In his article sparked Jack Conte's (co-founder and CEO of Patreon) keynote at SXSW 2024 and a few other ideas, Ian Shepherd discusses the evolving landscape of social media and content creation.
He emphasizes on the diminishing importance of follower counts. You can read that again - the diminishing importance of follower counts.
Shepherd concludes the article with a quote from Conte, "... it is possible to build an internet where fandoms thrive and where professional creativity is possible for anyone."
It's an Internet I believe in too, and I know there are many who think about the internet in that way. Here are some key takeaways from Shepherd's article with some thoughts on them:
Shift in Metrics: Traditional metrics like follower counts are becoming less significant. Engagement metrics such as comments, shares, and direct interactions are becoming more important.
This is visible in how over the last few years people have tried to game follower counts for vanity - you can pay to increase your followers on Instagram, but can you keep paying to increase comments and shares on all your posts? That hook was always wrong.
Secondly, one must not be fixated on even these engagement metrics, drawing one-size-fits-all community strategies. Some content drives more shares, some more comments. Some communities have more group conversations, some private. There's got to be space for nuance.
Algorithm Changes: Social media platforms are prioritizing content that generates meaningful engagement over content that simply attracts views.
That algorithm keeps changing without warning, making it hard for people professional creators to stay on top of their work. This further puts more pressure on the long-tail of creators and even others - with their content visibility being left to the mercy of the algorithm.
This means a farmer or baker who could post about their produce and build an audience cannot do that as easily now. They've got to spend more time on being a creator, rather than just a farmer or baker. It's two jobs for one person now, or one needs to hire a person / agency. The cost of that digital visibility is going up for non-native digital content creators.
For a professional creators or native digital content creators, it's deeper specialisation that's now required of them.
Quality over Quantity: Creators are encouraged to focus on producing high-quality, engaging content rather than aiming for a high number of followers.
One has got to put more thought into - mindfulness as others may say - creating content. A simple behind-the-scenes photo that worked earlier for a. baker may not achieve similar visibility anymore. She now needs to post more about perhaps the kind of chocolate she uses, where she sources it from or why she bakes an apple pie for 23 minutes rather than 25 minutes and at what degree of temperature (if it comes out good). Not just that, the baker now also needs higher resolution videos and better sound quality. Her mobile camera may not suffice. This is where third-party creators / agencies will come in further.
For professional and native digital creators who aimed to make a living off the internet, it's also like a filter: mere shooting a dance video will not qualify for regular visibility and engagement, but a dance tutorial that breaks down how one can learn to moon-walk in 5 easy steps perhaps will - and only someone who has done that a thousand times can get that on point. So it's a nudge towards creating content once a threshold of knowledge / experience / skill / creativity has been achieved.
Now if it were consumers deciding on that, it'd be a genuine market response. But if the algorithm is doing it, it's gatekeeping and it may not be giving the right incentives for creators. Should you be forced to re-invent everyday?
Personalization and Communities: Building smaller, dedicated communities around specific interests is becoming a more effective strategy than appealing to a broad audience.
This is where new opportunities open up when one acknowledges that the digital game doesn't require reaching a million people, one can succeed at by building intimate connections with regular communication with niche audiences. The thousand trues fans theory makes a strong come-back.
This is where showing up regularly and building trust becomes key. That is when the professionalism of the creator is rewarded for their knowledge, skill, experience, creativity and consistency. And this is where then that direct monetization becomes key, reducing reliance on traditional advertising revenue.
It's almost a natural progression as one narrows down on a niche, builds a content strategy and puts their heart into it - with the right tools by their side.
The digital tools of content creation, community building, regular communication, and content distribution and monetization become super important in this journey.
We've been talking about it for sometime, we are seeing it happen now. These shifts indicate a move towards a more engagement-driven and community-focused era in content creation.
It's a change that's starting with professional creators, but it's coming to everyone who has or wants to gain digital visibility for their brand, business or organization.
