At Mediaura, we know all about social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn and how they can be good for businesses, but there are new social networks emerging all the time. And it might be good to keep your eye on some of these up-and-coming platforms.
Mediaura employees are beta-testers for a lot of new social networks as a way to test out what could work for our clients in the future. Because many of these sites aren’t well developed yet, or some aren’t even out for the public or are “invite-only,” we’ve only been experimenting with them ourselves and not yet for clients. But, you never know what could be the next break out social media role.
So, what are some of the more prominent ones you should be aware of?
5 new social networks that could boost your business
First, we’ll talk about this invite-only website (still in its beta stages) that’s been branded as the “anti-Facebook.” Ello is attempting a different approach to social media, and you’ve probably heard or seen the name pop up a couple of times by now. But, what does “anti-Facebook” even mean?
Ello’s legal charter specifically prohibits the sale of ads or user data and declares that any buyer of the social network must also adhere to those rules. Basically Ello has no ads or data mining, so unlike Facebook, there aren’t billboards everywhere being targeted at you and the company won’t collect and sell data about you to third parties. Doubt it will work? Venture capitalists seem to think otherwise because Ello recently raised $5.5 million in funding by signing a legal contract binding the website to its promise from ever selling ads.
Ello will make its money by offering special features. These consist of customization options for a very low cost to make each user’s experience unique. The site is still working out some kinks, but the cool thing about Ello is that they’re adding a substantial list of new features. These include inline video and audio posts from YouTube, Vimeo, Vine, Instagram and Soundcloud that could just maybe make this site pretty popular for people and businesses alike.
While this website probably isn’t ideal for companies looking to target or market to an audience, it has become quite popular amongst the creative set and we’re interested to see what happens next.
Thumb and Thumb Pro
Thumb and Thumb Pro, which is even better for businesses, is an app-based crowdsourcing platform where users get opinions from other users on everything from an opinion of a new sweater to feedback about new products and services for their company.
Thumb has huge potential for small businesses because it has the ability to gauge interest in new products and Thumb Pro allows you to get feedback on:
- Ad creative & copy
- Product design
- New products and services
- Concepts
- Pitches & story writing
- New designs
- Pre-study testing
- Pricing
- Quick polls
One thing is for certain, and that is that this app is already extremely popular with the masses. According to TechCrunch, Thumb’s average usage is currently second only to Facebook’s. So chances are if you haven’t already heard of this app, it’s only a matter of time before you will.
Created by Evan Williams and Biz Stone, former employees from Blogger and Twitter, the social network is a mix of what works today: Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, etc. It is a platform for sharing of content, organized into “collections”. Medium works because it is a publishing platform for sharing ideas and stories that are longer than 140 characters and isn’t designed just for friends in the way Twitter is. It has high-quality posts as it was initially used by established journalists and digital space thought leaders.
Using Medium for your business is like having a blog for your organization without the commitment of a blog, and you have an automatic target audience. Through a combination of algorithmic and editorial curation, posts on Medium get spread around the internet based on interest and engagement. The site also has an incredible web-based editor.
Pheed
Pheed is like a combination of Vine and Instagram, as it shares text updates, photos, videos, voice notes, and live broadcasts. Pheed is a free social multimedia platform, available on mobile devices via the App Store, Google Play, and via the web. Businesses may find it beneficial to their needs because users can monetize their Pheeds by charging subscription fees or offering pay-per-view broadcasts.
If you’re a business with high-value content, Pheed could be a great added revenue stream. With all the different ways you can express yourself on Pheed it allows you to tell a story in a fun and interesting way. Right now, Pheed is mostly focused on businesses in the entertainment or performance industries, but it’s quite likely it will continue to expand in a manner similar to Facebook and Twitter.
Similar to Pinterest, Learnist is a curation platform with a lot of promise. It describes itself as a tool for “people helping other people learn. Learn something, teach something.” There are many sites out there for this sort of thing, but Learnist differs in how it organizes and passes lessons onto the audience and how the audience can interact with them.
Small businesses can create curated boards with a plethora of relevant, topic-focused content as a way to gain followers. For a company with lots of training projects, Learnist could be a good online solution because it delivers dynamic content to different user groups.
What this means for you
If you’re trying to expand your social networking strategy, some of these social networks could be worth looking into. Here at Mediaura, we continue to stay on top of social media in order to provide clients with the best branding to generate positive results. You never know, one of these networks might just become an integral part of your social media toolkit in 2015.
If you would like to learn more about Mediaura’s Social Media Management services or find out what opportunities exist for your business to grow its audience and brand profile, give us a call at 502-554-9649 or visit our Contact page. A member of our team will be happy to talk with you and discuss how Mediaura can leverage our expertise to achieve your goals.
