Has Social Media Become More Private or Public?

Has Social Media Become More Private or Public?

When I started working in social media in 2012, Instagram was new and Facebook was still fairly new. I mean, do you remember the days on Facebook where you put a status up and people will comment on it asking you direct questions that were honestly no one else’s business? We shared our locations, who we were with, everything in live time - and waiting for people to comment and ask questions that really everyone could see. We would NEVER do that now.

In the last 12 years of working in social media, I have seen updates focused on DMs, Private Groups/”Close Friends”, a focus on What’s App and Snapchat for the younger generations which were already geared a bit more toward friend groups. What I also notice though is everyone (well almost everyone) is interested in being a content creator - telling their story and sharing “day in the life” videos - so basically still sharing what they are doing, where they are at - but it feels different, or at least to me it does.

I say all this to the point of - what are we expecting users to share, what are we expecting them to engage with (and how), and how has that changed how brand go about expectations on engagement rates, what metrics are they looking at now vs then, and what does organic UGC even look like?

What are current users sharing?

  • No public status updates, more to “close friends” or notes to followers via Instagram

  • Photo Dumps (Carousels)

  • Short Form Videos (there is a current push to move more into long-form video right now)

How are current users engaging?

  • DMs - sending posts and discussing in the DMs (vs comments)

  • Just scrolling (vs even liking a photo unless it’s a friend - even so, more focused on commenting)

  • Commenting on stranger/brand content ONLY to share their opinion and engage with others on the content at hand

What metrics should brands track for engagement now?

  • Impressions

  • Video Views

  • Shares

  • Saves

  • Comments

What does organic UGC even look like?

Now that we pay for so much UGC users are not sharing content about brands like they used to. We still see organic UGC for larger brands, but smaller brands are having a harder time acquiring it (everything is focused on paying for that now). So brands will need to show more incentives for people to organically post about them. A great (but extravagant) example is the Tarte Influencer trips - they are not paid to go on these trips but if you have a large enough following and catch Tarte’s eye you may get to go on an upcoming trip - so influencers are posting about Tarte consistently to secure their spot on the next trip. Here is an example.

Anna Sullivan