Feelings vs. facts and how they apply to the universal war story of giants vs. underdogs. How can this mythological story can be applied to our mobile apps environment dominated by Facebook and always challenged by some newcomers?
The giant mentality that wants to win them all.
I wrote in one of my previews articles, that every brand has to be present on each social media network. Creating original content adapted on user’s behavior on each of them. But what can we do if all the platforms will become the same? What it’s to be done if Facebook, this giant conqueror, wants to win and control them all.
Just think a little about their previous actions. When Snapchat was a trendy social media network, starting to get more and more followers, Facebook was threatened and stole all of their good features and put them into Instagram and now Facebook itself. And so that feature advantage that Snapchat had is simply gone.
It’s just the way Facebook does it, right? That’s why they bought Instagram because they saw Instagram as a threat. That’s why they bought WhatsApp, because they thought WhatsApp was a threat. This is the giant mentality and looking into the history, we can totally see the similarities between the big empires and the big companies like Facebook.
And looking at their moves, who will be their next victim? Might it be LinkedIn? Well, I think it could be. We all know that on Facebook you can post when your company is hiring. Also, people can write you with CV-ul attached directly on Facebook messages. Also, Facebook is already starting to offer job listings. Now those job listings are mostly for small business, but there is nothing to prevent Facebook from starting to offer all kinds of jobs and offer all the functionality that LinkedIn employs. So, let’s see if LinkedIn is strong enough to survive.
So what it’s to be done? Can all these social media platforms still be alive after such a big war that is yet to get bigger and bigger? We shall see. But until the end of war, your brand just has to be there, especially if its audience is there. So think a little about your target and where can you find them. If they are on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn, then you have to be there also.
Be creative and find yourself a differentiator, for God’s sake.
But, to survive in this crazy world, you have to adapt. When on most apps, users do the exact same thing, we all lose. If every single platform is basically the same, you end up with the same boring ragged out old content. It’s people’s stories, but what’s the point if it’s all the same story? Or if the story is told in the same manner across all platforms? Why going on Snapchat if you can post a 24h story also on Instagram. Why post a job on LinkedIn, if you can use Facebook for the same thing? So, all these apps have to find a way to create themselves a differentiator or their users will just have to choose between them, leaving some behind.
Also, they have to get creative in terms on searching for original ways of doing advertising on them. Today, most companies are using the same advertising on all platform. This means that the creativity begins to die. Look how easy it is to throw ads on Facebook, Instagram feeds, and inside Instagram stories.
Of course in a perfect world, brands would do their testing and segment based on user behavior, but a lot of companies are lazy. So they use the easy way out and have the same ad on all platform. Bad choice, little fellow. But their bad choice is possible because they have this options. So, it is time for this apps to start playing their cards smart.
