There is a relatively new app that people are finding on their own, but they’re doing so in droves. It’s the app Telegram, a social media messaging app that allows so much more functionality and purpose to its users than many of the currently most known messaging apps.
It’s not uncommon for a mass marketing campaign to come out about a new app to hit to market. It’s toted as the next big thing in social media, able to solve all the world’s problems with the single download that costs less than a cup of a coffee. People might try it for a while, if only just to claim that they were the early adopters, only to discover that a week goes by when they didn’t use it. They slowly take it out of the rotation of their everyday app usage. They forget the password, don’t hear any more about it, and eventually delete to make space on their phone for more selfies.
Everyone does it. So, why should Telegram be worth the time?
It turns out that Telegram has an issue that still affects apps today: geography. If social media is about being social, it’s hard to socialize with someone in another language. People tend to use the apps their peers are using. Telegram has huge followings in many countries like Russia, Brazil, Argentina and many other Latin countries. The problem was that not many Americans socialize with Russians or Ecuadorians, therefore the app wasn’t building the same steam in the Western world.
That is no longer the case as Telegram continues to make waves in the industry in America. The newest ears to prick up about this app are the marketers and brand managers. If there is a new app that people are becoming interested in, you can be sure that the marketers have already evaluated its potential.
And the reviews are in.
Marketing on Telegram is the newest way to reach large audiences and connect them to the blogs, the people, and the brands that they love. It’s a smart, sophisticated tool for marketing.
Here are the 9 top reasons why any marketer should add Telegram to their arsenal.
Telegram Has a Growing Base of Users
As mentioned, Telegram has a steady base of monthly active users. For the longest time, the growth was mainly in Russia and Brazil, with each country counting a total of over 100 million users. That number continues to grow with insane side statistics like 15 billion messages sent every day through the app.
Yes, that’s every DAY.
That number, along with every other metric used by the company is on the same trend: heading upward. To provide an idea of how exponential the growth is, WhatsApp (Telegrams’ biggest competitor) went offline for a period of 4 hours recently. During that time, Telegram users went up by over 5 million within 24 hours. That number was reported a couple years ago as being 220,000 per day. That’s an incredible 2500% increase in daily subscribers simply from a 4 hour shortage.
For a marketer who wants to see metrics and analyzed data, those numbers should cause some real excitement.
It Has Created Channels
Of course, Telegram is incredibly popular due to the features that it boasts. Not only can there be one-on-one discussions and group chats, there is now a new tool for getting the message out there. Channels was recently released by Telegram as an improved way to send our messages to multiple users through a permanent URL.
Those who subscribe to the permanent URL are included in the group list. This list has no limits on sizes. This is an improvement from the previous 1000 contacts limit.
Channels is a versatile tool with exciting prospects. Those who can access the permanent URL can subscribe at any time. Any link or message sent out by the broadcaster can see a live view counter of their message. The views are even counted when the link is forwarded on to other members outside of the Channel. There is a strong potential there for marketers and brand managers.
It Has Strong Encryption
One of the greatest reasons for Telegram’s meteoric rise to no.1 in the app charts during the WhatsApp outage was the extreme security it offers their users. There is strong peer-to-peer encryption for secret chats between individuals. The messages can even have a self-destruct option put on them for anywhere from 1 minute to 1 week after viewing. These messages aren’t stored anywhere in the cloud or on a server, and can only be accessed on the end user’s phone. The reputation for privacy is what makes the app such a huge hit.
Marketers love the option to offer limited time deals, and with the encryption method, these deals can truly be time-sensitive with the self-destruct option activated. It provides a level of security that inspires trust and loyalty in the brand and the message.
It Is Entirely Word of Mouth Marketing
In a true modern world fairy tale, this is a company that now is knocking on the door of its bigger neighbors of Snapchat and WhatsApp, both worth multiple billions of dollars. Telegram has features that Snapchat can’t offer with and encryption and options that WhatsApp hasn’t touched yet.
The best part of this?
This has all happened without a single dollar being spent on marketing.
Nothing. Nada. Zip. Zero.
This is the true unicorn, the white stag of a company that has reached this power without any marketing other than word of mouth. Just as with all other social media apps, this app only spreads because it actually helps people socialize. If an app truly works, then people will talk about it with their friends. 100 million friends later, Telegram is a power to be reckoned with.
It Requires No Space or Memory
Part of the appeal of this app comes from the amount of storage it requires on a phone. It uses an entirely cloud-based storage model that keeps almost no data on the user’s phone. All the photos, videos, texts and other docs sent are stored online unless downloaded to a phone.
The death knell of any app on someone’s phone is if it takes up too much precious memory. Because Telegram is so miniscule in size, it doesn’t intrude in a way that other size-heavy apps do.
That, if it isn’t clear, is good news for marketers. If an app isn’t creating a burden on a user, it will be kept longer offering the marketer more opportunities to reach their audience.
It’s Not Owned by Any Parent Corporation
Another mass exodus from WhatsApp was noted when the news broke that Facebook acquired the popular messaging app for the ludicrous sum of $19 billion dollars.
That’s billion with an “L”, as in that a Lot of money.
The only reason that people could try to fathom from the sudden popularity increase of Telegram was that it offered a safe haven from the global conglomerates acquiring goods and services. Telegram was started with the intention of remaining independent. The money came from a Russian investor who finances it to this day.
In fact, in their words, “Telegram can’t be sold”. Its non-profit model means that it was not created to make the billions that other companies strive for: it was built to offer a better messaging service to the people.
Marketers see that people actively try to seek out companies that are purposefully being philanthropic and magnanimous in their ventures. By working with Telegram, marketers align themselves with a company whose message is appealing in this currently economy.
It Can Offer Payment Transfers
For those who try to simply categorize Telegram as knockoff of WhatsApp or a Snapchat try-hard, they miss the point of the app. It’s a message service with strong privacy embedded into it. It also offers self-destructing message capabilities.
That’s not all. There’s more.
Currently offered in the bigger markets of Russia and Brazil, the option to transfer money within the app will soon be available. MoneyTalk is a client within in Telegram that allows users to transfer funds using the app.
This takes advantage of the already secure encryption that Telegram boasts of. They are so proud of their encryption that they’ve offered $200,000 to the developer that can crack it.
It’s Completely Free
As a barrier to entry, even a $0.99 app charge would hinder millions of users from switching over to Telegram. It’s kept completely free to be in line with the non-profit model of the company. Telegram even goes so far as to release the source code for their app as a way to encourage others to create their own Telegram clients online. It’s similar to what Elon Musk does with the Tesla patents he offers to anybody as a thought to better the world of electric cars. This is the thinking behind Telegram’s source code release.
Final Thoughts
Telegram might only be 3 years into the market of social media messaging. Those three years have been explosive in their growth and reach across the world. The US and Western Europe are gaining ground on the usage of this app.
If this is anything to go by, marketers should be wiping up drool off their chins at the huge untapped market presented by this company. There is no excuse not to add this powerful marketing weapon to the arsenal of tools at the marketer’s disposal.
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