Here's Where All Those Teens Fleeing Facebook Are Going

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Editor's Note: Social Insights will not publish on Monday, Jan. 20, due to the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday.

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WHERE HAVE ALL THOSE TEENS GONE?: We learned recently that Facebook's U.S. audience consists of approximately 3 million fewer teens (ages 13-17) than it did in 2011, and now we have data showing that young teens are favoring simpler, image-based social networks over Facebook.

A marketer conducted an informal survey of his wife's 120 eighth grade students, and here's where they said they hang out on the Internet (noting all that apply):

• Instagram: 115
• Twitter: 85
• Vine: 85
• Snapchat: 80
• Facebook: 2

The survey is certainly anecdotal, rather than providing hard evidence about how teens are spending their time on social media. However, it does reaffirm supporting evidence showing that teens are embracing a variety of social networks to carry out different activities, such as sharing a photo or video with their friends. According to a recent Pew Research study, 42% of Internet users use two or more social networking sites. (AdAge)

TWITTER GETS SERIOUS ABOUT COMMERCE: Twitter is reportedly closing a deal with mobile payments provider Stripe to make it easier for brands to sell their merchandise directly on Twitter. Social media is becoming more competitive with search as a source of e-commerce sales, and apparently Twitter is committed to pursuing this trend. (Re/code)

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FACEBOOK GOES AFTER TV AD SPENDING: Facebook published the results of a study showing that users who saw car ads on Facebook were 50% more likely to visit the website of the automaker than those who had not seen the ad campaign. The automotive industry is the largest source of TV ad dollars, so Facebook is likely trying to sway some of those advertisers to make media buys on its platform. (Facebook)

FACEBOOK TO FEATURE TRENDING POSTS: Facebook will begin showing a personalized list of trending posts next to the News Feed based on a user's interests and what type of content is most popular at the time on the social network. The new feature is yet another example of Facebook overhauling its News Feed to display the most relevant and important content for users. (Mashable)

ENLISTING POPULAR SNAPCHATTERS: Wet Seal, which is a teen-oriented retailer, hired a 16-year-old girl who has accumulated a loyal following on YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram, to manage its Snapchat account during the weekend before Christmas. Her efforts added 9,000 new followers to the brand's account. It's yet another example of a brand leveraging a consumer to generate earned media via social networks. (AdAge)

FACEBOOK TO FOCUS ON MOBILE IN 2014: Facebook is reportedly working on a number of standalone mobile apps that it plans to launch in 2014. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg first hinted about these developments in an earnings call one year ago, but that vision is expected to come to fruition this year, according to The Verge. Such a strategy really doesn't come as much of a surprise, as mobile messaging apps are taking off like rocket ships, and Instagram is doing pretty well for itself as a standalone app. It's also indicative that mobile companies are learning they don't have to provide all services under one umbrella. As with social networks, users are willing to use different apps for different purposes. (The Verge)

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