Everything Everywhere All at Once: Social Media in 2023

The current state of the social media landscape is anything but stable. Twitter continues to devolve. TikTok is going strong, but will its use be banned in the United States? It’s a challenge to keep up with the changes in current channels and evaluate new options. In this episode, we discuss this uncertainty and how you can keep your focus on using the right channels at the right time for your clients.

 

Transcript

Michelle Kane:

Thank you for joining us for an episode of That Solo Life, the podcast for PR pros and marketers who work for themselves. People like me, Michelle Kane, with VoiceMatters, and my ever-steady co-host, Karen Swim, of Solo PR Pro. Hi, Karen. How are you today?

Karen Swim:

Hello. I am good. We got a little peek of sunshine this morning, and it was way overdue since we had lingering winter weather here in Michigan. I feel pretty good, because the sunshine definitely recharges me.

Michelle Kane:

It's so true. You don't realize until you haven't had it for a few days and you think, "Ugh, come on, sunshine." Yes, yes, definitely. We had a little taste of summer, but now we're back to actual spring. I don't know. It was sunny up until probably an hour ago.

Karen Swim:

Yeah.

Michelle Kane:

I've been kind of refusing, I'm like, "I'm not wearing a jacket. I don't care if I'm cold. I'm past that."

Karen Swim:

I've been stuck in winter clothes because I couldn't take it anymore, and I was freezing. It hasn't just been lack of sun, it's actually been ... it's just been winter here. Everybody's still in their winter gear, which kind of stinks considering it's the ...

Michelle Kane:

It does.

Karen Swim:

... end of April. Hopefully.

Michelle Kane:

Well, as the Great Purple One said, Sometimes It Snows in April. Sometimes, as we're going to talk about today, sometimes changes in social media and our landscape can also make you a bit bonkers. We're good. It's not just Twitter and the whole mess over there. It's, where are people spending their time now, and what components have changed? How does that impact how you find your audience?

It almost feels like the beginning of social media where I think, not that we've become complacent, but for a while, we kind of knew, all right, that's that, that's that, we know where to find everything. Suddenly, they moved our cheese all over the place.

Karen Swim:

Yeah.

Michelle Kane:

We'll just touch on that today, and talk about our experiences, and please do hit us up at SoloPRPro.com and share your experiences, because we really want to hear about it.

Karen Swim:

It's interesting. I saw yesterday someone talk about a reporter was discussing that Twitter in particular became part of our habits. It's pretty much ingrained. We, for the past decade, we would go to Twitter and we would use it for real time news and were accustomed to PR professionals developing relationships or maintaining relationships with journalists there, we would source queries there.

We would see what people were up to. It was built into our daily habits, much like Facebook was the place where we just learned to go to keep up with family and friends. Now there's so many revenge Twitter sites.

Michelle Kane:

I love that, revenge Twitter sites.

Karen Swim:

People are dispersed. Now, even [inaudible 00:03:26] has notes. People are communicating over there around posts that are authored, which is sort of a new old version of what the blog post used to be. The blog post would be the community gathering place. Everybody would go and comment on blogs every day. Then you have these algorithms that have changed everywhere. You've got ...

Michelle Kane:

Completely.

Karen Swim:

... Google changing, you've got even YouTube changing. YouTube is another social media site, and their ad revenue has dropped to 6.7 billion in the first quarter of this year. With their 2.6% year-over-year decline, people are really wondering, okay, creators, but then also enterprises. We have clients, we all have clients that have YouTube channels, and we've all been told for such a long period of time that it's a great way to have your own thought leadership platform and share information with your audience.

Well, if ad revenue is dropping and algorithms are changing, and TikTok shorts are becoming more popular than YouTube, we're faced with a lot of questions about where in the hack do we spend our time, and where do we tell our clients to spend their time?

Michelle Kane:

So true, so true. It also brings back the notion, or should I say, it's a core principle, always own your real estate, always have a website, always try to be building your email list, because then these questions aren't as potent. There's definitely a space for social to amplify your message. Yeah. There are a lot of question marks of where are your audiences spending your time? From the professional development side, where are our colleagues and our contacts spending their time? How can they be found?

