Vero: The new kid on the social media block
Sometimes, a burger restaurant opens up down the street from McDonald’s or a doughnut shop opens adjacent to Tim Horton’s. The world of social media sees a similar occurrence every now and then. Innovative and confident people understand the digital equivalent of burgers and doughnuts and decide they’re going to serve those up, only better. That’s exactly what we’re looking at with Vero, the most recent social media platform to receive widespread coverage.
Like most social media platforms, Vero is all about sharing, or as the like to call it “Smart Sharing”. What makes Vero unique is that users are able to share whatever they like – photos, videos, music, books, TV, links, movies, places – to an audience. Where Vero truly attempts to thrive, however, is via audience tools. The platform allows its users to easily share their posts with four levels of people: close friends, friends, acquaintances and followers. The idea being that Vero improves the ability to receive only the content you’re interested in or, similarly, only send content to people you want to see it. They’re labelling it “smarter social.” No need to just take our word for it, though. Here’s a video the platform put together that breaks it all down:
Watching that, you may have caught that easy audience feature isn’t the only thing that distances it from the platform’s social media counterparts. Vero will be sans ads, revolutionary in today’s digital landscape. The timing for this couldn’t be better. In just one example, Facebook is critiquing their own platform and is aiming to deliver more personal content to its users. So, Vero is in a position to capitalize on the pitfalls of its competition and do things a little differently.
Even with these differences, and as we mentioned, this platform shares similarities with the other platforms already out there. Vero’s most obvious social media doppelganger is Instagram. Many have dubbed Vero “the new Instagram,” including the BBC. This is due to the look and feel of the two platforms. Vero differs, however, through the lack of ads as well as a non-algorithmic feed. Earlier this year, and much to the chagrin of it’s users, Instagram moved to a feed that wasn’t chronological but instead rewarded posts with high engagement. Vero is the exact opposite.
That is not to say, however, that the platform is without its growing pains. As this article is being written, Vero is tweeting that their servers can’t cope with the demand. We even tried downloading and starting the app to no avail. In addition to this, users aren’t convinced that the platform will never be monetized or show ads. Even further, users are disenchanted by the lack of other users on Vero. That same BBC article shows some examples. Essentially, there’s this great audience-segmenting tool and no audience to speak of – for now anyways.
This exemplifies a curious irony that surrounds social media. Even with the massive role it plays in our world and the innovative, start-up nature that conceptualized it, there is skepticism that surrounds new social media platforms. With the social media marketing already monopolized, only time will tell if Vero ingrains itself into our culture as Juggernauts like Facebook and Twitter have. You can see what all the fuss is about for yourself at the App Store or Google Play. If you’re one of the first million users that have better luck than us, sign up is free.