Social Media Day – Team Digital Q&A

Did you know 30^th June is Social Media Day? Mashable launched the day in 2010 to mark the impact that social media has had on communications around the world.

For Social Media Day 2021, the Digital team at brandformula took it in turns to answer questions based on their expertise and experience of social media.

What social media platform do you think has changed the most over the past few years?

Mollie: I believe that Facebook has been the social media channel to change most over the years. The greatest change is its shift from a young demographic user base to an older user base. According to eMarketer, in 2018 2.2 million 12- to 17-year-olds and 4.5 million 18- to 24-year-olds regularly used Facebook in the UK – 700,000 fewer than in 2017, as younger users defect to services such as Instagram.

Facebook also changed the way people connect with each other. In the past, it was a lot easier to see everyone’s statuses or photos. However, now, users are more likely to interact with branded content; clickbait has been taking over newsfeeds. We’ve all been a victim of the ‘tag a friend who…’ posts.

Because of this, organic posts from real friends and family are drowning in a sea of content like this and fake news.

Facebook is now reimagining the algorithm. The update will bring the platform back to its former self, giving people greater access to posts from family and friends, and demoting those clickbait posts to the bottom of the pile.

What social media platform do you use the most?

Helena: According to my iPhone’s Screen Time settings, it’s Instagram and Clubhouse. Instagram is my go-to when I want to see what friends are up to, share what I’m up to, and find ideas or recommendations for anything from restaurants to staycation destinations and small businesses. I’ve recently been planning two hen parties and a birthday party, and I’ve done all of my research and made all of my enquiries for everything from venues to cakes to catering to balloons via Instagram. Clubhouse is my new addiction for listening and joining in with conversations on topics of interest – and most of the time, the topic of interest is Instagram…

What my iPhone doesn’t capture is the amount of time I spend on LinkedIn. For work, I use LinkedIn daily. We generate and publish a large volume of LinkedIn content and campaigns for our clients’ company pages as well as our own, so whether it’s manually updating profiles and pages, looking for content inspiration, researching competitors’ LinkedIn activity, or keeping up-to-date with connections and new features, I can’t answer this question without also mentioning LinkedIn!

Which social media platform do you think is best for businesses to engage with?

Elliot: It completely depends on the business’s target audience! For B2C brands, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and even Pinterest can be extremely powerful; but, from my experience of mostly working with B2B brands, LinkedIn is always the clear winner for producing high quality thought leadership and insight-driven content. It is an excellent way for brands to push their own opinions in a professional way that can spark conversations, demonstrate their expertise, and enhance their reputation with their desired audience. Overall, I would say that it depends on your strategy for producing content to dictate which channel works best for your audience!

If you had to pick only one platform to use for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Jake: This is a tricky one to answer, because I have to consider not only what platforms I currently use the most– but where I see them heading in the future. There are two main contenders for me. One is without a doubt LinkedIn, because an account has essentially become your ‘professional passport’ and it’s also the most active job marketplace in the world. On the other side is Facebook, which while I don’t use anywhere near as often as I did when I was in my teens – it’s just about the best tool I have for staying in the loop with my friends and family across the world.

If I had to make a decision, I think it would have to be Facebook, as it allows me to stay in touch with people from my secondary school, old University mates, and my close friends and family who have moved away from the UK. I honestly feel like if I didn’t have that platform I would lose contact with some people and always feel like something was missing. It also doesn’t hurt that you now need a Facebook account to use an Oculus!

What do you think is the best positive to social media?

Georgia: For me, social media has many positives. Some positives that come to my mind include being able to stay in touch with family and friends (especially over the last year with lockdowns), the wide variety of entertainment and resources it supplies, the impact it can have on wellbeing and giving people an escape from reality; the list goes on! Over the years as social media develops, there seem to be more positives from the different channels…it will be interesting to see how my current positives may change in another 10 years’ time.

What positive impact has social media had on your life?

As another element to Social Media Day, the Digital team produced a video discussing what we find most positive about social media. Watch it here