Is Facebook dying?

Well, obviously I don’t mean this literally.

I for one don’t tend to use Facebook as much as I did when I was a teenager – cue embarrassing Timehop images and cringey status – but it’s still a reputable place to reach audiences. According to a survey by Trax, Facebook is still one of the best places to reach Millennials and Generation X – people born in the mid-1960s to the early 1980s, most likely consisting of millennial parents (Hutchinson, 2017).

My favourite social media network is Instagram, where 90% of users are under 35 (Hutchinson, 2017). Now, I don’t prefer Instagram because of the younger demographic, I prefer the visual nature of it. To me, Instagram is one of the easiest ways to follow and keep up with brands you like. Instagram is seen as one of the fastest growing social networks, therefore I see it as one of the best methods of reaching a specific audience. When I typed Instagram into Google Scholar 762,000 results are produced, most titles relating to the growth of the network itself and the power of imagery. 

Instagram was created in 2010 and since then has seen a substantial growth in users and activity (Hu, Manikonda & Kambhampati, 2014). Arguably, the new algorithm has reordered posted content, which puts more popular posts and pages you regularly interact with at the top of the feed – bad news for many brands (Wade, 2014). Although, this doesn’t seem to have halted their growth at all. Did you know that 7/10 hashtags are branded (Osman, 2017)? No, me neither. Apparently, the optimum number of hashtags is 11 and posts see 12.6% more engagement that contain hashtags than those without (Osman, 2017). And what about stories? Many brands are now switching to Instagram Stories to market products, twice as many brands post stories on Instagram over Snapchat (Mediakix, 2017).

Anyway, enough about Instagram – which in my opinion takes the crown as best Social Media network. I honestly have no problem with Facebook, or Twitter for that matter (which is a different story!), in my opinion, they have found their success and are sticking with it. Not a problem, its just not for me anymore. It’s a great network for connection, the Facebook Messenger is great, I probably use it more than I do the actual network, but their stories haven’t taken off and most of my ‘friends’ I’m actually not that interested in (sorry guys). For a network that supposedly offers ‘everything’, it seems to me that their a ‘jack of all trades, master of none’. 

But, to answer my own question, no Facebook is not dying. It’s clearly somewhere worth marketing on, it just has to be done correctly to best reach their chosen audiences and to stand out in the ever-growing crowd. 

But, to answer my own question, no Facebook is not dying. There are over 2.07 billion monthly users and It’s still seeing a 16% yearly increase in users (Noyes, 2018). It’s clearly somewhere worth marketing on, it just has to be done correctly to best reach their chosen audiences and to stand out in the ever-growing crowd. 

If you’re looking for up-to-date social media statistics, Broadband and Search is a great resource.