It’s Been Good to Make Small Talk in 2013

Social media climbed to never before levels in 2013. One of the features of successful ventures during the year was shorter viewing time which made direct talk without beating around the bush imperative. I think this was mainly driven by teenagers whose activities and opinions are very important to the advertising and marketing worlds.

Through 2013, you could manage to invoke sufficient interest without content that was 500+ words long and without really thinking about SEO. At least in the pure communications arena, it pays more to say less.

Move over talkative sites – we don’t have time! 

In 2013, concise presentation topped the priority list of many users. Here are some supporting examples.

·         Teens named Twitter as the preferred social media platform. This reduced Facebook to a hobby pursued by earlier generations like grandparents and parents.

·         Vine, Instagram, and Snapchat mesmerized teens in a big way. This paved the way for the Instagram purchase by Facebook.

·         Google absorbing YouTube resulted in pushing the video site away from the limelight.

·         The struggle to be noticed by Google+ resulted in the rolling out of various new functions. 

Twitter is well known for restricting conversation length to 140 characters. This was a bit of a challenge when it launched in 2006. Today it’s the way to go. 

Instagram’s 15 second videos that seemed really short at one time are now the accepted norm. Vine proved its mettle with 6.5 second videos which can loop endlessly. Videos from Snapchat have lengths between these two - about 10 seconds.

So why did teens start loving these sites? The answer is School. Schooling is an almost full time occupation but youngsters can grab a few moments between classes to post a tweet. Photo-sharing sites like Snapchat and Instagram allow posting pictures in a few seconds. Even videos require only a couple of minutes. 

Limitations of compact communications 

Vine, Instagram, and Snapchat feature creatively produced mini-commercials. There are generally from businesses that deal in big market products and services such as food, entertainment, and fashion. Some nonprofit organizations have also posted effective and moving messages on these platforms. 

Twitter possibly purchased Vine to safeguard against the total elimination of the written word but I don’t think that blogging or Facebook will go away totally. They are likely to continue as important social media tools. Learning something often requires more than 10 to 15 seconds, whether it’s watching a short video, reading a well-written post, or putting up a query on Facebook. 

Snapchat, which refused Facebook’s $3 billion offer to buyout, acknowledged that time is sometimes a friend. It recently announced Snapchat Stories, a tool that allows creations of narratives with a lifecycle of 24-hours. 

Can Facebook regain popularity? With the Instagram purchase, there’s a probability that the app will now offer more. Apparently, Vine is viewed more a distraction which can be easily fitted into its world, rather than a competitor. 

In 2014, I think B2B professionals and companies should look for sites that serve their needs and those of their customers. Though video sites provide entertaining distractions, they might not serve purposes other than product pitches, public service messages or short testimonials like those presently seen on Twitter.