Social-media companies know they’re in trouble. A few days ago Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey acknowledged the toxicity of his platform. He tweeted his commitment “to help increase the collective health, openness and civility of public conversation.” This year Mark Zuckerberg resolved to “fix” Facebook. The acknowledgement that these sites need fixing is a step in the right direction, but it may be too little, too late.
More than half of users between the ages of 18 and 24 revealed they are “seeking relief from social media,” according to a survey. The poll, taken in December, found that[inlinetweet prefix=”” tweeter=”” suffix=””] 34 percent of young users reported having deleted social-media accounts entirely[/inlinetweet]. [inlinetweet prefix=”” tweeter=”” suffix=””]Forty-one percent of respondents said they waste too much time on social media, and 35 percent agreed that people their age are too distracted by their online lives.[/inlinetweet]
So what’s happening?
1ne: Social media use still has huge numbers, but what we are seeing is that more and more people cutting the cord to sites like Facebook and Twitter. The reasons for this vary, but it has a lot to do with sites changing the way users see THEIR feeds.
2wo: Privacy issues are a big concern for a lot of users who don’t like sites selling their personal data.
3hree: The failure of social media sites to take responsibility for fake news on their sites.
Finally, at the end of the day a lot of people are just getting tired of being online all the time. It was bound to happen despite the fact that companies try and keep us addicted to sites and social media.
So where are the social media experts now?
Remember experts like Jay, who increased their personal brands by telling us we absolutely had to be on social media? Where are they now? They made their money off people who wanted to believe that social media was the next huge thing, but as Nielsen recently reported TV is still number one with women.
We were promised that social media would be the magic carpet on which our legions of brand advocates would go to spread the word about the marvelousness of our brands, and would free us from the terrible, wasteful expense of advertising. It has done nothing of the sort. In fact, it is often the exact opposite. [inlinetweet prefix=”” tweeter=”” suffix=””]Social media is usually where people go to scream about the mistreatment they get at the hands of companies[/inlinetweet]. And where companies go to beg forgiveness.
[inlinetweet prefix=”” tweeter=”” suffix=””]Forrester Research, not too long ago, issued a report that said social media marketing is essentially worthless[/inlinetweet]. Consumers do not want to have a conversation with your brand, or an “authentic relationship” with it, or co-create with it, or engage with it, or dance with it, or take a shower with it.
Even P&G, the giant marketing powerhouse, is reducing their digital marketing budget and has pulled its Facebook ads. Why? Because they were ineffective.
What we are seeing is the beginning of the decline of social media and users who are realizing that they are wasting too much time online and not enough time with friends (in person) and enjoying their time off and away from the office.
Where are the experts now?
