so, what kind of content they’d expect to see from you there. Then you can decide whether you can or are willing to produce that type of content and meet your audience in that outlet appropriately. Social media is no different.
App Annie recently released the ‘Evolution of Social Apps’ report, which looks at how social media usage trends have evolved over the last decade. Here are a few of the key takeaways we noticed:
- In-app spending is growing. In the first half of 2021, in-app spending is up 50% year-over-year.
- Also in the first half of 2021, apps that offer live streaming as a prominent feature account for $3 out of every $4 spent within the top 25 social apps.
- Video is leading the evolving social landscape, with live streaming looking to be where future growth of the medium will be focused.
- 60% of time spent in social apps from around the globe is from the Asia-Pacific area. While this may not matter to a small local business based in Small Town, USA, for some businesses looking to grow and expand, this may give an inkling as to where to start.
- In the past decade, Facebook has gone from the #1 social app downloaded in the entertainment category to #3 (in the first half of 2021). It’s now behind TikTok and Instagram, demonstrating the rise and prominence of video, live streaming, and visual content.
- When it comes to time spent in-app in the first half of 2021, the top 5 are YouTube, Faebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and TikTok. Again, focus is clearly on video/visual content.
Our advice, based on these takeaways?
- Make sure you’re spending your time and money on outlets where your audience is consuming content. (This would be our advice whether this report came out or not. LOL)
- Look at the type(s) of content that are popular on the outlets you choose. Does your content match it?
- If you’re not already incorporating live streaming and video into your content plans, reconsider. Not comfortable with live streaming? I get it! Me, either! But sites like Canva make it SO EASY to create fun, quick videos from images. Get some shots of your products, your storefront (especially if you’re newly open or have just renovated), your staff, behind the scenes – ANYTHING – and jump on this bandwagon!