With half of 2015 under belt, we’ve updated our previous Social Media Cheat Sheet to provide marketers with an overview of the top platforms in the social landscape today. The one-pager below maps the top social networks against each other based on various criteria, taking into account things like user base, tactical applications, KPI’s and more.
What hasn’t changed:
- Facebook’s user base is continuing to see healthy growth, while growth on Twitter is slowing
- Video continues to be a focus for many of the platforms
- Both Facebook and Twitter have enhanced their video products with Twitter launching auto-play, and Facebook continuing to improve the video experience. On YouTube, mobile watch time has more than doubled from a year ago.
- Usage across all platforms continues to shift towards mobile
- On Facebook, 76 percent of advertising revenue came in from mobile, and it accounted for 88 percent of the total ad spend on Twitter
Noteworthy developments:
- The platforms are expanding their ad formats and creating more advanced targeting capabilities
- Pinterest is upping its monetization efforts for brands with the introduction of Buyable Pins and more robust targeting options, while Tumblr has launched the Sponsored Day Ad Unit, allowing brands the opportunity to be front and center on the channel for a 24-hour. Snapchat is rolling out more advertiser opportunities with branded geo-filters, while Twitter launched its Publisher Network to allow brands to push promoted tweets outside of the platform through its network of apps. And finally, Facebook is expanding its carousel ad format.
- New features to improve user experience become a priority
- Enhanced search features across Instagram, Vine and Tumblr are helping users surface more content that they care about
- More tools for publishers and celebrities to create platform centric experiences for users are being introduced. These features include: Tumblr’s Answer Time, a Q&A feature similar to Reddit’s AMA series that allows celebrities to engage in real-time conversations with fans; the ability for public figures to now broadcast live video on Facebook through Facebook Mentions; branded stories from publishers through Discover on Snapchat which offers bite-sized news and updates that users can share with friends; and the testing of Facebook’s Instant Article format which would create immersive interactive articles without leaving the platform.
We hope this Social Media Cheat Sheet of the “who’s who” and “what’s what” of social media today will be helpful to marketers in determining and evolving their strategies in the social media landscape.
View Cheat Sheet in full size on Slideshare
Cover Photo via VisualizeUs.
