Facebook No Longer #1 … For Teens

Twitter #1 platform for Teens
Source: Piper Jaffray

We write about it all the time in these posts. As authors, we must diversify our marketing. Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and the copious amounts of other options all play a role in connecting with our audience. Sometimes, we focus on one platform or another and spend most of our time there. That’s not a bad idea, unless that becomes your only platform.

A recent study by Piper Jaffray reported that teens now consider Twitter as the most important social site, replacing Facebook as the King of Social. In fact, in just one year, Facebook has plummeted from 42% a year ago to just 23% today.

If you are like me and write for the teen market, then these numbers are important. How many of us have an active Twitter program for reaching out to new readers?

Teens are also shopping online more often. Approximately 78% of females and 82% of males do their shopping online. While teens might declare that Twitter is more important, the stats still show that Facebook has a bigger foothold. According to a Pew report, the average teen has 300 friends on Facebook but only 79 followers on Twitter.

What does this mean for us in the end?

We need to keep diversifying. Back in January, I posted on how to schedule a social media marketing plan, focusing on certain plans each week. Scheduling social media platforms and how much time you allot for each will keep you from losing critical markets and readers.

Author: Jim Devitt

Jim Devitt’s debut YA novel, The Card, hit #1 in three separate categories on the Kindle Bestseller list in early January and was a finalist in the Guys Can Read Indie Author Contest this past summer. Devitt currently lives in Miami, FL with his wife Melissa and their children. Learn more about Jim at his blog and his Amazon author page.

18 thoughts on “Facebook No Longer #1 … For Teens”

    1. I agree with you about SnapChat, no doubt that’s the fastest growing right now, but the research in this report came out with Twitter as the “most Important”. If you noticed the “other” category at 17% right behind the leaders … it was primarily made up of SnapChat, I imagine by 2014 it will have the top spot.

      Thanks for sharing the links!

  1. Not surprised. One of my kids (who’s in her mid-20s) spends way more time on Twitter and Tumblr than Facebook. And I’ve heard younger teens think Facebook is for old people. 😀 Thanks, Jim!

  2. My daughter is 26 and seems to spend all her spare time either on Skype or some instant messaging application, neither of which are ‘social’. Many of my friends, however, can’t seem to get enough of Facebook. -shrug- Perhaps it is a generational thing.

  3. Well, good! Send those li’l bastiches back to their MySpace with their jodhpurs and horseless carriages! Razzin’ frazzin’ youngsters! worried about their bling and their puttees and their hula hoops! Serves ’em, right, I say! Gives me and you and all use normal folk more room to plant our crops on Farmville! Elbow room! That’s what it is – elbow room!

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