Game of Thrones: Social Media Edition

Being connected to the social universe often means wading through seemingly endless opinionated posts on Facebook, fast-paced tweets and critiquing someone's selfie game on Instagram. The "Big 4" of the social platforms are crowned Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Linkedin, but are there new contenders in the social media game of thrones? The increasing popularity of visual social platforms like Snapchat and Periscope may say so.

The contenders: 

1.) Snapchat

It's no secret Snapchat has become popular among the ages of approximately 16- to 23-year-olds - high school and college students. Snapchat has stepped forward as a means of communicating and sharing that is instantaneous, feeds into our narcissistic need to take pictures of ourselves and our need to put our nose into what others are doing - making it a perfect platform for personal social media. 

Starting out as a basic interface that only allowed users to send pictures that lasted 10 seconds or less, Snapchat has evolved  from its first version to what it is today. The addition of filters, ability to take video and "Snapchat stories" are all additions that have made the platform more interesting and modern. Another feature Snapchat has added is the "Discover" feature, which allows companies to appear on Snapchat to connect to users through a platform most companies wouldn't even think to use. Mostly networks, magazines and celebrities have made appearances on Snapchat's "Discover" channel, and it's used to push visual content to followers or anyone who wants to click on the "Discover" menu and then proceed to push a network's icon. The "Discover" channel gives a glimpse into "interesting" people's lives and makes the viewer feel a part of what is happening. As a visual company, like Cosmopolitan magazine or the Food Network, a glimpse into the content being fed through the "Discover" channel could be all a potential subscriber needs to tune into a cooking show or notice the newest cover of Cosmo magazine and buy it at the gas station. 

2.) Periscope

Periscope is quite new. Launched in March of 2015, Periscope is another visual platform that markets the ability to see the world through another person's eyes. 

How Periscope works: a subscriber can broadcast live video feed through the application to followers around the world. You can then post the video on Twitter (with Periscope's unique Twitter button that connects to your Twitter account). Also, you can make your video available for replay by pressing the "Replay" button, however, like a Snapchat story, the replay is available for 24 hours only. But don't take my word for it, check out the website, or the app on Google Play or the App Store.

Periscope offers a social aspect by sharing video, but by also posting "hearts" to the video posted. Similar to the "Like" button on Facebook, you can see how much your adoring fans liked the video of you and your cat singing karaoke to the newest Taylor Swift track. 

All jokes aside, Periscope seems like a budding flower in the garden of social media. Interactive and visual, Periscope has the potential to be a powerhouse, especially if it keeps adding new features like Snapchat is doing. It can also become an untapped gold mine for visual companies to broadcast short videos, like "a day in the life," or what a product is able to do, maybe taking a page from Blendtec's marketing handbook and creating something similar to the "Will it Blend?" videos (see one here, it's pretty cool).

It is hard to foresee the future and what will become a trend and what will flop. However, Snapchat and Periscope have seemingly good roots to become kings in the social market...or maybe one of the Big 4 will swoop down on the usurpers and smite the rebellion. We shall see.