The Future of Social: Thoughts and Perspectives From an SMM

I’ve been thinking a lot about the future of social. I grew up online in chat rooms, AIM, Myspace, Xanga and in places like Neopets (idk if you’ve noticed but I miss Neopets) when I was younger. Tumblr in my late teens and early 20s, and of course, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, Pinterest, and Facebook as an early 20-something to present.

In the beginning, being on social was about connecting. It was fun engaging and interacting with people from all over the world. Today, things feel different.

Social is sooo Quantitative.

We measure success by numbers. Reach, Engagement, Likes, Followers, Impressions, etc.

By doing this we’ve made what used to be a really fun and engaging space feel kind of empty, shallow, and vapid. There are so many metrics to account for, meet, and surpass that it feels like you can never really meet any of them. The goal post is constantly moving at a rapid pace. As an SMM it makes me feel many things like:

-Frustration for when a post doesn’t do well

-Exhaustion from constant creative input and output

-Loneliness because it feels like you’re constantly fighting an uphill battle against a machine aka the constantly changing algorithm.

But How are Users Feeling?

Social media users are tired of looking at pages and feeling bad about themselves for not being enough. Not “clean,” “aesthetic,” or “cool” enough. Users are tired of looking at celebs, influencers and content creators who no longer have these relatable lives that they once had; the same relatable lives that they used to build their platform and cultivate their audience. Many of them have left their old jobs and regular-person lives behind to pursue influencing and content creation full-time.

I don’t think the future of social will be measured by numbers. I believe the quantitative methods of measuring success on social will be replaced with QUALITATIVE metrics.

What Do I Mean by Qualitative Metrics?

Rather than measure by numbers, we’ll measure how cool or successful a brand, influencer, or content creator is on social by the community they build, how that brand, business, or influencer makes that community feel, and how well they do bringing and keeping that community together both on and offline.

Social will no longer be a pissing contest of who is the funniest, coolest, or most aesthetic. Instead, we will measure how successful a creator or brand is by how they make us as users FEEL. And consumers will be looking for spaces that make them feel GOOD.

As users, we’ll ask ourselves questions like:

“How does looking at this account make me feel?”

“What does this group add to my life?”

“Where, when and how can I incorporate this into my offline life?”

Private Instagram groups, FB groups, and even public groups will become the new norm. Think like chat rooms and messaging boards of the past. But we don’t even have to think back that far, with present day spaces like Discord, Substack, Patreon, we’re already seeing a shift to more community-driven use of social media.

Social used to be fun, but now it feels more like a race. The future of social is going to be all about feel good fun, community, and connectedness.

In what ways will your brand or business use feel good tactics to build a community that can be supported both online and offline?