Is Pokémon Go Hurting Your Social Media Marketing?

The Pokémon Go craze has taken over and after a month since its introduction, we wondered just how much of an effect it has on your business’s social media and reputation marketing. So we surveyed over 3,300 U.S. Consumers and came up with some insights that might surprise you.

Our survey presented respondents with choices of 6 representative and popular social media sites/apps. We then asked the respondents to answer a simple question “Which of These Did You Use Today?”  Not surprisingly, Facebook topped the list (see our previous posts and research study on Facebook Usage).

 

But we were astounded that Pokémon Go usage nearly matched Instagram and Snapchat. Additionally, it exceeded the usage of Twitter. But then we started to look at the age demographics of the responses which told us a very different story.

Which Did You Use Today - Facebook by Age

While the responses that included Facebook as a choice showed a broad usage of Facebook across all ages, there was a noticeable difference among the Millennials (ages 18 to 34). Digging further, we could see a very high usage of Pokémon among the Millennials that was not observed in Gen X-ers (ages 35-54) and Baby Boomers (ages 55+). Actually, we were honestly surprised with any Baby Boomers playing Pokémon… seriously?

 

While it has been well established by now that Millennials prefer to use Instagram and Snapchat, we compared their usage of these apps with Pokémon Go.

 

At this point, it was less surprising to see that Pokémon Go usage correlated highly with apps popular among Millennials.

We compared all these results to Yelp, a very popular review site with broad appeal to all age groups. It was interesting to see that Yelp’s sweet spot appeared to center among Gen X-ers, and even after adjusting for the margin of error, there was no particular correlation with Pokémon Go.

This is welcome news for any business focused on Social Media and Reputation Marketing. In fact, Yelp recently blogged on how to Catch More Guests for Your Restaurant with Pokémon Go!  If you’re business is big on Yelp and Millennials you might want to pay attention to this great article.

What does this all mean to you if you are a business owner?  First, don’t fret too much about Pokémon Go’s impact on your business. It likely has very little impact. Second, if your business attracts many Millennials, you might consider some kind of promotion associated with Pokémon. Finally, stay focused on providing the best service to all your customers because that is the ultimate way to get great reviews.

How ReviewInc Can Help

Pardon the gratuitous plug, but ReviewInc can help you engage your customers with social media. Most businesses find it difficult to engage every customer in a consistent process and follow up with social interactions. Utilizing the services of a feedback and review system, such as ReviewInc, is the best way to automate, measure and amplify customer feedback.

Interested in a free consultation on how to improve your online reviews and overall reputation management? Call ReviewInc at 877-973-8439, leave ReviewInc your contact information or email ReviewInc at [email protected] to schedule a free, no-obligation consultation.