What Is The Secret Sauce Behind Success Of Social Media Apps like Facebook?

5 Factors behind the Success of Popular Social Media Apps

Making waves for a while is one thing, remaining relevant and continuing to stay in consumers’ hearts is another! A lot of social media apps, including Friendster, Classmates, even Google+ enjoyed a decent run when launched but failed to either keep up the initial momentum or continue to connect with consumers for long run.

The following are some of the biggest reasons why social media apps like Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat have continued to do well while others have failed.

1. Ease Of Use

According to recent surveys, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat were number one, two and seventh in terms of 2019’s most popular and widely used social media apps in the United States.

The most obvious similarity in these apps is – they’re extremely easy to use. Even first-time users rarely face any issues understanding their features and functionalities.The simplistic interface and navigation encourages people to further explore these apps. The result is – they keep coming again and again.

2. Innovation

Facebook came out in 2004 when text messaging was the world’s most preferred non calling communication channel, especially for international communication. Facebook gave people a wonderful new way of communicating over both short and long distances. People could post updates and images, chat in real time and stay connected in a manner that just wasn’t possible with good old text messaging.

Instagram was launched in 2010 – a photo and video sharing social media app that was a step up from the way images and videos were shared on existing social media apps like Facebook. People could edit and filter their photos and videos before sharing, chat with others and explore content by location and tags. Instagram revolutionized social media advertising and created a whole new market with user generated content.

Also Read: How Instagram Works: Insights about Photo Sharing Apps Business and Revenue Model

In 2011, Snapchat was launched. The multimedia messaging app came out offering an exciting new way of creating and sharing photo messages. While social media apps like Instagram and Facebook allowed people to share images, Snapchat users could also look at the person they were chatting with in real time. The self-destruct or single view nature of shared images and videos was a novelty for users and managed to get them hooked instantly.

So, what we learn here is “Innovation is the key to success in the social media world.” If you are planning to launch a social media app, make sure it contains a feature that makes it standout from other existing applications.

3. Commitment to Enhancing User Experience

All these apps win users by providing a pleasant and engrossing user experience. The secret why these top social media apps have enjoyed long lasting success is that they have remained focused on further improving user experience.

For example, in the first quarter of 2019, Facbook announced its redesign which was focused on creating a more personalized activity feed across the groups that a user is a part of. The redesign introduces a clean white look to Facebook which is a departure from its old, largely blue-tinted design.

With this redesign, which is more focused on user’s privacy, the brand showed the world that it is continuously upgrading to improve the security and UX on the platform.

Similarly, Instagram’s updated “explore” feature strives to bring more personalized content to the users by including shortcuts to IGTV, Shopping and topics such as Travel, Art and Food based on the users’ individual interests.

4. Making Users Feel Good

Social media apps like Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat excel at making people feel noticed and connected, even if it’s not for real. In these apps, even people who aren’t socially active in real life have found connections that give them a sense of belonging. For billions of people around the world, the ‘likes’, ‘followers’ and ‘comments’ on every thought or image that they share are an instant, potent cure for loneliness.

A face filter app like Snapchat offers dozens of editing options that make people appear better than their real selves, letting people be who they want to be. This has helped social media apps like Facebook and Snapchat remain popular with people over the years.

5. Becoming More Than Just Communication Channels

Social media apps like Instagram are not just a means of communication. Users spend as much time watching celebrity and funny animal videos on Instagram as on their own feed or on conversing with their friends.

Facebook has slowly evolved into a popular gaming platform with popular titles like FarmVille and Candy Crush Saga bringing in millions of users on a daily basis.

Snapchat’s ‘Official Stories’ feature is devoted to celebrities and notable public figures and attracts users from across the globe.

Entertainment, news, learning and advertisements are just a handful of functions available to the users of apps. Exclusive games, visual content, advertising and business prospects have enabled apps like Snapchat to appeal to segments that are not primarily interested in virtual social exchanges.

Also Read: Why YikYak – an Anonymous Social Media App With a Large User Base Failed?

Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat – Journey and Unique Features

While there are many similarities between social media apps like Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat, they all have different journeys, distinctive features and strengths that have made them so successful for so long.

Let’s look at their journeys to learn something from them:

Facebook’ Journey

• Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg, Andrew McCollum, Eduardo Saverin, Chris Hughes and Dusting Moskovitz – all were students at Harvard University.
• It was launched on 4^th February 2004 under the name ‘TheFacebook’.
• TheFacebook received its first investment from Peter Thiel – the co-founder of PayPal. In 2005, the company changed its name to ‘Facebook’.
• In 2007, Microsoft bought a 1.6% share in Facebook for approximately $240 million. At this stage, Facebook’s net worth was estimated to be about $15 billion.
• In 2012, Facebook launched App Center for mobile web, Android and iPhone – an online application store that sold applications that could be operated via Facebook.
• By October 2012, Facebook’s number of monthly active users had touched one billion.
• In 2019, Facebook announced its new goal for future with the official tagline – The future is private. That same year, both the app and website were redesigned. The updated app and website offered improved end to end encryption and allowed direct communication with Instagram and WhatsApp users.
• According to Statista, Facebook is the currently the world’s largest social networking platform, with over 2.45 billion monthly active users.

