Since mums, dads, aunts and uncles have joined Facebook, teens want to leave. It is a natural move that we have seen many times in the past. Do you remember Levi’s and their campaign on the 501 line in the 1980s? A great success as Levis’s became the reference point for the jeans market. But what about 15 years later? The children of the baby boomer generation refused to buy 501 jeans. Why? Because their parents wore them. In a more recent history, the same happened to Yahoo as teens moved to other websites (incl. Facebook). Now the same seems to happen with Facebook and wine estates should be prepared for the future. In many fields and more specifically on Social Media, teens are often the initial adopters. On Facebook, the service has become less appealing for at least some of its users. Though Facebook is still the default social network for many people, perhaps it is no longer as crucial as it once was for social survival. Constant communication is what younger millenials – from 18 to 26 – are asking for now. Just have a look at WhatsApp, Line (popular in Japan), Snapchat, WeChat (China) or KakaoTalk (Korea). You don’t know about Snapchat? They created a trendy photo messaging app that allows users to share customized pictures or short videos that disappear in under 10 seconds with a controlled list of friends. You don’t know about Vine? Read this post I wrote on this French blog a few months ago? The popularity of a wave of new services like Vine, Snapchat, Twitter, Tumblr or Pinterest is increasing strongly. And everything happens on mobiles. During its earnings announcement this month, Facebook managers said they observed a decrease in daily users, specifically among teens. In fact, Facebook offered to acquire Snapchat for $3 billion but the company refused. As of September 2013, Snapchat’s few million users are said to send 350 million messages daily, and spend far more time per day in the app than was ever the case with Facebook. This young generation wants to embrace the virtues of privacy, needs dynamic real-time chatting with different groups of real-life friends to share selfie – silly self-portraits taken at arm’s length with a mobile – and get into games, stickers or music sharing. There is little doubt that millions of younger millenials will use these apps more and more, and older demographics will eventually join them. And there’s a good chance that will continue to be at the expense of Facebook. Make sure it won’t be at your expense too ! (This post was written by Guillaume Jourdan. Since 2004, VitaBella Luxury Wine has been advising over 100 wine estates on their international Marketing & Communication strategy, including Social Media issues.) (You can reach the writer at info@vitabella.fr)
Wine & Social Media: Do you know the story behind Levi's 501? You should…
Did you invest heavily your time and money on Facebook over the last few years? Make sure you read this story carefully if you do not want to miss the new opportunities to meet wine lovers.
