Snapchat and Podcasting Growth: What the Research Reveals

The world is moving at a dizzying pace and it is the curse of being a business ambitious enough to want success to keep up with the pace. Just when you thought you had a grip on social media by getting a considerable following on Facebook and Twitter, Instagram arrived. Now even before you’ve cooled your heel there people are moving on to the next hot platform, Snapchat. Now all these digital habits may seem overwhelming or extremely exciting, depending on where you stand. But hold on for a minute, is it really worth the effort always sticking out your finger to see which way the social media wind is blowing so that you can follow? Research has been conducted and the results on the new phenomenon of Snapchat and Podcasting are out. Follow the dissection closely.

The growth of Podcasting :

Serial Podcast can be credited with playing the biggest part in the popularization of podcasting, seeing as, since its advent in 2014, podcasting has become a thing in advertising. Advertising always follows the numbers and podcasting has posted them impressively, especially in the recent past. Between 2008 and 2014, the proportion of Americans who were paying attention to podcasts stagnated largely between 9% and 12%. However, the numbers have seen shot up to clock 17% in 2015, 21%, and growing in 2016. This is a 24% growth of podcasting in a year, not the kind of growth that you ignore in the advertising world.

Additionally, mainstream media are now largely available on podcasts now. The first step in this direction was the coverage of the growth of the Serial Podcast in mainstream publications such as the New York Times, leading to more awareness about it. Since then other podcast media have sprung up and attracted many influential forces in the most widely accepted media, including sportsmen and journalists, even media houses.

Listening trends in Podcasts

Some kinds of material were noted to be especially popular in podcasting. They include:

Original content: the podcasting audience was noted to be keen on originality. People with fresh ideas gain instant popularity of the platform as is true of Alex Blumberg, who introduced radio content broadcast in journalistic style to podcasting.
Music: 80% of the content on podcasts is music while the other 20% is spoken word.
Current events: News, insights, and reports on current news, sports, and comedy attract huge followings in podcasts.

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Listening means :

More than two-thirds of podcast listeners were found to use mobile devices. It therefore makes plenty of sense that the rise of podcast has come in the age where the smartphone has already been popularized. The widespread availability of internet connectivity has also worked largely in its favor.

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Snapchat :

The use of Snapchat stood at 3% for all Americans aged twelve and above. This also runs into millions of people, but it was relatively low. However, just one year into monitoring the use of the platform, The Infinite Dial recorded a jump from 3% to 14% and then to 17% in the following year. In 2016, the usage is at 23%, meaning that more than sixty million Americans on Snapchat and the year is not over yet counting.

The Demography on Snapchat :

If you as a business want to make any use of Snapchat for your brand, it is paramount that you understand who these sixty million people are and why they continue to use Snapchat. As on Instagram, which is used by nearly 30% of Americans., Snapchat is a medium for teens and young adults.

Regardless of the fact that it is the fourth largest social media platform in use today for the total population, it is the leading platform for those aged between 12 and 24 years. 72% of this demographic are all on Snapchat while only 68% of the same are on Facebook. To capture the significance of this statistic, this is the first time in the History of Infinite Dial that a social platform has topped Facebook in any category.

It is important to note that, as an already established medium, Facebook does not have anywhere near the growth potential of Snapchat, which is still on a very high momentum as the numbers show. As more people get on Snapchat, the time they would otherwise spend on Facebook.

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Future of Podcasts and Snapchat :

Both these platforms are on a healthy growth trajectory. The key to making the most of the podcasts is by ensuring that they make forays into segments of the population currently not reached and learning how to create perfect social media posts for all people. Currently, it caters more to the more affluent and educated Americans.

Going by the trends, Snapchat is quite possibly the next big thing. However, it is not as ad-friendly as most other media. This profoundly affects businesses used to the old model of operation and they must reevaluate their operational models to tap into the influence of Snapchat.