Heard the big news yet? Facebook is launching yet another Snapchat-like feature: Facebook Stories. Result: rampant predictions all over the Internet about Snapchat’s possible demise.
The way this works is, Facebook Stories will allow users to create streams of photos and videos which disappear within 24 hours.
Much like Snapchat Stories and Instagram Stories do – ephemeral content anyone? It’s been clear for a while that the world is moving towards ephemeral, in-the-moment content. It brings us closer to our family, friends, coworkers and even brands. Unfortunately for Facebook, Snapchat was the first one to hit the nail on the head.
In only a few years, we adopted the idea that every brand or celebrity can be – and, in fact, should be – approachable to us.
Like Zuckerberg says, “The way people share today is different from five or even two years ago — it’s much more visual, with more photos and videos than ever before”.
At the moment, Facebook Stories is only available in Ireland, but it will be rolled out to the rest of the world in the following weeks.
I have one question: Have you ever thought about this in terms of demographics?
The Demographic Challenge
See, my grandparents are now on Facebook. Granted, they have no idea what they’re doing, but that doesn’t change the fact that for years now, the platform has been experiencing a drop in younger demographics.
It explains why they were in such a rush to offer to buy Snapchat for $3 billion back in 2013, don’t you think?
To this day, demographics is one of the biggest challenges Facebook is facing. I like to think that they dictate everything, so what I’m wondering is…
Will teens and younger Millennials close Snapchat and hop over to Facebook when the new feature is live?
And let me ask you: are we being given too many options?
Platform Overwhelm
In our desire to be present everywhere, many of us are starting to suffer from platform overwhelm.
Especially now that three of our favorite platforms are basically becoming clones of one another. It poses the issue of exclusivity: if we post the exact same things across all networks, won’t it discourage people from following us on different platforms?
Of course it will – and the same goes for Stories – whether we’re posting them to Snapchat, Instagram or Facebook. Our audiences are attracted to this feature because they get to see a side of us or our business they haven’t seen before. They want to witness pieces of content that are unseen on any other platforms – and if they don’t, the sense of exclusivity is gone.
And with it, the attention, which, let’s face it, is the most important currency nowadays.
How to Approach This as Content Creators?
As a content creator myself, I’ve chosen to do the smartest thing in this situation: go where my audience is.
See, ultimately you can only tell your story in a few places before you get sick of trying to come up with creative ways to spin your content.
The only thing you can do is test – where do you get the most engagement? Where does your audience hang out the most? Will you be missing on important moments with them if you leave Snapchat or Instagram?
As I said, ultimately, it’s about the attention. Test your platforms and stay where the attention is. And just because everybody likes to make predictions these days, here’s mine:
The new Facebook feature is a rip off, yes – but it’s also a brilliant business move. It’s an example of a (not-so-creative) way to deal with the biggest challenge the platform is experiencing. Facebook Stories will translate to faster photo and video uploads and could boost engagement on the social media channel immensely – and this comes at a time where the original content upload has decreased in the last year.
Facebook is an epic advertising platform – but will it succeed in becoming a compelling storytelling app?
If you’re ready to use Facebook videos to build your brand, you’re in the right place. Valoso can help you every step of the way.
