Stories: A Replacement for Traditional Newsfeeds?

Visual content has become an important part of social media marketing over the years; especially with the rise of mobile technology and being able to easily capture this type of content on the go. The type of visual content that is being used is steadily changing and growing with the newest trend being that of stories.

So, what is a story? Ana Gotter from Business 2 Community define social media stories as “mobile, full-screen, vertical videos and images that appear outside of your regular feed and only last for 24 hours before they disappear. They’re temporary, with a small caveat: they can be organized into collections on some apps like Instagram for later viewing.”

Facebook has shared that “every day more than 1 billion people use stories on Facebook products and users spend between 24- and 32-minutes watching stories every day”. With their growth in popularity more features have been added to them, such a polls and quizzes, that allow businesses and influencers to interact with their followers even more.

The rise of stories is changing social media. Due to how much time individuals spend watching stories it is more acceptable to post them multiple times, weather it be all at once or throughout the day. With newsfeeds, and the algorithms that social media platforms use to show them to your followers, having one post with more follower interaction is better than having multiple newsfeed posted with the same number of interactions. Stories have allowed influencers and business to share a more personal side of themselves leading to more authenticity, compared to newsfeeds were many times they are planned and only show the best parts of the business or an influencers life.

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With such a fast growth and high popularity, it is likely social media stories are not going anywhere soon. With the addition of stories will written newsfeeds soon become obsolete?

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Facebook: When you open your social media app it is likely at the top there is a list of stories waiting for you to click on and watch. Are these stories the new newsfeed for social media? https://wp.me/p3QRy0-v7R

Twitter: Everyday more than 1 billion people use stories, are they the new newsfeed for social media? https://wp.me/p3QRy0-v7R

Picking The Right Social Media for Your Business

You have decided that you want to start a social media account to help market your business, but what type of account would work best for you? There is so many different options to consider when deciding to start a social media account for your business. The first being what kind of an account you want to open. Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.

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Using social media for marketing has been a very successful tool for small businesses. A few of the reasons why this is true as per Duct Tape Marketing is that it is a less expensive adverting option, and small businesses are already community focused meaning they can continue with the individual focused customer service and personalize each interaction they have.

One of the things that you need to look at when deciding what social media platform would work best for you and your business is who your audience is going to be, especially if you want to continue to be community focused. If you are an established business, you likely already know who your customer base is, 25-30 year old women, or 34-50 year old men. If you are a business that is just starting out check out Forbes Steps to Identify your Target Market to help you figure out who your target market is going to be.

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So, who uses what social media platform the most? From Sprout blog below is 2021 Social Media Demographics:

FaceBook	Twitter	Instagram
># of monthly active users: 2.7 billion >Large age group: 25-34 (26.3%) >Gender: 44% female, 56% male > Time spent per day: 38 minutes	># of daily active users: 187 million >Largest age group: 30-49 (44%) >Gender: 32% female, 68% male >Time spent per day/week: 3.53 minutes per session	># of monthly active users: 1 billion >Largest age group: 25-34 (33.1%) >Gender: 57% female, 43% male > Average time sent per day: 29 minutes
Pinterest	LinkIn	Snapchat
># of monthly active users: 400+million >Largest age group: 30-49 >Gender: 78% female, 22% male >Time Spent per day: 14.2 minutes	># of total users: 783 million >Largest age group: 46-55 >Gender: 51% male, 49% female >Monthly access: 63% users	># of monthly active users: 100 million >Largest age group: 18-24 >Gender: 59% female, 41% male >Time Spent per day: 45+ minutes

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Knowing your audience as well as the type of audiences that use the different social media platforms that are aviable is just the first step in helping you decide what social media account you want for your business. But it is an important one to be able to reach the community that you want.

What else should you consider before starting a social media account for your business?

• 6 Tips for Choosing the Right Social Media Platform for Your Business
• How to choose the right social media platform for your business
• 13 Top Tips For Choosing The Right Social Media Platform For Your Business

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Twitter: Opening a Social Media account for your business? Make sure you know your audience. https://wp.me/p3QRy0-uOF #businesstips #entrepreneur

Facebook: So you have decided to start a social media account to get your small business out to the masses, but what platform would work best for you? https://wp.me/p3QRy0-uOF

Protecting Kids from Social Media: Who Should be Responsible?

With how fast social media is evolving today is it fair for society to be putting the responsibility on parents to monitor and protect our youth from the negative impact that Social Media can have on them? Social Media has been proven to lead to anxiety and depression in teens and exposes them to bullying, unrealistic views of other people’s lives and peer pressure.

“Automotive Social Media Marketing” by socialautomotive 

Some might think that simply taking away access to social media from anyone under the age of 18 would be the simplest solution to protecting kids from the detrimental effects that social media can have on them. However, just as there are cons to youth using social media just as Mayo Clinic tells us, there are also benefits; “it allows teens to create online identities, communicate with others and build social networks that provide them with valuable support. It can expose teens to current events, allow them to interact across geographics barriers and teach them about a variety of subjects, including healthy behaviors.”

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Even though Social Media companies have some safeguards in place to try to protect youth; such has having to be 13 to have a Facebook or Instagram Account and blocking sensitive contact to those under 18, it hasn’t seemed to do much. Most of the responsibility has been placed on the backs of parents to teach their kids about using social media responsibly to help limit some of its negative effects. But with how quick social media is changing is it fair as a society to put this responsibility solely on them and not on the companies that operate them.

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Many of the big social media platforms are not even 20 years old. YouTube launched in 2005, Facebook & Twitter in 2006, and Instagram in 20101. With such quick changes should society expect parents to keep up with the changes in a way that they are still able to teach and provide their kids the tools needed to ensure they can protect themselves from the negative impact social media can have on them while still benefiting from the positives of it.

Twitter: With just as many negatives as this is positives when it comes to social media; who should be responsible in protecting our kids from it? shorturl.at/rDRU1

Facebook: With all the research out there on the negative impact that social media has on youth who should be responsible in protecting them from it? shorturl.at/rDRU1

Griffiths, A. H. and J., Hrach, A., Griffiths, J., Baer, J., Leap, S. B. and M., Barker, S., & Leap, M. (2019, December 30). How social media has evolved over the past 12 years. Content Marketing Consulting and Social Media Strategy. Retrieved January 25, 2022, from https://www.convinceandconvert.com/social-media-strategy/how-social-media-has-evolved/

Halpern, S. (2021, September 30). Instagram for kids and what Facebook knows about the effects of social media. The New Yorker. Retrieved January 25, 2022, from https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/instagram-for-kids-and-what-facebook-knows-about-the-effects-of-social-media

 McFadden, C. (2020, July 2). A chronological history of social media. Interesting Engineering. Retrieved January 25, 2022, from https://interestingengineering.com/a-chronological-history-of-social-media

Mayo Clinic Staff. (2019, December 21). Teens and social media use: What’s the impact? Mayo Clinic. Retrieved January 25, 2022, from https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/tween-and-teen-health/in-depth/teens-and-social-media-use/art-20474437

Packham, A. (2017, November 29). How old your kids have to be to use social media: A parents’ guide. HuffPost UK. Retrieved January 25, 2022, from https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/age-limits-facebook-instagram-snapchat-twitter_uk_5a1e77bbe4b0d724fed4c11f