What happens when social media dies?

I got asked about my Anti Social Media Social Media Club shirt the other day. “Oh, I made this,” I said.

It’s hard to explain the shirt without also bringing up the fact that I write this newsletter on a weekly basis, and it often involves talking about how Social Media Is Bad, Actually. Then, I mention that I run a business that does social media services, and people tend to notice there’s some dissonance in that.

I’m having a weird moment in my career.

If you're feeling that, too, you're not alone. This is a messy moment in marketing for socially conscious humans, and we should probably figure out what we’re going to do about it.

I don’t expect social media to last.

In the past 12-18 months, I’ve gone from selling social media services without hesitation, to telling every potential client I meet that they don’t have to be on social media to promote their business. 

Now, I casually say to my friends, “yeah, social media is probably going to die in the next few years.”

As Seth Werkheiser recently pointed out in his newsletter, social media companies are being taken to court for their societal harms. And they’re losing. Our attention spans are shrinking. Our mental health is in the dumpster. Our children are being exposed to abusers. It’s been a slow burn, but as a culture, we’re finally coming to grips with the fact that social media has created real harm.

Knowing that, every business should be planning for a future where social media isn’t part of their marketing strategy. But, what if marketing is your business?

Who’s propping up the attention economy?

Most of us who’ve worked in the social media space are either cutting bait, or doubling down.

A lot of marketers are clearly still chasing the algorithm, especially larger agencies. Major media outlets report on the activities of social media companies with an air of seriousness, and they report on social posts as if they’re news. Corporate tech has our attention, and they want to keep it.

Social media “gurus” also have a lot to lose, if online marketing shifts away from social as a key channel. So, they continue to focus on trends, algorithm updates, and other nitpicky details that make it all seem very mysterious. A lot of those trends and hacks are pretty fleeting, but as long as people are buying into those ideas, marketers will keep selling it.

Basically, social media is a lot like the dollar or the Euro: it has value so long as we believe it has value. And I don’t know about you, but my belief in social has noticeably faded.

Content marketing will still have value 

There are people who’ve already proven that it is possible to cut bait and leave social. People like Seth Werkheiser and Amelia Hruby have shown that social media isn’t a must-have in marketing. In fact, rejecting social media is the core of their messaging--and strong messaging is what will get marketers through this.

You can’t do marketing without the right messaging. When I work with clients, whether it’s on email marketing, their website, or their social media, quality content is always the glue holding it together. The marketers who’ll be ready for the death of social media are those who already know how to create that quality content. 

Knowing that, I might be casting about for a Secret Third Thing, where we can subvert the goals of big tech with clever use of the very tools they’ve provided us… but I’m not worried about what will happen to my career, in the longer term. ;) If you can weave a compelling story, you can do that on any marketing channel. There’ll be a learning curve, sure, but the message is what has value and keeps your audience in your orbit.