The Rise of Anti-Social Media: Are the major social networks getting less and less social? 

That's the question we asked to some top experts from digital agencies. Here's what they had to say.

Let's start with the thoughts of Dan Sodergen (@ukmarketinghelp) a Digital Marketing consultant and regular events speaker.
"Many marketing people have gotten used to an easy life. Social was about posting and now they cry “foul” because the platforms on which they post change the rules.

As for the idea that new platforms are “anti brand / anti social” this is nonsense. Such platforms protect their early adopters before they cross the chasm and change strategy. Some will do so better than others. In my mind "old boy" Twitter with well-timed advertising is the best so far for non-intrusive value add for content distribution. But ‘new’ formats like Pinterest’s new tools for businesses, Snapchat’s new events for brands, and powerhouse content centers like BuzzFeed all have or are sponsored and might be amazing.

But what is amazing is that BuzzFeed with around 3,000 articles produced 20.7 million likes, 13.7 million comments, and 47.5 million interactions in March alone. How? They gave people want they wanted which is mainly things about themselves and things that entertain them and their friends.

As someone wiser than I said many moons ago* "If you're going to crash the party, bring some champagne with you."

If brands are producing something which doesn’t get shared – they need to look themselves for interrupting people’s lives with branded cheap wine rather than the glass it comes in."


Sarah Bradley (@sarahmbradley), Head of Social, at Receptional (@receptional) and an Editor at State of Digital, takes a stand against our (admittedly provocative) title and makes a great point - if brands find it hard to reach their audience then their strategy is at fault.

"I don’t think any changes we have seen within social networks are ‘anti-social media’! The nature of social media is that it’s reactive, fluid and ever-changing. Networks are desperately trying to keep up with the way we use their networks, so changes such as the Twitter mute option and new networks like Snapchat are simply a natural progression of social networking today. A successful network provides its users with the space they need to make it their own. Take Facebook for example: launched in 2004 as a University-based network, Facebook quickly became popular with people who used university emails to create an account so Facebook expanded. Back then it was primarily text based - status updates, comments etc. Until massive picture share that started to mould the way we communicate online today so Facebook adapted again.

New ways of communicating have evolved in the past 10 years and social networks have to try and respond to, and anticipate, as many of these ‘evolutions’ as they can to remain popular; they are businesses after all.

If brands who use social networks are finding it harder to reach their audience, it’s their strategy that is at fault, not the network. Today’s consumers expect more from their brands.

Paid content will remain successful as the way it is placed before consumers is evolving too; social network paid ads are sophisticated, fun to run and cheap as chips so are still a viable option for many. However they cannot be successful without a great, adaptive strategy behind them with content that captures attention and isn’t ‘sales focussed’. The brands who do well with social media remember their customer’s interests come first and that interactions happen when they are happy or interested; sales should rise naturally as a result of customer happiness."

Sian Ediss (@fox_creative_), Head of Social, Online Ventures Group (@ov_group)  offered an amusing personal take on the sanitisation of social networks and rued the loss of Keanu Reeves memes:

"Facebook is going through a midlife crisis, what was once a fun and engaging platform is now a minefield of ‘Dos and Don’ts’.  Brands have been discouraged to ‘like-bait’ as poor Facebook is feeling played. Users have also been told by Mr FB that memes are no longer quality content, I for one, will never tire of seeing the Keanu Reeves dumbfounded face. Ever.

Quality content is what social platforms are looking for, this is important, but the freedom of social media is what makes it an exciting and creative place to hang out. With rules and regulations, muting and ‘tellings off’, I can’t help but feel a bit stifled in the "anti-​social media​"​ world of late."

Just for Sian, here's our favourite 'Conspiracy Keanu'




BadMan Media (@badmanmedia) brings an interesting arsenal of figures and proves that the shift from image to video hasn't quite taken full swing yet.

"Social media activity is an important aspect of brand marketing. Determining the impact of content, activity and time spent on the network is critical to deciding how to move forward, how to adjust and how to actively engage users.
Facebook knows that spammy content has cluttered news feeds
"Like-baiting" refers to posts that explicitly ask readers to like, comment, or share the post in order to get more distribution. According to Facebook, these types of posts are 15% less relevant than other stories with a comparable number of likes, comments, and shares.
Ideally a lot of brands now are heading over to Twitter more to engage and share content with their followers but now with the Mute button being introduced it's even harder and more important for companies to watch and take care in what content they post and share.

