How Facebook Can Get Teens to Interact

21 Feb How Facebook Can Get Teens to Interact

It appears as though the teen demographic on Facebook has been slowly, but surely, falling off Facebook’s radar.  While the interaction amongst college-aged individuals and adults is still strong, there is a substantial hole where the teens once resided on the pervasive platform.

What has caused the drop in teen presence on Facebook?

With the fresh and exciting birth of apps like Snap Chat, which thrive on immediate, personal, and vanishing content, Facebook is seemingly too public.  What’s more, the presence of teen’s parents might also be, well, cramping their style.

So, if Facebook is looking to win back this integral teen demographic, they might consider employing the following:

*Create/Manage Side Brands

While Facebook might still be highly effective for various other demographics, the loss of the teen (or any!) demographic is really quite detrimental to its universal, digital stance.  Anyone who’s anybody knows what Facebook is and, more than likely, uses it habitually.

Since Facebook might have failed to address certain criteria for the teen demographic, it will need to either change itself or manage side brands that can cater to the needs of teens.  Instagram is the perfect example of such success for Facebook.  When they dropped $1 billion on Instagram’s lucrative brand in 2012, they honored the photo sharing app by granting an almost entirely independent platform.  If Facebook can’t find the app or platform to buy, they can surely build a brand that caters to the needs of teens.

*Ensure Parents Keep Out

One of the more prevalent issues causing the teen drop-off is the rampant parental presence on Facebook.  No matter what generation you’re from, being involved with something that even your parents deem as cool is, well, uncool!  So, until those teens reach college-aged maturity, they’re probably going to stay off the radar, unless Facebook can lock down a way to keep parents out of any newly built brands.

Simply put, Facebook will need to establish a way to make teens feel independent, separated from their parents, and in an environment that is exclusively catering to their private needs.

*Make Sure the Content is NOT Permanent

The allure and subsequent success of Snap Chat goes way beyond the ephemeral nature of incriminating photos or videos.  In regard to mere employment opportunities, Facebook is the number one target for immediate rejection regarding the quest for employment.  The maintenance required for one to keep their profile clean and free of any racy content is demanding.  Facebook will win over the teen demographic if an anti-permanent content strategy is employed.

*Continue to Evolve

One thing you can almost always predict about teens is that you CAN’T predict teens.  Given the fickle nature of their interests, trends, and emerging culture, staying present (or even ahead of the game) is within any brand’s best interest.  Facebook should make an assertive and purposeful attempt at always staying ahead of the trends and evolving with the cultural milieu.  The minute teens find their parents in the loop on anything they deem “cool,” said thing is now UNCOOL.

Facebook is an empire.  The big dogs over there are pretty smart, to put it mildly.  It shouldn’t take them long to analyze the cultural pull that apps like Snap Chat have upon teens, and liken those very standards to their own iconic brand.