This news isn’t new.
Teens are losing interest in Facebook.
While they are not necessarily closing their accounts, the value placed on using Facebook has been taking a decent plunge, creating a radical change in the dedicated Facebook user demographic.
Facebook’s Falling-out
[via Finance Degree Center]
The change from 3Q 2012 to 2Q 2013 is dramatic as the percent of teens that claim Facebook as their most important social network was cut by almost half, in less than one year. Will this trend continue? No wonder Facebook has been trying to purchase other social networks! They are losing future users.
Where Are Teens Going?
While Facebook still claims 1.2 billion monthly active users — easily leading any other platform — the answer to where teens are going is not short and simple. As we have learned from Google+, using terms like “users,” “members” and “active users” are all relative. Sure, Facebook claims 1.2 billion “monthly active users,” but it is not what teens are checking first.
Here is how it breaks down — for now:
WhatsApp – 400 Million
This cross platform mobile messaging app allows group chats, location sharing and the ability to send photos and videos. [website]
Twitter – 232 Million
Twitter’s ability to send Direct Messages makes private messaging easy — even on phones without data plans while it uses SMS. [website]
Instagram – 150 Million
Instagram’s newest feature — direct messaging — is sure to be popular as many teens are moving to closed networks. [website]
Kik – 100 Million
Again, cross platform, Kik is a lot like WhatsApp. It’s fast, simple and personal smartphone messaging. [website]
Ask.fm – 65 Million
Receive answers to your questions, attach photos to your answers and easy access to anyone you follow. [website]
Vine – 40 Million
Twitter’s video version of 140 characters. [website]
Snapchat – 30 Million
Take a photo or video, add a caption, send it to one or more friends, and after they’ve viewed it, it disappears from their screen (unless they take a screenshot). [website]
Pheed – 1 Million
This new social network app is about sharing voice, music, videos, photos and text. While its user base is still low, it has seen recent praise:
“Labeled by Forbes as ‘the new Twitter,’ Mashable as ‘the next social craze,’ and Huffington Post ‘the next generation of social media.’ Fortune listed Pheed as ‘The #1 Social Network to Watch in 2013’ and Business Insider ‘the social media company of the year.’”
Now that we’re in 2014, much remains to be seen. [website]
Looking Beyond Facebook
Again, we see that the Church will need to look beyond Facebook to reach this generation of users online. However, keep in mind that these apps are designed for individuals, not organizations and brands per se. And for youth pastors and parents who may decide to install these apps to join-in or see what all the hype is about, you’ll quickly find that unlike Facebook and Google+, these social networks are designed to be small, private groups.
In light of this Facebook exodus among teens, what is the Church’s best move to reach them online?
Gangai Victor says
Great list Eric, didn’t know about Pheed.
Wonder how Path is doing?
Eric Dye says
I hadn’t heard about either.
As for Path, I would be curious, too. I use it and I know others who are. Unsure about teens, though.
Darryl Schoeman says
Hey Eric,
Thanks for this post. I too was not aware of either Pheed or KiK.
As you are most likely aware, the web is crawling with multiple articles all sharing the same message that teens are leaving Facebook in droves. This of course raises some significant red flags for ministry (social engagement strategy in particular) especially as one considers the next generation of church members (the teens).
But it raises the even bigger red flag of social media engagement strategy as a whole, where the question now needing to be considered, is can a local church truly sustain an online social media engagement strategy? Big churches with big budgets would have both the volunteer and financial resources to implement and maintain an effective social media engagement strategy. But what about smaller churches?
The simple answer of course would be to say that churches must focus on where most of their members are congregating. And that is true. But BufferApp just recently rightfully pointed out that Facebook is more and more pushing brands (pages) to pay for reach. So how effective would the bigger ones be anyway?
It is a conundrum indeed. The social media arena has evolved significantly, even dare I say to the point of nonsensical-ness. Maybe I’m being a bit pessimistic! But all that has happened is that the noise has gotten louder, making it even more difficult to cut through the chatter. And your post has acutely highlighted that.
