On Our Minds: Breaking Through The Crowded Social Landscape

If you had to guess, how many people would you assume use social media worldwide? 2 billion? 3 billion? The latest number estimates that there are over 5 billion people using social media worldwide. With so many people scattered across the various social media platforms, brands and content creators are in an ever-increasing competition for users’ attention. A recent report from Sprout Social showed the average brand posting 10 times per day across networks. 10! But how do you break through? What do users actually want to see? While there isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach, we have a few recommendations that may be able to help.?

• Originality Beats a Trend Any Day: While social managers are hungry to find their brat summer moment to quote our friends at Sprout Social, “...trends alone are not a long-term strategy for achieving brand reach or relevance.” Instagram’s algorithm change was a clear and direct statement for creators to start getting original in their content creation as repetitive content is going to be deprioritized.?
• Listen to Your Audience: In Q2 of 2024, Sprout reported that the kind of brand content that consumers find most entertaining is edutainment (educational entertainment) at 60% followed by memes 40% and one-off skits and serialized content tied with 38%. Often times, especially on Broadway, we steer away from anything that can feel “spinachy” when talking about education content for the various brands; however, this data is worth an examination and questioning if our audience wants their spinach, why are we afraid to give it to them?
• Redefine What Success Means and How You Measure It: In a landscape of 5 billion users across an average of 6 platforms with new ones rising and falling in popularity constantly it can be hard to really understand what it means to be successful on social. Work with your social team to understand engagement metrics, consider shifting focus to community engagement or community growth, and as a team decide what makes you feel like you’re doing your best.?

It doesn’t seem like social media is going to slow down. More users will continue to join these sites, more content will fill our feeds, and the content will likely continue to get shorter as we all compete for users’ attention. As we continue to roll up our sleeves and get to making content, it’s important to remember that sometimes the best way to come up with a good idea for social is to log off, take a walk, talk to a friend, and let the breakthrough find you.?

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