The State of Social Media
“We don’t have a choice on whether we DO social media, the question is how well we do it.” — Erik Qualman.
This quote has always spoken to me because I believe that social media, like everything else we do in life, is what we make it — positive or negative. Over the last year and a half, we’ve seen brands take stands and act on the values they believe in. We’ve seen some fail hard due to wrong messaging or right messaging at the wrong time. And we’ve seen some create stronger communities and ties with their audiences by talking about the hard things.
More than ever, we’ve seen the power of the people on social media. With the majority of the world being at home and protecting ourselves from the COVID-19 virus, we became more vocal and visual with our day-to-day lives by sharing our wants, needs and how we feel — proving that we’re not alone and we’re all in this together. By becoming more vulnerable, we’ve heightened the important conversations like mental health, DEI and more.
Through vulnerability on social media, not only did we highlight tough, yet critical conversations, we also embraced video, which is something that’s not easy for people to get into because creating a great video means bringing your full self to the surface so your audience can connect with you. TikTok and Instagram Reels have offered comedy, education, events and more — something that we needed, and I believe will continue to need as we enter back into the world.
Social media amazes me. It’s given a voice to all and it’s given the ability and opportunity for all to create content in all forms. While I do know and understand that there are those who use these platforms to troll, I believe that there’s a lot of good that can outweigh the bad. It’s been a site to see how these channels have blossomed and it’s really an exciting time to work in the field of social media.
Now you’ve heard some of my thoughts — let’s see what some of our Thulium team and clients clients think about the state and/or future state of social media:
Tamara McCleary, CEO at Thulium
“It’s critical for brands to remember that social equity and popularity do not necessarily equal increased sales. Business growth is derived from providing real value to your target market, solving their problems and delivering on-promise. Social media is an exquisite opportunity for brands to champion, highlight and celebrate these business drivers through a very public and engaged environment.
Keeping these critical business drivers as a focus, it’s wise to remain vigilant that not every social platform will deliver ROI. For example, in the B2B space, TikTok might be the hottest new social trend, however, is your enterprise solution buyer on TikTok? Always understand your purpose for every social initiative. Right buyer, right platform, right message, right time.
Another piece of the puzzle is brand leadership’s support and understanding of social media marketing. We’re still behind the curve in the B2B space when it comes to executive leadership understanding the value and power of social media that is positioned and executed correctly for business growth. Many senior-level executives have not fully understood social media or do not participate themselves. Not understanding social media creates misunderstandings regarding the power of social media marketing and its optimal deployment. As senior leaders, when we don’t fully understand, we make critical decision-errors based upon misinformation and fail to capitalize on innovative technologies such as social media to lead our organizations into the future by harnessing one of the most potent business growth opportunities we have today, social media marketing.”
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Danielle Guzman, Global Head of Social Media at Mercer
“Right now we need to focus on human connection, building communities, and leading with value for those we serve. We have been saying that for years, yet a lot of B2B social media continues to talk at their audience. Brands need to get better at courting their buyer audience, treating them like a human rather than just a sale if we want to win their business. They must enable and facilitate an audience-centric and people-led approach.
Employee advocacy is also imperative. People trust people, not brands. By empowering and activating the voices of all your people, we close the gap between an organization and their target audiences in a very powerful way.
Finally, voice only social media is fighting for a seat at the table, challenging the industry to rethink how we engage with our audiences, and it is gaining momentum. Real-time conversations bring unfiltered and raw synchronous dialogue to an otherwise asynchronous space. It’s putting the ‘social’ back into social media.”
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Ursula Ringham, Head of Global Influencer Marketing at SAP
“Utilizing social media data in real time with live virtual events. Think social media walls with a live host who engages with audience posts, that ties into sponsored content — all mapped and managed behind the scenes. Creates a unique and personalized experience.”
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Ian Gertler, Social Strategy, Influencer Relations, Thought Leadership, Communications at Citrix
The world has experienced quite a year+ connected to the global pandemic. As we think about the state of social media in 2021 and beyond, it’s important to appreciate the growing relationship between innovation and people each moment … but we must not forget that these are often mirrors to and windows for society, both the good and bad.
Beyond that, 2021 appears to be the ignition point for social audio as well with Twitter Spaces, Clubhouse and a bunch of others now. Can audio remain viable as a platform or is it simply a feature? Much to be determined.
Taking these elements into account, one of my long-time beliefs remains: social media should still be more social than media as part of culture, society and life.
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