• by Gavin O'Malley , Staff Writer @mp_gavin, March 8, 2018

Among younger users, Facebook’s flagship app has been losing ground for years. We all knew that, yet the rate at which this trend is occurring is startling.

Over the past year alone, connecting with brands via Facebook fell from 52% to 40% among younger millennials (17 to 27 years old), and from 48% to 33% among older millennials (28 to 38). 

Those findings, from St. Louis-based agency Moosylvania, are terrible for Facebook!

Sure, the fact that the social giant still holds the largest share of reach among all consumers “can’t be overlooked,” says Moosylvania CEO Norty Cohen.

But losing its ability to connect brands with consumers in their financial primes is just bad.

Somewhat softening the sting, connecting with brands via Instagram held at 33% among younger millennials -- and actually increased from 19% to 24% among older millennials -- over the past year.

Facebook may also find solace in the fact that other social platforms are not faring much better among millennials.

Over the past 12 months, in fact, connecting with brands via Twitter fell from 28% to 16% among younger millennials, and from 17% to 13% among older millennials.

Connecting with brands via Pinterest also dipped from from 12% to 7% among younger millennials, and 11% to 6% among older millennials.

And, while Snapchat did achieve some gains among younger folks, they certainly weren’t massive. This past year, connecting with brands via Snapchat increased from 20% to 24% among younger millennials, and only from 10% to 11% among older millennials.

Meanwhile, connecting with brands via YouTube increased from 22% to 23% among younger millennials, while it declined from 18% to 17% among older millennials.

What are platforms doing wrong?

Cohen says they need to do a better job at creating two-way conversations between brands and consumers.

Moreover, “Channels that can personalize and get there quickly are going to do better in the long run,” according to Cohen.