Anyone can say they are a social media ''expert'' but now it's becoming more of a skill and takes more than just posting a tweet or sharing a photo on Facebook
Companies have to adapt to these changes rapidly before they fall behind and become just another fish in a very, very large pond.

When Instagram revealed its 15-second video feature, it received a lot of buzz in the media. Overall, video seems to be making an impact, but photos still receive 37 interactions for every 1,000 followers, compared to 24-per-1,000 for videos. Fortune 500 companies have been slow to adopt the feature, as well, with only 74 videos shared in the past 30 days. In that same time period, the companies shared 1,792 photos. This helps support the claim that Instagram is still a photo sharing site at its core. And many people are now using Instagram to follow brands because of this.
Overall, these advertisers are watching Twitter and other social networks to see what topics are getting the most attention, and putting together short blog posts, tweets and videos that match those themes - in hopes that the online audience will become more aware of the brand and see it as relevant to their interests and needs. Then, if one topic isn't getting attention any more, the companies can drop it without much fuss, and switch gears quickly to follow the next hot discussion.

#KeepItBadman"
Rob Goodswen (@robgoodswen), Social Media Executive, Access Advertising (@accessdigital), zoned in on the shift towards paid advertisement.

"The recent push toward paid advertisement by the major players in social, particularly Facebook, has made it increasingly difficult to reach your audience organically. This is a clear power play by Mr. Zuckerberg, a man who has a world of information at his command and whether you agree or not it’s a fairly smart one. With over a billion users, Facebook is the flagship of social media. People spend inordinate amounts of their day scrolling through their feeds and for that simple reason brands will pay for their posts to be seen. If you don’t like it, switch platforms.

Content, content, content. It feels as though this is now the industry buzzword. If you have good content are you guaranteed to have it seen by anyone? NO. Why would just ‘good content’ boost your organic reach? If there was a man in charge of how many eyes see a particular post I believe that he would be inundated with that many requests for more reach that he simply wouldn’t give two shits if the content was good. He wouldn’t have time to read it. Content is key when people click the link which takes them to it. The craft of the message which intrigues people to want to read your content is the first important step.

The Twitter ‘mute’ function is an essential tool for users who don’t wish to see tweets by people that they don’t want to unfollow but don’t want to hear from any more. Sure some users might want to ‘mute’ a brand, but all that means is that the brand has failed to continue to appeal to the user. Social marketeers shouldn’t be put off by this, rather they should concentrate on producing less annoying/offensive or illegible tweets.

Is social media becoming less social? I’m not sure. What I am sure about is that increasing amounts of people are taking on social media based roles without much knowledge of the craft. We wouldn’t trust a first year graphic designer with a full re-brand project for Apple would we? If companies invested more in their social department, adopting a strong and easy to follow social media policy, social media would be a much better place. Stop getting the teaboy/girl to do your social. Idiots."

So many great points above, on a wider level I think this shift represents a change in both how we use social networks and the internet and our expectations from those things. For arguably the first time in the modern era a generation is growing that can separate itself from intrusive, unwanted advertising - which means the platforms for advertising must change their behaviour accordingly. Concerns about privacy and over-sharing have led to much more closely-knit groups sharing more personal content and the rise of ephemeral media, such as Snapchat, has offered an ingenious antidote to data that exists permanently with ever-diminishing context. 

Our relationship with social networks might have reached a point where the novelty of ease of communication, with brands, acquaintances and friends has worn off. Now people are looking to hone and improve their experience, as well as having an increased sense of their own place within relationships, their security and their vulnerability.

Thanks to all our excellent contributors. 

 The Discussion is never over, look out for a new topic in the coming weeks!

What do you think - is social media turning away from its sharing values in search of cold hard cash, or just responding to user behaviour?

Get in touch @chrysalisrec and @_matthewdavies, if you'd like to add your guest opinion to the next discussion, e-mail matthew.davies@chrysalisrecruitment.com