Lemon8 stands poised on the edge of consumer interest – just in time for sunny summer content and accompanying TikTok ban thunderclouds. Born from ByteDance, Lemon8 also hails from TikTok’s parent company. Lemon8 was on its way to making the US App Store’s Top 10, just as TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew was speaking with Congress.
TikTok creators and influencers are singing its praises, specifically stating the app is “Pinterest meets Instagram.” Gen Z is especially interested and spurring downloads with Lemon8 becoming the most downloaded app in the Apple store this year.
What’s grabbing their attention – and what’s in it for marketers? Gaining and growing market share in consumers’ social ecosystems requires precise attention and assessment, identifying which social platform is worth the spend. Let’s see if Lemon8’s juice is worth the squeeze for your social strategy and marketing dollars.
The origin of Lemon8
Founded in 2020, a team of former TikTok employees dedicated their time to a more community-oriented alternative app. Lemon8’s homepage displays “Fresh discoveries every day” offering users blog, photo, and video content. The layout displays two columns that fall under the For You content tab, mimicking a similar Pinterest browsing experience. Yet, the Following tab recalls more classic Instagram, scrolling through one post at a time. These engaging tactics create a different experience to scroll and see more content at a single time while being able to sink in and read detailed longer posts on the Following page. Here’s an example of the mobile experience.
Both feeds are highly visual and share product photos, images, infographics, blog-style posts, and more. Popular content topics and categories include travel, wellness, and fashion. Before B2B and other brands think this isn’t the social app for them, Lemon8’s powerful focus on community, offering close-knit, communicative groups and high engagement between users, should be considered for any brand looking for highly engaged and easily activated Gen Z audiences.
GenZ leads Lemon8 usage – for now.
At the moment, Gen Z leads in Lemon8 usage. That makes sense. Social media is embedded in their lives more so than any other generation. Kids born from 1997 to 2012 are comfortable and excited about building online community. Gen Z is more likely to vet a product or service by searching hashtags, tags, Instagram business profiles, YouTube, or Pinterest than on search engines with 90% of Gen Z using social media every day. However, Hubspot reports more than 1 in 5 social media users have joined or participated in an online community in the past three months. Brandwatch agrees, stating as markets continue to saturate, brands’ mission and purpose influence consumers more and more as they search for authenticity as well as value within crowded spaces. As social media apps continue their evolution as also ecommerce platforms, community-centered apps offering authentic influencer partnerships, creator collaborations, and UGC content about products and services will grow earned media value as pivotal channels for brands.
How does Lemon8 fit into the social app ecosystem?
Today’s social landscape reflects consumer behavior, cultural shifts, and global realities. As each app vies to grow its share of attention, brands, in turn, must stay one chess move ahead of evolving trends – to greet and interact with target audiences on the best social apps for their marketing strategy. As an app, Lemon8 continues several key trends in consumer interest and app creation, providing marketers with a roadmap for possible integration into marketing strategies.
Lemon8 meets consumers growing need for community.
People are increasingly looking for social and community connections online. Apps such as Lemon8 are racing to greet them. With the ability to provide similar benefits to in-person community, such as belonging, shared interest, and connection, communities extended into or built from social media additionally break through geographic boundaries. Mobile and social media use is growing across the entire consumer landscape, spurring brands to invest even more in building authentic, expanding online communities within their target audiences’ social ecosystem.
Lemon8 is another discovery engine.
Rather than focusing on content from accounts users follow and people they know, Lemon8, like TikTok, prioritizes discovery feeds with its “For You” section. Lemon8 is algorithmically primed to serve personalized, highly engaging content from accounts users have yet to know and engage with. Pinterest has described itself as a visual discovery engine for years, customizing feeds for continuous scrolling and specific searches. Lemon8 continues this mission – focused on growing attention through search-friendly social content.
Lemon8 goes all in on visual search.
B2C and B2B brands take note: visual repackaging of complex information, such as insurance or financial well-being, is table stakes social strategy for younger consumers. Businesses see that Gen Z and Millennials more and more head to social apps and not Google search for questions big and small. This doesn’t spell the end of search. But it does share the increasing complexity within the search landscape, offering more ways for people to find the information, products, and services that can bring value to their lives. There are opportunities for value-rich content shared via social apps built to simplify complex topics into highly visual and more easily digestible consumer content.
Audit your social strategy – for community, discovery, visual search, and more.
What can brands take away from Lemon8’s rising trajectory? Social trends in consumer behavior, interest, and usage have implications for your marketing strategy at large – and, ultimately, your bottom line.
Reflect with your team on the following:
- Is our current social strategy centered on developing an authentic, active community of loyalists and believers in our brand?
- What discovery-focused content are we sharing on the right mix of brand-safe social apps?
- Does our social content creation account for the complexity of visual search – and take advantage of these untapped opportunities on channels we’re actively in or should introduce?
Beyond these questions are many more. Asking and answering these fundamental inquiries ensure your brand keeps ahead of competitors with an efficient, effective social strategy that’s fully integrated into larger marketing performance goals and driving business success. When assessing if your brand should be on Lemon8, look at your audience. Not superficial personas or publisher-provided segments, but first-party data and multi-sourced consumer intelligence that dives deep into who your next best customers are, what influences them, and what they’re interested in purchasing right now. These answers define your social roadmap – enabling an easy answer when you assess emerging apps.
Understanding discovery-focused social apps is only one part of a data-centric, performance-driven strategy, giving you the power to know and do more. Dig deeper into best practices for social video production, or let’s talk about how to achieve more for your marketing — and your business.
