Facebook Losing Teens To YouTube

You might have heard recently that Facebook is losing its teenage users to other social platforms, more specifically Instagram and YouTube. But primarily YouTube. This has some implications to your business but not in the way that you may be thinking.

This affects businesses both positively and negatively in the short and long term. In the short term it directly does not affect your business because teens don’t have credit cards or a sufficient amount of money to purchase your products regularly. However, indirectly in the short term teens will not see the things you want them to see so that they will nag their parents to purchase for them.

In the long term it directly affects your business because if teens are not building the habit of using the Facebook platform like today’s 20 somethings and older have, then they will not be purchasing from you through Facebook in the future. However, indirectly in the long term the ones who have made it a habit (today’s 20-55 year olds) will be the ones making gift purchases for tomorrows young adults.

Keep using the platform, the people that are capable of making purchases are still using the platform to network, connect, and share with their online communities. Which means you should continue to see sales.

However, it is time for you to become more forward thinking and follow where your future customers will be. This means you should start communicating with your current and future audience on multiple platforms with the same message but told differently. In short, spend time especially on YouTube but not all of it.

From my experience different age groups are looking for different types of content.

If you are looking to attract teens, produce what they are looking for being entertainment, this is why they use it in the first place. This includes anything that is funny, sports, to well produced skits. For example, funny commercials.

If you are looking to attract 20-35 year old men and women, they are interested in lifestyle type content. That can be both the very lavish to the very simple. Viewing someone running with their dogs or exercising is just as entertaining as watching a skit. It is all dependent on your niche.

If you are looking for 35+ they are looking for education type content. This includes videos on how to improve their lives and their skills.

Not to say that there is no overlap between the ages. Because everyone loves to learn, see funny things, see how others are living their lives, and listen to music. But what I have seen is there are preferences for different types of videos.

To get the best of everything, as a business who sells products and/or services you should make videos that include all of these without pitching a sale. People will purchase from you when they are ready. This is because they love your story and believe you are the authority in your industry. By regularly producing content your audience will grow with your brand.

Make a Facebook page NOW! I cannot be more serious. You are missing out on a huge opportunity to generate large sales volumes. Once again, this is because those that are currently using Facebook habitually have grown up with Facebook and have the ability to purchase your products and/or services regularly because they all have credit cards and sufficient amounts of cash.

However, you must also create a YouTube Channel that educates in an entertaining way that shows how something can improve ones lifestyle. Which when you think about it every product or service you offer should improve ones lifestyle even for a moment. You make things either easier or more enjoyable for people which should be conveyed to your audience.

Facebook was initially created to connect friends, family, and acquaintances. Allowing everyone to stay connected no matter the distance. It later become a tool for sharing content found on the web. Now Facebook has become the platform for news and events. More specifically news and events that are unfiltered by large news networks putting their spin on things. However, it has been a great tool for businesses to get their message out and build a strong community of fans. The brands that achieved this used Facebook less for sales and more for informing and educating. Those very same brands later then produced sales when asking on their pages well after becoming a proverbial friend. Or more often then not when using Facebook Ads. This was all made possible for them because they became the authority and top of mind producer for their products or services making it easier for them to close a sale.

The big issue currently for Facebook when compared to YouTube is that it is not a platform for entertainment. Instagram (Facebook’s other social media platform) has potential to be used as an entertainment tool as people post interesting stories and short videos (similar to vines). But it still is primarily used to showcase achievements and stunning photos like a super awesome photo album rather than an entertainment center.

Think about it like this. Facebook is where you intensely follow brands you like and check out what your friends are doing. YouTube on the other hand is used to view and check out what many people are doing whether that be vlogs to full production quality videos.

I asked my mom about this, a woman in her fifties what she thinks about the two platforms. She said the very same thing. She uses Facebook to be informed and YouTube to be entertained. Now, even she is starting to use Facebook a little bit more because she enjoys the entertainment value that is provided by amateurs and professional producers.

Some ideas I came up with are:

• Have other types of content (not just from friends or ads) displayed on the screen. Doing this will allow multiple content creators to entertain your guests (users).
• Facebook pages should be better organized in the videos section (see YouTube channels) allowing for people to look for things that are more specific to what they desire (i.e. vlogs, video series, etc.).
• Utilize the same sidebars across all pages, whether you are on your home screen or the games pages. This will make it much easier to use the platform.
• Re-brand as not just a social networking and connections platform but also an entertainment hub for producers to share their content.

Three words, entertaining and educational. People watch funny commercials, bloopers, skits, and lifestyles videos. People also watch to learn from others in order to do something with fewer potential mistakes and to improve their skills and lives. Many people are also moving away from reading things to watching them. This could be because of the movie industry rapidly producing new movies or simply because video uses more senses (sight, sound, and reading when necessary). But whatever the case, you should be following the trends.

The way the big YouTube channels have grow so quickly is by continually adding new content and then asking for something simple. This simple thing is always a like, a comment, and for viewers to subscribe. The reason for these simple actions is to engage with viewers as well as gauge what types of videos work best for their audience.

Post something simple each and every day that makes a simple request such as a like, comment, and follow on Facebook. These posts can be of literally anything that involves your business both directly and indirectly, just make sure to include a photo. Things you can post about are your happy team working hard, team celebrations, happy customers, new things happening in your business, new things happening in your industry, and business meetings. All of these little things will humanize your brand.

Step 1) Take photo
Step 2) Write a brief description of what the picture is about
Step 3) Engage with audience by asking for a like, comment, and follow if they enjoy the post or can relate to it in any way, etc.
Step 4) Comment on audience comments