3 Features that Make Facebook StandOut

• Embed-in-Post

Facebook’s embed-in-post feature instantly fetches and displays images, video and articles that are linked in the user’s posts. This means the users don’t even have to click on embedded links to access that content. Facebook began offering this feature year before even Twitter started its use.

• News Feed

Facebook’s News Feed delivers current affairs, celebrity, sports and entertainment content customized according to the user’s preferences. The last major update of News Feed created controversy because of the company’s choice of news source. But over time, the quality and richness of the feed’s content has made it one of Facebook’s most loved and used features.

• Events

Events is another feature that helps Facebook’s app stand out from other social medial apps. This feature keeps the users updated of all the upcoming events related to their preferred categories, including art, film, dance, causes and comedy. Users just need to select the categories they’re interested in and their location to start getting notifications whenever a relevant event takes place near them.

Also Read: Why Vine – a Video Sharing Platform with 40M Users Failed?

Instagram’s Journey

• Instagram was created as a photo and video sharing network by Kevin Systromand Mike Krieger. It was launched in October 2010.
• At the time of launch, Instagram was exclusive to iOS. Its android version was launched in April 2012, followed by a limited feature website launched in November month of the same year.
• Instagram was an immediate success with global users – it registered one million users in the first two months of initial launch. At the end of its first-year run, Instagram had approximately 10 million registered users.
• In February 2011, Instagram raised $7 million in funding and was valued at approximately $20 million. In the following year, Instagram generated $50 million and its net worth reached $500 million.
• On April 9, 2012, Facebook signed a deal to buy Instagram for an amount of $1 billion. It was decided that Instagram will continue to remain independently managed. The deal was officially closed in September 2012.
• In September 2018, Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger made a public announcement of their decision to step away from Instagram. On October 1, 2018, Adam Mosseri took over as the head of Instagram.
• According to recent reports, Instagram currently has over 2 billion active users. Its mobile app holds the distinction of being the fourth most downloaded app of the past decade.

3 Features that Make Instagram StandOut

• Hashtags

Instagram introduced hashtags (#) in January 2011. This feature helps Instagram users search other users and discover new image and video content. Instagram users utilize specific hashtags to make their posts identifiable. The success of hashtags led to the creation of ‘trends’. Hashtags such as #SelfieSunday, for instance, encouraged users to post their selfies on Sundays, hence becoming a popular trend. Since December 2017, users can follow hashtags and receive the highlights related to these followed hashtags on their feed.

• Explore

Instagram’s Explore tab allows users to discover popular photos that were taken close to their current location. The primary goal of Explore is to allow users to find content other than the users or hashtags they already follow. The 2015 update added the ability to search for locations and included trending places and tags. Instagram updated its Explore tab once again in 2017, allowing users to explore promoted public stories from areas around their own location.

• Managing Cellular Data For Android

Instagram recently launched this feature that allows Android users to limit data expenditure. The new feature restricts high resolution media download through cellular data. User’s devices can still download high resolution content when connected to Wi-Fi. This feature is presently available only for Android devices and is pretty useful to people with limited data plans.

Snapchat’s Journey

• Snapchat was created as a timed multimedia messaging service by Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy and Reggie Brown. The messages and media shared using the app was only accessible for a short duration of time after which they simply disappeared.
• Snapchat was initially released on iOS under the name ‘Picaboo’. In September 2011, it was relaunched as Snapchat.
• In May 2012, Snapchat recorded an average usage of 25 images or Snaps shared per second. By November 2012, the average usage had grown to approximately 20 million Snaps shared per day.
• Snapchat released a dedicated app for Android devices on October 29, 2012.
• In June 2013, Snapchat released an updated app that offered enhanced speed and introduced features like double tap to reply, swipe navigation and a more refined friend finder feature.
• Snapchat is reported to have raised $1.81 billion in May 2016 through equity offering.
• According to reports, Snapchat currently has over 293 million active users worldwide.

3 Features that Make SnapChat StandOut

• Personalized Filters And Lenses

Snapchat’s recent addition – the ability to create personalized filters and lenses has helped it jump ahead of the competition. Using this new feature, users can create custom filters for occasions like weddings and birthday parties. And it’s really easy too – simply go to Profile, click on Settings and then tap Filters and Lenses. The custom filters and lenses are geotagged and are currently available for a pre-determined time period.

• Story Sharing Outside The App

Snapchat allows users to share their stories outside of its mobile app. With this feature, Snapchat users can share any public story simply by tapping and holding on the tile and choosing a channel such as text, email, Twitter and Facebook to share it with others. With this new feature, Snapchat users can now share content even with people who aren’t active on Snapchat.

• Download Snapchat History Data

This feature allows users to check the type of data that the app is storing. This ability helps improve transparency and increases users’ confidence in the app. Users can download the data that Snapchat has saved by going to their Account, logging in and clicking on My Data. Click Submit Request and Snapchat will send a download link on the users’ verified email address.

Wrapping Up

Today, social media apps like Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat have become an inadmissible part of our daily lives. Their continued devotion to keeping the userbase engaged and the ability to continually reinvent with time and technology has kept them at the top of social media mountain for years. And if these apps continue on this track in the future, then the top is where they’ll remain for years to come!

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