Sick of Social Media? You’re Not Alone.
Signs point to a decline in short-form content, so what does this mean for you and your business?
If you’ve begun your business or brand in the past 10-12 years, you know that social media has been a huge part of your promotion strategy. In the early ‘00’s it was all about the blog, but the introduction of Twitter and Instagram brought a new reign of short form content - playing on people’s “decreasing attention spans” to get the a message across quickly. Instagram was queen until more video content was introduced through Snapchat and TikTok, leading to Stories and Reels… it all became a lot to keep up with.
Now, content creators are reporting low engagement and clashes with “the algorithm”, leading to increased frustration with getting seen on social media. And it’s not all in our heads. Since 2022, both Instagram and TikTok have reported a drop in users and engagement (TikTok being the more popular of the two). In fact, Meta’s internal report on creators & Reels stated that “most Reels users have no engagement whatsoever.”
And the illusive “going viral” moment that we experienced over and over again during the pandemic? In May 2023, Adweek looked at TikTok video performance, and results showed that “videos with over 10 million views peaked in February 2022 at 9,259 per week; that’s dropped to less than 4,600 videos per week in April 2023. In short, just over a year ago, there were more than double the number of viral videos”.
Industry experts are citing a couple of factors in this decline, including content fatigue, the end of the pandemic, and a correlation between mental health and social media usage. So as a brand and business owner, what does this mean?
Social media isn’t going anywhere in the near future, but we can’t ignore that there may be a shift in how we consume content (yet again). In the meantime, you can make social media work for you and take some of the pressure off of “going viral” in the meantime. Here are a couple of ideas:
Refocus on Long-Form Content: Blogs, podcasts, YouTube videos, newsletters, recipes - there are lots of ways to create long-form content for your community to engage with. As a publicist, I’m a huge fan of creating long-form content to show off your brand personality, showcase your team, your products, create credibility, and provide free resources for your soon-to-be customers. You can also start a PR strategy to get third-party long-form content going, like reviews, interviews, feature stories and more. Long-form content also helps tremendously with SEO (discovery during a Google search), something that Instagram posts do not do.
Create Your Own Rules for Social: Keeping up with the Joneses is SO 2020. With this shift in how social media works and responds to content, you really can make your own rules when it comes to how you use the platform. Hate Instagram Stories but love making silly Reels? Focus there! Would rather make pins for Pinterest so people can discover you during a search? Do it! Engage with social media as much as you want to, and do it in a way that feels authentic - this is what is going to drive growth and consistency (NOT using viral memes etc).
Don’t Give Up on Social Entirely: The truth is, people still use Instagram and TikTok - Instagram for inspiration and laughs, TikTok for resources or answers to a question (as well as entertainment). The important part is that you keep a representation on social media so people can find you and begin to get to know your brand. How can you create content in a way that feels nourishing to you and your brand, plays to the strengths of these platforms, and serves the people? Keep these things in mind, and don’t worry about creating the next best thing to go viral. Chances are even lower that this will happen.
How are you feeling about the recent shifts in social media? We’d love to hear from you. Send us a note at team@megandrosigliopr.com to get the conversation moving and learn how you can promote your brand in more ways than an Instagram Reel.
