It’s all About YouNow: The New Way to Interact With Your Fans
If you’re over the age of 25, YouNow is the biggest live-broadcasting app you’ve probably never heard of. For those who are unfamiliar: YouNow allows a user to host a live-stream video or “broadcast” to other users in a chatroom-type format. It’s time we all perk up and pay attention to this growing application. Here’s why:
- It’s all the rage amongst youngsters
It’s been said for decades that ‘the children are our future’ and since YouNow is all the rage with teens these days, it’s imperative that marketers get familiar! According to an article published by BusinessInsider, You Now's founder, Adi Sideman, revealed “70% of YouNow’s users are under the age of 24 and the platform has 100 million user sessions per month with about 150,000 broadcasts daily.” That’s a lot of youngsters utilizing this app - hungry for interaction!
- It’s an intimate way to interact with fans
Probably the biggest reason why so many young adults are infatuated with YouNow is because it allows them to have a unique, personal interaction with some of their favorite stars-- particularly rising musicians, reality stars and YouTube celebrities. They are able to feel like they are video chatting their favorite online celeb, and essentially-- they are!
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- The new way to Q&A
YouNow is quickly becoming a preferred Q&A method for both the host and Q&A participants. The attendees of the YouNow Q&A broadcast benefit because they are getting to have an intimate, genuine, off-the-cuff interaction with the host that other social media platforms cannot provide. The hosts benefit because they still have the upper-hand just like any other Q&A. On the YouNow app, the broadcast host sees a live-stream of questions in the chat room and they get to pick-and-choose which questions to read aloud to the attendees and follow-up with an answer. This Q&A method takes significantly less time than other popular methods such as YouTube, Twitter or Facebook. This is because there is no preparation or post-editing needed. Just set a time, send out a tweet letting your fans know you are on YouNow and voilá!
Example: One reality star that’s taking advantage of YouNow to boost his stardom is Clay Honeycutt-- a former housemate in CBS’ long-running hit show, Big Brother. Honeycutt has been keeping up with the reality show (now in-season) and after every episode he hosts a live YouNow Q&A broadcast to answer pressing questions that fans might have for him about the freshly aired episode.
- Some users are paying the app
To get their words seen by their favorite celeb or online star, users have the option to pay money to get their comment “pinned” to the top of the chat room for a brief period of time to ensure the host sees the comment. To get your comment seen you need to cough up some YouNow currency -- either ‘coins’ or a ‘bar.’ Both coins and gold bars can be earned overtime by participating in, and promoting YouNow. However, these forms of YouNow currency can also be purchased with the push of a button.
When a well-known YouTube star or reality star is hosting a broadcast, hundreds, sometimes thousands of users are watching, so these chatrooms move fast. If the YouNow host is well-known, you can almost guarantee that many of the broadcast attendees will pay to give up a ‘gold bar’ to ensure that their comment is seen.
In addition to coins and gold bars, users are also welcome to “tip” the hosts, send them fan mail and even “gifts.” Learn more about YouNow’s Premium currency via its website:
- YouNow celebs are taking advantage of the app
Just like YouTube and Vine, favored YouNow stars are gaining a massive online presence. Similarly, YouNow stars can make money off of acquiring a large fan base. According to USAToday, twins Vanessa and Veronica Merrell, both of whom double-up as YouTube and YouNow stars-- each reportedly make $500 to $1,000 per month off of the app.
- Need to monitor your child’s use
Although the app as a whole seems to be a clean, straight-forward, fun and useful app-- there’s a couple red flags that parents need to be aware of, especially considering the application’s popularity amongst young teens. The main red flag being the #truthordare tag. After extensively using the YouNow application, we came across the #truthordate tag. Although none of the broadcasts contained nudity or sexually explicit content, some broadcasts that were seen included sexually suggestive content such as not-so-age-appropriate dancing. If your teen uses YouNow or has friends that use YouNow make sure to talk to them about proper use of the application.
For more information on this thriving new broadcasting app, check out younow.com!