Skift Take
New heavy-content social networks are beloved among the younger generation. Whilst travel's adoption of these networks has been slow, the networks themselves have been in constant growing.
Last week we launched the latest report in our Skift Trends Reports service, Snapchat and Instagram Strategies for Travel Brands.
In this report, we look at the new breed of social networks built upon heavy content. Instagram and Snapchat have amassed a just short of 500 million daily users combined, with a clear demographic preference, Millennials and Gen Z. In the report we explore the challenges these social networks pose to advertisers, and travel’s current presence of these social networks.
Below is an excerpt from our Skift Trend Report. Get the full report here to stay ahead of this trend.
Instagram has 500 million monthly users, versus 313 million for Twitter and 1.7 billion for Facebook, according to each company’s own numbers. Snapchat doesn’t report monthly users but claims more than 100 million users a day on their app. The demographics of these two networks, though, are different from the others, and their users have different expectations for how they communicate with each other and with brands.
Most social network usage usually peaks in the 18 to 34 age range. But about half of Facebook users are over 30 years old and they have sizable audiences in the 40+ group. By contrast, a little more than 20% of Instagram users and 14% of Snapchat users are older than 34. And each has a sizable user group under 18. So both have a more exclusively younger audience than Facebook.
Instagram’s user base has been flourishing since it was acquired by Facebook in 2012. The emphasis on photography and beautiful photos (if highly edited) lends itself well to sectors like travel, food, and fashion. Hospitality brands feel they need to be there in a significant way even if their demographics don’t line up exactly.
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Instagram is still the leader among the “visual networks” with 300 million daily users compared to just 100 million on Snapchat. Instagram also has a more diversified audience in terms of age distribution. While on Snapchat users over 35 only make up 14 percent, on Instagram they represent 51 percent of the total user base.
Source: Statista
Ever since Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram, advertising on the platform has made vast improvements, becoming more advertiser-friendly. Ads can now be targeted to specific audiences and various types of advertisement are available. Facebook’s Power Editor is also fully integrated into Instagram, allowing advertisers to filter their audience based upon specific attributes such as, are they connected to Wi-Fi, what languages do they speak, and which device they are currently using.
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Tags: instagram, snapchat, social media
Photo credit: Travel Alberta's profile on Instagram. Our new report looks at the social network, as well as Snapchat. Skift