We'll throw into the mix of, I don't think it's imminent, but the status of TikTok. Is it going to stick around? We don't know. There are a lot of questions. Another core best practice has always been don't try to be on all the social things all at once. You'll just make yourself crazy. You'll not only dilute your energy, you'll dilute your effectiveness. It's best thing to do is to just take some time, remind yourself who is the audience for your client, and just look around and see. Okay, where are these people spending their most time? Take it from there.

Then the nice thing about social and the digital world is you have that liberty to be nimble.

Karen Swim:

I agree.

Michelle Kane:

It's not like you're building this massive website with message boards and you're going to launch it. It's just, okay, well this doesn't seem to be working. You certainly want to give it enough time to work. We all know, these delicate balances. Give it enough time to work, but if it doesn't seem to be gaining traction, then move on.

Karen Swim:

It's interesting, because I used to do a lot of social media strategy and management when it first came on the scene, and for many years after that. I, last year, made the decision that I was out. Recently, someone approached me and I'm like, "No, thank you." I've gotten asked to do, and I'm like, "No. I'm done with social media." My advice back then was the same, prioritize. Don't try to be on all the channels. We had our fewer channels back then too.

Michelle Kane:

Right.

Karen Swim:

I think one of the magic words that you said for me is don't neglect building your own email list.

Michelle Kane:

Right.

Karen Swim:

That's still so key and a great way to stay in touch with your audience. I think for B2B or B2C companies, it doesn't matter. It's so important to have one reliable channel where people can get up to date, accurate information. This morning, my sister was going to try this restaurant that's been around and one that I'm familiar with, and she went to the website to check their hours. Big mistake. These days when it comes to the food industry in particular, or even stores, I usually just call.

Michelle Kane:

Yeah.

Karen Swim:

Websites are not being maintained, which sometimes it's because they have a one-off, maybe they don't have staffing for that day. Yes, those are their normal hours, but that day, they can't be open their normal hours. She got there and they were not going to be open for an hour later. I said, "Didn't you check the hours beforehand?" She goes, "Well, the website said." Well, the website is usually the last place that I look for hours these days.

Michelle Kane:

Right.

Karen Swim:

I'll go on Instagram or one of the social media channels to see what they said on that day. I realize it's a day by day. Then I'll call just to verify.

Michelle Kane:

Yeah, that's a good point. Google business listings can be reliable. I like that Google indicates the last time hours were updated, because it lets you know.

Karen Swim:

Right.

Michelle Kane:

Oh, okay.

Karen Swim:

Absolutely.

Michelle Kane:

Yeah, you're right. It's shifting.

Karen Swim:

Your hours are fluctuating, or in this case, the reason that they were opening later is because they were preparing for an event. If you have those kind of one-offs or there's some fluctuation, you still need to make sure that that information is easily accessible to your audience. Not everybody is a food business. Not everybody even has brick and mortar offices anymore. In technology, which is the industry that I specialize in, almost no one has an office.

Michelle Kane:

Right.

Karen Swim:

They're all remote. You still need to make sure that there's one channel that you are posting on frequently, so that people know like, "Oh, let me go check their X."

Michelle Kane:

Right.

Karen Swim:

I vote for website. I always vote for website, because it's the one thing that no one else has control over, but you. As Michelle said, it's your real estate, it's your domain. Y,ou should always at least have your website updated all the time at all times, with all of the latest information, with all of the happenings, because that's the one place that people will like, "Okay, let's check the website, let's head there and see what's going on." Then pick a social channel. Today, for me, and for most of my clients, it's really LinkedIn and a newsletter.

Michelle Kane:

Yeah.

Karen Swim:

Of course, their website.

Michelle Kane:

LinkedIn, I've seen a huge uptick in requests of me to subscribe to people's newsletters on LinkedIn. Hey, that could work for you as well. At least it's a place where depending what your type of business is, like minded people will be congregating. The people that you might be doing business with or for are hanging out. We all know this. We all know the social platforms have different purposes. If you're trying to get something out to the public, it's different ways, it's Facebook.

Yeah, gosh. Even I still work in social media. I still manage pages. It's not as fun as it used to me, but I keep telling some of my clients that get frustrated, I say, "Hey, you're going to get so tired of your content, because the 80/20 rule with the way the algorithm is, does it really pay off?" Sure, I'll share other people's things really as a way of networking online, but if you're trying to get your message out consistently, I had someone ask, it's a brick and mortar retail establishment. No one's calling. The call to action is the little phone icon and the phone number.

