Could Yik Yak be the next Facebook?
The social media app is gaining popularity on college campuses, which means marketers should be aware of its virtues, as well as its setbacks.
On a cold, blustery day in February 2004 at Harvard University, the seeds of the social media revolution were sown. That’s when Mark Zuckerberg and his then-pals launched what now is Facebook, the world’s largest social media network. Facebook germinated at college campuses around the U.S. and eventually spread to the global public.
Flash forward to November 2013, when Facebook already had shot past the 1 billion-user mark. That month, shortly after graduating from Furman University, former fraternity brothers Tyler Droll and Brooks Buffington introduced Yik Yak, a social media app that thrives on anonymous, location-based comments. Just as with Facebook, college students around the U.S. have swarmed to Yik Yik, available on iOS and Android devices.
According to Forbes.com, Droll, the CEO, and Buffington, the chief operating officer, “compare their app to Facebook, which started with narrow college interests but grew steadily into the behemoth it is today.”
While certainly not a behemoth, Yik Yak is attracting its share of attention—some positive, some negative.
Let’s begin with the positive.
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