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Millennials and video sharing: What’s the attraction?

Millennials are in their element on social media. Who has the most followers, who took the best selfie, who got the most likes.

They spend most of their time on smartphones and will be at the front of the queue for the next big mobile and social media craze. The most recent popular trend being video sharing. 

Platforms and Videos

Snapchat entered the scene in 2011 and whilst it started off as just a photo sharing app, it added a new feature allowing users to send 10 second videos in 2012. With 50 million users sending snaps each day, it then went one step further and added a stories feature, allowing people to add photos and videos to a 24-hour story. 

Twitter also got creative and introduced Vine in 2013 which was very popular and a big craze for millennials. It created a buzz around video content and allowed you to post six second video clips instantly to the platform. It gave its users the chance to experiment, be creative and develop their own story.

However, when Instagram introduced Instagram stories in 2016, it had a negative effect on Snapchat’s usage and engagement rates, and Twitter discounted Vine due to the market becoming so competitive. 

Whilst all these platforms have the option of video creation, TikTok spotted the gap and entered the market as a video-only app in 2016. It lets users create 15 second videos with music and special effects. It reached 80 million downloads in the US in 2018, 1 billion downloads in February this year and as of July 2018, has many more users than Twitter and Snapchat.

Instagram are fighting back

One platform who wants to keep themselves at the front of video content trend is Instagram, as they are currently trialling a new video feature called Reels in a bid to compete with TikTok. Reels is a new format in Instagram stories that gives users access to various video editing tools and music. They can record 15 second videos, speed up or slow down the content and share music across users.

Users can share Reels to stories or privately in direct messages. This is currently being tested in Brazil and if it takes off, we could be seeing the new feature in Instagram very soon. 

Why is video sharing so popular?

These video based platforms give millennials the chance to be creative, fun and really show off their personality to all who can see.They can express themselves through video, which is arguable missing on some other apps. 

However, like other platforms where followers and likes boost your popularity, having a video go viral can be a big contributor to the social status and a plus for users of these apps. Whilst you can post your own videos, users can also be the consumer on these apps by having video led conversations, using in-app games and receive virtual gifts. 

With video engagement being so high on social media and platforms constantly introducing new features to compete with each other, brands would do well to follow this video content craze and get creative on their social channels.

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