Guest

WHY DO WE LOVE VERO ?

Author: Shaniece

Vero has become a very popular social media platform. It prides itself as the game changer of social media. Vero sees itself as being more social than media oriented. Many will love vero because it provides a more natural and ad free experience. Who would not love that ?

Vero strives for transparency where as other platforms prefer working behind the curtain. As stated by the CEO ““We wanted to build something that stood for something beyond a gimmicky, one-feature thing. We wanted it to be an extension of how you want to express yourself. [On other social apps] you’re performing for the crowd. Research shows that people are becoming more and more negatively affected by having to do that all the time. We wanted to create an online social network … that allows you to just be yourself.”

Vero prides its self to being different and coming up with a different approach when it comes to the social experience. The work on a subscription basis where as stated , they are beholden to their users. They ensure that any changes made to their platform is suited to satisfy their consumers because the users are the customer and the platform is the product which is a hit in digital marketing.

Vero also incorporated on their dashboard a feature that lets you know how much time you spend on the platform. This becomes a great idea for individuals to manage their time and not just engage in endless scrolling all day.

Vero is a smarter way of enjoying social media.

Hype Cycle

Depicted in this image is Gartner’s hype cycle. The hype cycle is used to predict how an application will change as time goes on. With this model you can determine if an application actually supports the hype it receives. At the end of the day popularity does not solely last on its own mere existence. New technologies must uphold to the standard of industry needs.With this model you can determine if an application actually supports the hype it receives. At the end of the day popularity does not solely last on its own mere existence. New technologies must uphold to the standard of industry needs. I believe that Vero fits in between the innovative trigger and peak of inflated expectations, and this is because Vero is on the rise.

According to Gartner’s, the innovative peak of expectations is defined as “A potential technology breakthrough kicks things off. Early proof-of-concept stories and media interest trigger significant publicity” (Gartner’s, 2019). As previously discussed Vero tripled its user base to over 3 million users in a 24 hour period! This is an obvious manifestation of Vero’s technological breakthrough. To read more detail about Vero’s value propositions refer to Competitors. On the contrary, Gartner’s continues the innovative trigger definition as “Often (keyword) no usable products exist and commercial viability is unproven”. The app is up and running, so the product exists, yet there is still no commercial viability being that Vero promises free forever to its first 1 million users. App prices are to be determined, and all have free use until further notice.

Moving onto the peak of inflated expectations: “early publicity produces a number of success stories — often accompanied by scores of failures. Some companies take action; many do not” (Gartner’s, 2019). Navigate to the previous link to read up on Vero’s success stories thus far. Pertaining to “scores of failure” the articles mentions that Vero is “reminiscent of other post-Facebook social platforms that failed to capitalize on their mission”. To elaborate on this point, Facebook/IG users complain about privacy levels not being sufficient enough to sustain comfortability while utilizing the app. Users hate having to avoid posting certain content due to who is watching. However, the company’s manifesto combated this claim by revealing that controlling who sees what leaves room for more natural behavior. Vero lives for truth and being authentic. The technological manifestations of these values is what will keep Vero popular among the social media world.

Audience

So, who exactly are the peeps raving about Vero? According to a blog post by Business Insider “its growing user base skews heavily male and heavily millennial, according to app-analytics firm Apptopia” (Insider Inc, 2019). Furthermore, the audience age bracket ranges from 21-40. It was reported that the app user numbers tripled from 1 – 3 million in a matter of 24 hours. The growth even crashed Vero’s servers! Read about it here

WHERE THE HECK DID THESE USERS COME FROM?!

There are 588k posts, as well as comments that utilize the #vero hashtag on Instagram. Therefore, its pretty frikin obvious that the masses are users coming from the land of the Gram of Instant (lol). This also suggests that many of Instagram’s users can potentially make the switch now that a BETTER option for digital marketing platform actually exists. What makes me draw that conclusion you ask? (Here is why)…

Vero has also gained a profound customer base of popular influencers, whom we all know carry the life of social media brand awareness/marketing today in their own creative content. This solves the issue for brands in Vero’s Ad free app environment. Brands have the opportunity to leverage themselves through these individuals whose impressive following unlocked influence that was once only for celebrities. If you ask me, I believe brands are better off having success without the annoying ads and bot messages that are unwanted and ignored by most users. It can actually do more harm than good. It can be flat out annoying, and people want real thoughts, feelings from actual people whom they can relate & interact with. SIMPLE.

Influencers, lifestyle and entertainment social media marketing seems to be the new direction that brand wave is riding. Click video, or check out the link embedded below to view one of Vero’s Influencer marketing campaigns.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BtiYo8JlWYE/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet

In the competitors section we covered some examples of vero user types. To continue, Vero also attracts many humanitarians, and unique artists such as marine photographers. The platform’s squad has even teamed up with musicians and charity organization to birth Vero’s Great Guitar Giveaway

Competitors

Pertaining to the realm of competition, Instagram is Vero’s rival. Like Instagram, Vero is heavily based on marketing digital content (photos, video, and music). However, Vero is more broad in the manifestations of marketing for its Audience or users. Unlike Instagram, this app also gives users the option to share books, podcasts, and multiple links. Thus, enabling users to obtain a more personalized construction of their account. An example of one who may benefit from Vero is an author seeking to market his or her novel sample. Another example may be a pastor, or clergy leader who seeks for his/her sermons to penetrate the masses via podcast/ voice memo; not just a one minute clip.

Unfortunately for Instagram, Vero’s users enjoy exploring Sponsor Ad free content. Vero also took an in-depth approach to alleviating privacy concerns; this is frikin awesome! Recently, Instagram released the “close friends” story option that gave users the option to only share story posts with a selected group of followers. Vero furthered this concept with the options of acquaintances, friends, close friends and followers. Meanwhile It’s no doubt that Vero is a revamped IG. I see a very strong potential to Vero obtaining a solid user base, and even gaining IG users that decide to make the switch!

Another aspect that separates Vero from IG is its set of core company values. In addition no ads, bots, scams, or spam Vero values authenticity and transparency. I went digging around on the company site and came across some other unique value propositions. Here are a few quotes about what they value. They will soooo will succeed at standing out to you.

“MOST SOCIAL NETWORKS REDUCE EVERYONE TO A FRIEND OR A FOLLOWER. THIS ENCOURAGES US TO ONLY SHARE THE PARTS OF OUR LIVES WE THINK ARE THE MOST INTERESTING.

WHEN YOU CAN CONTROL WHO SEES WHAT, YOU CAN BEHAVE IN A WAY THAT IS MORE NATURAL, WHICH WE BELIEVE ENDS UP BEING BETTER FOR YOU.

SO WE DECIDED TO CREATE SOMETHING MORE AUTHENTIC.

WE CREATED A SOCIAL NETWORK THAT LETS YOU BE YOURSELF. HENCE THE NAME VERO. MEANING TRUTH.” (Vero Labs Inc, 2019).

To read up on more of Vero’s value propositions, click Here.