Social media as we’ve known it for 15 years is dead. It’s no longer just about following friends, family, or even influencers. Consider this… Of the time Gen Z spends online, 41% of it is on social media - an all-time high [Source: Global Web Index]. Why? Because what we use social media *for* is growing. Transformation #1: Entertainment TikTok’s president of global business solutions, Blake Chandlee, who spent 12 years at Facebook before joining TikTok in 2019, said in 2022: “Facebook is a social platform. TikTok is an entertainment platform.” TikTok helped usher in a new era of social media. Because every platform copied their innovations. In 2024, social media is just as much about entertainment as it is connecting with friends and family. Transformation #2: Search In 2022, Google VP, Prabhakar Raghavan, made this statement at Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech conference: “In our studies, something like almost 40% of young people, when they’re looking for a place for lunch, they don’t go to Google Maps or Search … They go to TikTok or Instagram.” Young people especially are beginning to favor social platforms for search instead of traditional search engines. This shift is a massive one. Add “search engine” to the modern definition of social media. Transformation #3: Commerce Social media is the top source of brand discovery and product research for Gen Z [Source: Global Web Index]. Social is becoming a one-stop-shop for how we make purchases. In the previous era, our time on social media was largely consumed by interacting with friends and family. Today? This has expanded dramatically to include: Entertainment Search Commerce The old social media is dead. A new era has begun.
@BradyShearer It's a game I'm not going to play.
@BradyShearer Insightful true. Knowing this changes how we use social media for optimal results.