Regards
D
Eric Dye says
I agree, Darryl. This is something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately since writing this about a week ago. I know “time will tell,” but I would like to know what direction this will be going so the Church can ride the crest of this wave instead of being stuck in the wake.
Darryl Schoeman says
Agreed
Jim Havron says
I recently did a research project on sexting, cyberbullying, and other hazardous activities in which young folk engage online. As part of this I examined current research on various social media used by tweens and teens. A few of things came up that might be worth considering here.
One is that teens use different media for different reasons. They do not expect to encounter certain people or types of people when using a specific type of media. They have apps that they use all day long to “broadcast” messages, but do not always pay attention to every message that comes through to them on those apps. This is similar to belonging to different groups at school, in sports, at church, etc. Different values given to the interactions within each group, different values given to the use of apps.
Another thing I found was how quickly the marketing data on use changes. Many apps are trendy, and teens use them for awhile, only to shift to something else after awhile.
By the same token, self reporting by some groups of teens may need a higher statistical error built in. In some studies, teens’ actual use of apps and sites was recorded, and compared to the teens’ statements about how much they believed they used each one. A big difference between actual use and reported use was not uncommon. (This was true with adults as well. Caveat: I am not sure how statistically significant the size of the study groups were.)
Facebook’s use still fluctuates with all age groups. One interesting (and for me, potentially disturbing) trend is the way FB and others connect the data between various media. How many times have we found we could log into an app or use a site simply by using our Facebook, Google, or Twitter ID? I found that the ads I got in the margin of Facebook, Google, and some sites I visited changed after I used a university library digital collection to search for articles about “sexting.” It was not flattering. (I am also annoyed that the ads advertising ways to meet single young Christian women have been replaced with ads inviting me to meet single senior citizen women of Christian faith. I am annoyed by the age part while my wife thinks them all funny.) The point here is that much information is exchanged between sites/apps/media regardless of what media you use. As part of a strategy to reach teens, knowing this (and that some of these media are actually owned by the same people) could affect our approach.
Finally, teens have been said to be abandoning FB for years, but still are involved to a great degree. The fun part, in light of the place Twitter has in this post, is that I kept finding articles from 2-3 years ago stating that teens had abandoned Twitter and expecting it to fold by the end of 2013.
How much any of this really affects how we reach teens I do not know. I do know it is more complicated than what the use stats say by themselves.
Sorry for the long windedness
Eric Dye says
Thanks for sharing, Jim! 😀
Chris Ames says
Great list for sure. Cool to see kik and ask.fm on there, they are lesser known (and understood by grownups).
I would add Tumblr (app) as a strong entry. It is billed as a blogging platform, but make no mistake… it is used as a pseudo-anonymous social network. Highly influential.
Eric Dye says
Agreed. While Tumblr may not be considered a social network in the same vein as these, it is a very active pseudo-anonymous social network for many.
Ken Foster says
When I became the youth guy at my church, I inherited a Facebook private group that many of our kids were using. I decided to use that to communicate with them mid-week. I sent friend requests to all of them and got a response from about half. There was a lot of chatter between them, most of it good but some of it not so good. I didn’t call anyone out because I didn’t want to appear to be lurking. It was a going concern for a while, and then something terrible (in their estimation) happened: their parents caught up with the times. I noticed that every time a parent would sign up, the kids would disappear. They simply didn’t want their parents to know what they were discussing, not to mention the words they chose to use during the discussion. They couldn’t hardly deny a friend request from their parents, so as you say they left their accounts active and bailed for something else. In the case of our kids it was Twitter, and now that parents are showing up they are starting to bail on that too. Also, not one of them follows me or lets me follow them. I think this is the nature of it, the teens will keep moving to stay one step ahead of the old folks.
Eric Dye says
That’s the key to success for some of these apps. They are built in such a way that if the “old folks” show-up, there’s still a separation, unlike Facebook.
John Contreras says
With students leaving Facebook, our job will be to find them in different social media outlets. I loved Facebook because for so long my students parked there and responded to my Facebook invites and other posts. I’m kinda glad Facebook is going away because of the drama though. I’ve been wanting to get rid of mine.