The Death of Vine, and the Lifespan of Social Media Posts

There are a variety of social media platforms, and each one caters to its own unique demographic. Vine, owned by Twitter, hosts millions of users who can post 6 second videos to amuse their fans. It’s a bit like Youtube, SnapChat, and Facebook all rolled into one.

It also recently died.

Twitter acquired Vine in 2012, and in 2015 the top ‘viners’ met with the company to discuss the future of the platform. Yes, a group of teens and twenty-somethings held the fate of this company in their hands. So much so that they asked for 1.2 million dollars each, in exchange for platform loyalty and guaranteed scheduled content. Yet, here in 2016, Twitter has announced Vine will be no more. This just shows us that no matter the amount of money you invest in something, if it’s not the correct platform, it will not last.

What can we learn from this?

Social Media platforms are a quirky thing. They require tons of maintenance, and yet there are limited ways to measure ROI in the traditional sense. Instead of directly seeing $$$ companies are looking more for engagement, views, and shares amongst their targeted demographic. In January of 2016 alone, social media platform users went up 10% world wide, and reached 315 million daily users in North America alone.

Because of social media’s vast reach, and the modern ability to target a demographic, your business needs to decide which platforms it would like to spend it’s time on. We will cover the lifespan and possible ROI for the ‘top four’ platforms. Note that these are all opinion and individual companies may benefit more from one over another.

As we can see above, Pinterest has the longest ‘shelf life’ or any social media platform.  After it comes  Facebook, Instagram and then Twitter.

ROI for platforms:

Facebook:

Facebook shares carry a decent weight with Google, and pairing this with ads means you may have success targeting your preferred audience with this platform. Facebook reaches a large demographic, and uses a combination of visuals and text to pitch products or services. It is reported that only 6.5 percent of people actually discover new brands on Facebook, but 51% of users are more likely to buy from a brand they follow online. They are also more likely to share a post or publicly praise a company on this platform after visiting. In the dental field, a referral from a friend is worth much more  than a standard ad any day.

Pinterest:

As discussed before, Pinterest is a social media platform definitely worth your time. Based entirely around DIY, home tips and services, it’s hard to imagine not using it. Pinterest users are mostly female, ages 20-50 with children. They often are searching for something in particular and 93% of users use the platform to make their final purchasing decision. Users are also boast the most financial assets of all social media sites. Great visuals rule Pinterest, making it a great place for before and afters to show off a dentists work! This site is also founded on blog posts. If you have a dental blog you MUST have a Pinterest profile to drive traffic to your site.

Instagram:

There are 50 million images uploaded to Instagram each day. While this seems chaotic, with Instagram’s new algorithm, it actually helps businesses. Not only are there now ads that can be boosted, there are analytics that you can use to track posting times, and which hashtags gain the most exposure. Instagram is similar to Pinterest in that many users actually ‘search’ for what they are looking for. It’s visual nature also lends itself greatly to dental work. With millennials entering the work force, and taking over their own dental care-it is important to show up on their territory and show them what you can do.

If you can only pick between Twitter or Instagram for your practice…always choose Instagram.

Twitter:

On Twitter you not only have limited characters, you also have limited time to make a statement. Tweets have the shortest lifespan of all social media updates. In just 18 minutes your witty statement, or well-designed infographic can be lost in the world. The good news? Nearly 53% of people will recommend a service or brand via this social media platform. So while recommendations are fleeting, you can certainly gain brand loyalty. By having a good social media manager, you can share, favorite and respond to tweets from you patients in a timely manner. This not only makes your practice look attentive, it also makes a tweet’s lifespan nearly triple.

So which social media platform will you be investing in? We at Infinity Dental Web can help you manage some or all of your profiles! I would recommend a modern dentist to have at least three of the four platforms listed here. Some dentists who have willing patients find that SnapChat and YouTube also do very well. If you’re interested in how that works in the medical field I highly suggest you check out Dr.Miami on SnapChat!