Social Media is evolving.
If you’re a business owner or entrepreneur who uses social media to market your product or service and build an audience, the way social media is changing directly affects you.
You might have noticed that instagram is currently testing new changes to their layout and algorithm. These changes are basically instagram trying to turn itself into tik tok.
Tik Tok now has 1 Billion monthly active users as of January 2022 with most users spending more than 850 minutes per month on the app. With the huge success of Tik Tok and it’s rapid growth, other social media platforms are trying to replicate that success.
We first saw it with instagram and Facebook reels, then Youtube shorts, and now Instagram is testing an entirely new design for their user interface and a change in the algorithm.
Previously, Instagram was a social platform, in which you saw posts only from people you followed. Tik Tok on the other hand, is an interest based platform. This means you may never come across anyone you know personally on Tik Tok, because that’s not what it’s about – Tik Tok users are there to follow accounts about their interests, whether that be a hobby, educational content, lifestyle, or etc. Most other social media platforms are trying to replicate the experience Tik Tok presents to its users.
I’m going to break down what you need to know about the current state of social media so that you can use it as effectively as possible to continue promoting your service/product and building a community around it.
- Make Your Content Searchable
- For my generation and most likely yours, Google has always been the primary search engine, with YouTube coming in second place. Think about it, whenever you have had a question you want answered, whether you want to learn how to draw or you want to understand what an NFT is, your first thought is to either search google or YouTube. However, for Gen Z, that is no longer the case. The younger members of our society are turning to Tik Tok and using it as a search engine. If they want those how to draw videos, they search for it on Tik Tok. They want help with chemistry homework, they search it on Tik Tok. Instagram is now trying to replicate that same searchability. YouTube already has that built in for long form content as the second most visited website in the world, and now implements it with short form content through YouTube Shorts. Your caption, the words you say in the video, and the topics of previous videos you have posted all affect how your content will show up in search – so be mindful of that!
- Make Video Content
- Static content will no longer cut it. If the majority of your posts are images and graphics, you need to make the majority of your content from here on out to be video content. If you write informative captions, the best thing to do is to make what you’ve written into a script and make a video out of it as opposed to a static post with a long caption. You can even break up that caption into two or three different videos (depending on the content), which makes your writing go even farther. If you love making infographics, try finding ways to make short animations out of those info graphics.
- Make your content both entertaining and informational
- There are two main types of content that seem to thrive on social media, informational content and entertaining content. The best thing to do is strike a balance between the two. Give value with informational content delivered in an entertaining way, whether that’s by telling a story, acting out a skit, or having things going on in the video as you share the information. Giving value as opposed to only entertainment builds credibility with your audience.
- Instagram Specific Tip: Get more use out of instagram stories
- With Instagram pushing more and more suggested content, Instagram stories are a great way to engage directly with your followers.