What does it take to grow a social platform?

Earlier this year, tech broligarchs showed us exactly who they are, and with billionaires like Larry Ellison poised to purchase TikTok, there continues to be conversation around leaving Meta, TikTok, and other similarly questionable platforms.

A fair number of users have already abandoned or deleted their accounts… and yet, with all the talk of divesting, quite a few of us stuck around.

The question remains: why are we still there? And what will it take for us to leave for greener, more inclusive pastures?

Social media is (surprisingly?) still social

For all of its advertising scams, bloated functionalities, and algorithms that serve slop over sincerity, social media does still make us feel more connected with our friends and loved ones. There is still a social element, and that’s apparent when you look at the long string of failed social networks in our past. 

Anybody remember Ello? Did you create a profile on Tsu? Recall the five minutes when Clubhouse was the hot new thing? Yeah, me neither–I had to look up a list of defunct social media networks on Wikipedia. 😉

All of those defunct social platforms had one thing in common, though: they failed to bring in the people. And, social media isn’t much fun if your friends aren’t there to share in it.

It’s not entirely surprising, either, because there are several reasons why users wouldn't make the jump:

There’s nothing new on offer. Platforms like Ello and Tsu had their own takes on how visual design should look on social. Outside of that, however, there wasn’t anything we hadn’t seen before… and there’s no reason to post pictures and words on a new platform where nobody’s around to see it.

The communication style doesn’t fit. Ease of expression matters to users. For example, creating video content feels like a Herculean effort to me, so I’ve never gotten into TikTok. Similarly, I didn’t stick with Clubhouse, because the all-audio format didn’t work for my distractable ADHD brain. Other folks shy away from Instagram because of the emphasis on photo and video. We all have different ways we’d rather communicate, and we float towards the platforms that make it easier for us.

Habits are hard to build. Adding or swapping in a new social media platform basically amounts to creating a new habit. Let’s just say that, if you’ve ever tried to quit smoking, or eat more fiber, or go to yoga class, you know that creating new habits is HARD.

Alternatives do exist, if we’re willing to engage with them

If you were on Twitter (RIP) in the back half of 2022, then you and I both remember the mass exodus as Musk enshittified the platform we knew. I deleted my accounts and flailed around trying to figure out where the people I was following on Twitter would end up.

It was a bumpy several months as people dispersed from Twitter and sought out similar short-form, of-the-moment social platforms. Now that the dust has largely settled, academics and journalists are prolific on BlueSky, many of the tech folks landed on Mastodon, and Threads seems to skew towards creators.

The big takeaway from that experience is that users will move to a different space… but only with sufficient motivation.

For my part, I’m mainly on BlueSky these days, but none of the Twitter alternatives has quite captured the magic of my old, carefully-curated Twitter feed. I’ve also tried other Instagram clones, such as UpScrolled, but the audience isn’t there yet, either.

We do have to be willing to try on new platforms, and give them time to build up their user base. At the end of the day, though, we want to be where the people are. Perhaps this means we're at the point where coordinated efforts among larger groups of users need to start happening, in order for us all to find a new, less-evil home on social media.