I have to say, I'm like, "Well, they're probably not going to." We do it as a point of reference to slowly subliminally plant that maybe on the 12th time they see it, if they're ready for your service, that's another factor, then maybe they'll call. At least I want it there at their fingertips, because as we all know, the less clicks, the better. We don't like to have to dig down rabbit holes to do business with somebody.

Karen Swim:

I think for communicators that do still manage social media, one key skillset that I have heard clients asking for, and just lots of ... I can't find the word. What are the people that we do business with? Organizations. The one skill that I see organizations continuously seeking out are people that are experienced in social media ads, particularly LinkedIn ads. If that's not a skillset that you're particularly good at, but you offer social media, I would advise trying to beef up your skillset in that area, because people do want that. I also believe that it's really important these days to also think granular.

Michelle Kane:

Yes.

Karen Swim:

I watch Reddit for one of my clients, and it's a gold mine of engagement, because people are talking about my client there in a positive way. It also gives us an opportunity to watch anything that is not quite accurate information. It helps us with our messaging. It helps us to see what questions are being asked. Some audiences are gathering in smaller, more intimate places. They're not necessarily on Twitter, particularly, again, if you're dealing with the general public.

Michelle Kane:

Right.

Karen Swim:

When I say general public, it could be consumers, it can be employees. If you're in the workforce space, then part of your market might be people that work at the companies that you work with. I think it's important to not ignore those niche spaces that are more intimate, which can be very appealing for a lot of people these days. It feels quieter, more manageable, and so many people are not on the big channels.

Michelle Kane:

Right.

Karen Swim:

If any of us stop for a second and think about your friends that are not in this business, they're not in communications, they're not in marketing, how many of them have a Twitter account?

Michelle Kane:

Right, or even a Facebook account?

Karen Swim:

Facebook.

Michelle Kane:

I see that both with my peers, and also I would say millennials, even Gen Z, they're just not there. Which is important to keep in mind, because even as you do a lot of work in those channels, which is valid, keep in mind that people are spending their time in other spaces, which we can evolve into a whole other conversation about how you should be using all sorts of different mediums. Today's all about how social media is a popcorn machine with the door open. Everything's just all over the place.

Karen Swim:

I love that. It's true. If I see more than one network pop up, at this point, I'm like, okay ...

Michelle Kane:

Stop.

Karen Swim:

... Pick it up. In the immediate changeover of Twitter, I did establish accounts on Post and Mastodon and some of the other places, but I just have decided personally for my own personal use that I'm like, "You know what? I don't care about any of it." To be honest with you, I do try to use LinkedIn kind of occasionally, and then of course, Instagram, because I have my dog's account, and her account is way more active than mine.

Michelle Kane:

Thank God for our pets.

Karen Swim:

Yeah.

Michelle Kane:

It's true.

Karen Swim:

I think that it's so complex for us communicators because there's just so many choices, and it's really divided our audience into so many pieces because they're not hanging out in one place anymore. Think about the media landscape too. The same thing happened, but now we're kind of seeing that shift happening. I think we're going to end up with fewer media channels because they can't make money.

Michelle Kane:

Right.

Karen Swim:

The theme of media and social media these days is the lack of ad revenue.

Michelle Kane:

Right.

Karen Swim:

That is really the theme. They're both struggling with getting people to advertise, and without advertising dollars, you don't have money.

Michelle Kane:

Right. You think about the dilution of the audiences, with more channels comes less eyeballs across the board. Yeah. That's going to affect all of that. It's just important to keep all of this in mind as we serve our clients. As best you can, just take your time and see where other similar clients maybe are spending their time. Just keep evaluating, which I think all of us do. We all do this, but we just thought we'd talk about this today because sometimes you're like, "Another channel?"

Karen Swim:

Yeah. The podcast is therapy for us sometimes.

Michelle Kane:

Oh, that's right.

Karen Swim:

Feeling the overwhelm of social media dilution and algorithms, algorithm mean too much.

Michelle Kane:

Yes, exactly. We hope you've gotten value out of this today. We know we have. I feel better. I don't know about you, Karen, but ...

Karen Swim:

I feel a lot better.

Michelle Kane:

If you did get something out it, please share it around. I'm sure there are many more of us out there going, "What?" We do value the time that you give us and that you spend with us every week. Until next time, thanks for joining us on That Solo Life.