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🗝️ The end of social media? ...and the rise of recommendation media

Read time: 3.6 minutes ⚡

Author

Kole Ogundipe
May 15, 2023

Hey, Marketers.

In today’s edition:

  • The end of Social Media?

  • ICYMI: Last week’s Must-Knows

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If you joined the movement ‘Make Instagram Instagram Again’, appealing against more recommended content, then its bad news:

Meta announced plans to double-recommended content in feeds

That means more content from people or accounts you don’t follow.

But check out the table below.

And how TikTok & YouTube are leading.

People are voting for recommended content with their time.

With social networking, apps were limited to showing you content produced by your friends or accounts you follow.

With recommended content, apps can select the most engaging content from billions of posts. And tailor recommendations to each individual user.

Pure-play social platforms have a stream of content to select from.

Recommended content platforms have a whole ocean.

It’s not just Meta taking after TikTok. It’s all of big tech:

  • YouTube has Shorts

  • Snapchat has Spotlight

  • Pinterest is pushing full-screen video

  • LinkedIn recently introduced ‘Suggested Posts’

  • Twitter copied the TikTok ‘For You’ & ‘Following’ format

Social media won’t go away… but a combination of social and recommended media will be the most lucrative financially for the platforms.

The balance that Meta goes for will be interesting to see.

This is the “TikTokization” of Media, and it’s gathering pace.

Why we care? 

Organic reach was suppresed for business accounts and paid media became a essential in order to amplify content.

We might be getting a bit less social, but as Marketers… organic reach is making a comeback!

With the rise of recommended content brands can better reach their own social audiences. But also new audiences can discover our content without relying on Paid Media.

If it’s good enough.

Potential reach is not tied as much to follower counts. Instead each post can scale based on how much engagement it is getting.

Distribution becomes more of a mertiocracy than a popularity contest.

There’s more justification now to shift budget back into organic social media content. To lean into this brands are increasingly hiring in-house creators who produce organic content specifically for each platform.

ICYMI: Last Week’s Must-Knows

1. Google announces its AI-Search Revolution. Search Generative Experience (SGE) is what Google is calling its AI-powered answers right at the top of its brand-new search results page. The search feature will initially only be available in the US and has a waitlist. Google said it will roll out the changes more widely in the coming months. (Monday’s Post â†—️)

2. Microsoft Bing reported growth in its share of the Search market. Bing announced they are building on their traction with “richer, more visual answers including charts and graphs and updated formatting of answers”. Bing said there are 100+ billion daily active users of the new Bing. (Microsoft ↗️)

3. TikTok launched a Search widget for iPhone. TikTok has become a search engine. And TikTok will continue to lean into it. Last year TikTok had a TV campaign for users to “Search it, Learn it, Do it - with TikTok”. And now users can seamlessly search TikTok right from their home screen. (Yahoo Finance ↗️)

4. Twitter named Linda Yaccarino as its new CEO. Linda Yaccarino is NBCUniversal’s head of global advertising. Yaccarino will focus on business operations. Elon Musk is sticking around! He said he will work with the new CEO to turn Twitter into "X, the everything app”. (Twitter ↗️)

5. TikTok’s CEO spoke at TED Conference on the future of TikTok. The CEO, Shou Chew, described the future plans for TikTok. Firstly (and unsurprisingly) he says AI is key. It will allow creators to raise their production value and tell stories in new ways. Secondly, he thinks TikTok can facilitate more commerce within the platform. (Wednesday’s Post ↗️)

🏁 Which of your teammates would find this info useful? Do them and me a quick favor and forward this to them!