Fake news and privacy scandals eroded consumer confidence in social media last year. This is also evident from Newcom's annual National Social Media Survey. The media landscape is changing and what consequences this has for social media campaigns you can read in this blog. Oh and Facebook is for people over 40.
Instagram grows, Facebook yields
Looking globally at the social media landscape in the Netherlands, it is similar to last year. The Top 3 is unchanged, despite Facebook losing users. Only Instagram surpassed LinkedIn and grew the most with 20% compared to 2018. Followed closely by Pinterest that grew 18%.
Instagram also grew in daily use, as did Youtube, Pinterest, and LinkedIn. Facebook yielded significantly in this area. Nevertheless, it is the social medium that still has the most daily users. However, it seems that Facebook's position is no longer unassailable.
Facebook not to be trusted
A major reason for people to leave Facebook is data misuse, new privacy policies and fake news. However, the exodus did not turn out to be as massive as reports by Eenvandaag and others suggested in April 2018. Back then, pollsters expected that 22% of Dutch people wanted to cancel their accounts in response to all the scandals. In the end, 5.9% of users did so. 240,000 have cancelled their accounts and another 400,000 say they no longer log in.
However, the absolute user base of 10.1 million still remains significantly high. But where up until a few years ago, there was no question whether you should use Facebook, because every target audience was well represented. Anno 2019, the question is increasingly whether your target audience can still be reached through Facebook.
Facebook is for people over 40
Roughly speaking, we can say that the younger your target audience is, the less likely they are to be reached through Facebook. The research shows that among those over 18, 7% to 10% have left Facebook. Among those under 18, the figure is as high as 29%.
Daily use of Facebook has declined by 30% in the 15-19 age group, and among 20-39 year olds the decline is also significant at 13%. Above the age of 40, usage declines only lies. It remains to be seen whether Facebook can recover in terms of growth, or whether new growth will continue to be lacking. For now, Facebook is for people over 40.
Interestingly, the use of Instagram (also part of Facebook) is growing not only among teenagers. 25-39 year olds are also increasingly on the platform. Daily use in these target groups grew by 16% and 30%, respectively. Among 40-64 year olds, growth is also significant at 25%. Although only 10% of this target group uses Instagram daily.
Tested: Instagram adds reach to Facebook
Already in a few campaigns we did on Facebook and Instagram in the past two months, we saw that Instagram added reach to campaigns with different audiences to a greater or lesser extent. Among young people 13-18, the unique reach on Instagram is 66% and on Facebook only 9%. Instagram in this case added 195% reach to the campaign. In the 18-35 age group, we see that the unique reach on Facebook is 38%, but again the unique reach on Instagram is greater at 51%. In this case, Instagram adds 106% reach. This illustrates the trend that Instagram is becoming more important, especially to reach young audiences.
WhatsApp and Pinterest growing: when open to advertisers?
The daily use of Pinterest (+18%) and Whatsapp (+6%) has also grown significantly. The latter, like Instagram, is part of Facebook. Which leaves Facebook as a group maintaining a strong position in the social media landscape. As of 2017, more than 90% of Dutch Internet users use one or more of their platforms.
It is therefore not surprising that Facebook is looking for ways to earn more from Instagram and Whatsapp. That's why last year saw the expansion of advertising options on Instagram with the ability to boost organic posts and the announcement that organic Instagram stories could soon be promoted as well.
In addition, Facebook announced in late 2018 that it was considering ads in Whatsapp. The question, of course, is whether users who use Whatsapp primarily for communication with friends and family would accept this. For now, the plan would be to only display ads on the status tab. These are the stories of WhatsApp that are hardly used in the Netherlands, so users would not be affected, but advertisers would not be able to benefit from this reach either. Pinterest has also been calling for some time that advertising is becoming possible and now that its reach and usage is growing this could be a nice addition. We will keep a close eye on developments in this area.
Snapchat under pressure
Snapchat grew 243% between 2014 and 2018 from 700,000 users to 2.4 million users. And daily usage grew even faster in percentage terms at 374% from 274,000 to 1.3 million. In 2019, however, growth has stalled. Possibly the app's poorly received redesign took its toll after all. In addition, it remains difficult for the platform to retain users as they age. The app is used by about 70% of 15-19 year olds and 30% of 20-39 year olds. Above 40, Snapchat is still barely used.
Do you want to know exactly how best to reach your target audience? Then contact our specialists.