How Social Media has Changed and Why it’s Important for (Y)our Future
The history of social media is a long, confusing mess that has been permeated by one dependable trend: change. Change is consistent. From Myspace to Facebook and now TikTok, social media has become an extension of our personal self, its own digital biosphere. A world that requires us, and even more so brands, to be “on” 24/7, 365 days a year. With Facebook boasting a 317,000 status updates and 54,000 shared links every minute and Instagram racking up over 500 million active daily users, the amount of content present on these platforms is bursting through the seams.
Social Media in 2020 is defined by the excess and the growing concerns of privacy and mental health. With 35% of millennials permanently deleting their Facebook or Twitter accounts, with plenty more to follow, brands and marketers are having to fight harder than ever before for the consumer’s attention, and maybe that’s a good thing. With privacy concerns, mental health concerns, and vapid commercialization the social industry has become something bigger than anything ever imagined for it. When Facebook or Myspace were created, their sole purpose was to connect friends and permit digital socializing.
One of the biggest changes and most interesting to me is the “always-on” mentality of social media and its consumers. The internet doesn’t sleep, and that means neither can brands. Rather, the people behind the brands, like social media managers, literally can’t sleep. Stores can close, but a brand’s social media presence is always accessible, all day and every day and the internet has embedded in us that access is expected.
I love this Pew Research chart, and the rest of their report, for more than one reason, but particularly because it shows just how wide the reach ofsocial media has become. With a majority of users accessing multiple platforms each day, it’s not hard to see the importance social media has established in our daily routine. This not only means social media managers are more important than before but more important than ever, and whether that role is fulfilled by a team of 20 or a single employee, their job is of utmost importance.
If social media has changed so much, that means we should know where it’s going, right? Well, sort of. I think in order to look forward you have to retrace your steps, and I think that certainly rings true for social media in 2020 and beyond. Gone are the days of flashy product images and posts that showcase employees, consumers don’t want that anymore. We don’t want that anymore. Social media began as a method for connection and more specifically human connection. My first memories of social media as an innocent middle-schooler consisted of me and my classmates all posting on Google Buzz (I know, embarrassing) yet, I think we all share some sort of comparable memory of a simpler social media. Social media is innately human which is more than ever vital to brands and social media managers.
Mark Zuckerburg two years ago ushered in a huge shift for Facebook in an attempt to showcase, “more from your friends, family and groups” and even less “public content like posts from businesses, brands, and media.”
Facebook hasn’t been the only one, with Instagram Stories and TikTok ushering us away from the formalities of social media, we seem to be in the age of humanizing social media. While this appears it would make it harder for brands and especially social media managers to break through the clutter, it doesn’t have to. People want connections, and so do consumers. They still want to interact with brands, but they just want them to act a little more human.
This becomes even more relevant during the current state of the world. COVID-19 made it all that more evident consumers want brands to care about them, not just shove products in their faces. A favorite social campaign of mine ran when COVID impeded one of Guinness beer’s most profitable days of the year, St. Patrick’s Day. The stance the company took doubled down their commitment to what truly mattered: coming together and supporting each other during times of need. They didn’t tell customers to buy their green beer, or try to sell something. They were human. They reminded consumers how behind the scenes of every brand it’s just more people like everyone else.(Seriously, give it a quick watch if you can and I think you’ll see why I’m not the only one who thinks the social media manager behind it deserves a big raise!)
So why is it all important? With so many people logging off, brands need to be humanized when logging on. That means social media managers, brands, and everyone in between need to look to connect and engage in more meaningful, down-to-earth ways. Social media was always a place for connecting, and now more than ever social media managers need to do just that. Connect and be Human.
