Why do I prefer spending more time on Youtube than Facebook ?

Facebook is a social network and Youtube is video search engine.

Every time I visit Facebook. I get three brackets of updates
1) Life Events (Marriage, Birth, Anniversaries, Travels)
2) People and brands selling stuff.
3) News (Maybe because I am subscribed to more number of them).

I don`t get to see more than this, the worst part of it is that all that information is shoved down to me and nothing of which I TRULY care of. I think this may be the most pessimistic way of looking at Facebook, but the user experience is dying down. We all have to admit it, there is something wrong with Facebook.

Youtube gives me answers and Facebook gives me questions 

Youtube has replaced my Google Search for me. Video storytelling or answers appeal far more than text (Google Text Search).  Although, It may not be the fastest way of getting an answer.
I do get recommendations based on my history of videos but that's something which is worth the time. This keeps me invested in Youtube because that's something which is not shoved to me but instead something which I have asked for.

Whereas Facebook gives me questions, it gives me questions like, why, what is this person or brand doing? It stuns a person with nuisance curiosity or stalking (Maybe the other word) to describe it.

Videos search is easier on Youtube than on Facebook. 

To be fair to Facebook, I tried searching for videos on Facebook first and then on Youtube.
Well, I didn't go well as expected. I went ahead and then did the same thing on Youtube.
Results were far better and I got what I wanted within seconds.

What can Facebook learn from Youtube?

Since Facebook has started shifting its focus on video content and making Facebook a video-centric social network. It has a long way to go for indexing content and making in searchable. Facebook has its own problem regarding privacy of the videos, but so does youtube.

Facebook Page - a product introduced long back has only got cosmetics changes and the base product has always been the same. Facebook pages products need to merge with video and then we can understand the true potential of going the video way. However, Facebook Live merge is not a merge.

Is Facebook Live a threat to Youtube? 

All the points mentioned above, Facebook is smart enough to know them. To take Youtube head on, was never the option. So they introduced Facebook Live. Although it is at a very nascent stage to understand the real potential, Although I think Facebook Live has created great opportunities for the people to create and distribute their content.

 Anyway, I personally spend time on both. however, unequally it may be.

Why Snapchat cannot be ignored anymore?

Before we jump into why Snapchat, we need to understand why any social network deserves a second look from a branding and marketing perspective.

When Facebook was asked "Why Facebook?"

Back in 2010, Facebook faced similar questions, but they passed the test with flying colors. Facebook was important because your friends were on Facebook. It gave a community feel to the people. The viral factor through which content was distributed made it more attractive. Brands were given platform to create content and connect with a set of audience. Facebook created Ad products which gave a boost to distribution. All the use cases matched for growth in content consumption and engagement. A strong base of analytics, which helped measure performance on Facebook vis a vis other social networks.  These factors along with higher number of people made Facebook the most preferred social network to jump on.

Youth Power

India is youth country (As per stats). With a huge chunk of youth under 25, Snapchat has great chance to grow. Already there are various reports which say that Snapchat is millennial’s favorite social network in the US. In India, most of the millennial (I would refer them as Youngsters) have jumped on Twitter or Snapchat because of the privacy factor. For e.g., now that our fathers, mother aunties uncles have arrived on Facebook, privacy becomes huge issue.

Although Snapchat is infamous for its data leaks. Indians don’t take them seriously or rather choose to ignore them. Privacy rights and laws are yet to be understood by the Indian youth. This ignorance paves the way for Snapchat to spread its wings.

Tendency to share and connected.

The want to be liked, adored, appreciated by someone is really high in today`s youth. Snapchat gives the youth to express themselves on the move. Got something interesting or even something which is remotely interesting, let’s share it on Snapchat. Snaps has become a buzz word. Hyper-Sharers almost share more than 10 snaps per day. 

The features..

Sharing pictures with a set of friends (only) and a one to one communication was a road block for content distribution.

 Snapchat understood this and introduced a feature called “Stories”.

Snapchat stories is the most popular feature in Snapchat. It helps people to send a broadcast of their stories which last for 24 hours. It is further divided into “My story” and “Our Story”. Our stories is like UGC content created around an event.

Till Jan 27 2015, Brands and peo
ple had same accounts and same use cases. With introduction of the Discover feature, it changes the way content being produced and consumed. It is a hybrid way for videos, photos and text.  This blurs the line of Image only or video only content and extremely light. As of now, Snapchat has joined hands with the content marketers like MTV, Vice, Nat Geo to develop such content.  To have a complete rollout of this feature would take some time.

As per functionality is concerned, it crosses the roads with Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. The story feature helps people to broadcast photo to all friends. This is something which crosses Twitter and Facebook functionality. Sharing pictures with filters, text edits and doodle features crosses with Instagram plus the extra features.  

Snapchat cannot replaced Twitter, Facebook or Instagram but it will have its place in the mix.