Say hello nicely - the era of social networks is coming to an end

In an age where every child becomes a "network anchor", social networks have long since ceased to be what we knew.

So what awaits us in the reality of 2024?

Tamir Zohar explains

Tamir Zohar

31/07/2022

Sunday, July 31, 2022, 08:54 Updated: 09:08

• Share on Facebook

• Share on WhatsApp

• Share on Twitter

• Share by email

• Share in general

• Comments

  Comments

Expert opinion and the Facebook group of the marketing channel in Vala (photo: photo processing, Yaron Other)

Say you are old, without saying you are old.

I'll start - Farmville, sending a Poke, wishing a happy birthday on the WALL, replying to a friend request "Excuse me, do we know each other?", getting annoyed that there are so many notifications about a photo that tagged you.

Yes, this was the existence of the social network "Facebook" somewhere in the first decade of the 2000s.

As it were, Facebook and its strengthening was a significant and sophisticated step in the evolution of everything we knew before - ICQ, MSN MESSENGER, Myspace, linked and much more.

All of these came sooner or later under the same umbrella that is still called "social networks" - platforms whose main purpose is to allow us to maintain a continuous and deeper connection with those closest to us.

These days are the days of wired internet and surfing the internet means a complete shutdown of telephony and facsimile activity at home.

These are the days when we had to remember more phone numbers than Anna Zak and to download a movie from the Internet required two days of hard work for the computer.

These are exactly the days when the first versions of social networks were designed.

Nothing remains of those days.

So how did it happen that the social networks, which were a symbol of that social-cultural-human reality in those days, are the ones that survived the test of time?

By the end of 2024 there will be no social networks here

Wait, this is not another column in which to bury something that everyone uses, wait, I'll explain.

By the end of 2024, social networks will finally cease to exist as social and will become publishers for all intents and purposes - a tool for personalized-independent communication.

And by extension - content bodies that are a free buffet, "eat as much as you can", dynamic publishers with thousands of new and topical pieces of content, not created by one chef or your close friends, but by hundreds of millions of users of the social network, from all over the world.

Even in the reality of 2024, there may be a small remnant left in the form of one or two features that allow us to keep in touch with our close friends, but this is an ancillary, side-by-side feature, when the real essence is an endless body of content that gives a platform to everything that is trendy in your world.

The connection between "New Stage" and TikTok

If we place Tiktok on the axis drawn somewhere in 2007 between the "New Stage" website and the Facebook of those days, we will find that Tiktok today is much closer to the "New Stage" than to the young and promising Facebook in its early days.

In fact, Tiktok as well as Twitter, Twitch and YouTube are much more similar to the website "Walla!"

than the version of Facebook from a decade ago.

When you finish reading this article, start scrolling down, to the end, more and more, it still goes on, eh?

The "classic" publicists also adopt the same user experience of an infinite body of content with content that should adapt itself to you with the help of advertising tools and targeting your interests and profile (in the above case thanks to Outbrain).

This has long been the story not only of Tiktok. The CEO of Instagram worldwide, Adam Mosari, had to apologize last Thursday, for the experiment that Instagram conducted in recent months, and as part of it,

The senior surfers were furious.

"Make Instagram be Instagram again. Stop trying to be Tiktok, I just want to see cute pictures of my friends," cried Kylie Jenner, who has no less than 360 million followers.

Remember yelling about the blue V on WhatsApp?

Remember when WhatsApp also apologized, but very quickly allowed those who wanted to move towards the blue V?

Don't worry, the outrage and the apology will last a few weeks and very soon we will all wake up to a "new version" with a small button at the top "return to the old version".

Oh, are you going back to the old version?

What are you, old men?

The media is no longer so social (Photo: Unsplash)

How will all this affect the Social Media Marketing professions?

What is the role of a social network manager on the client side and even in agencies and advertising offices?

What is marketing in social networks in an era where social networks become publishers?

It's not for nothing that every "Instagram star" with a few followers immediately brands himself as a "content creator".

Those who today see social networks as a media tool and nothing more, knowingly and unknowingly turn their business pages into a warehouse of banners that are displayed for a fee among the various pieces of viral content.

The role of social network managers is more than ever to produce content.

The Real Time Marketing spices that we previously sprinkled on the monthly gannets are slowly and gradually becoming the dish itself.

Does your brand have something smart, important and relevant to say that is related to our reality now?

You may enjoy unprecedented exposure!

Do you want to upload a post to Facebook just because you decided to upload 2-3 posts a week?

Good luck with another post that only you like.

The balance of power between media budgets and content budgets must change.

The differences are sometimes clearly unreasonable.

When the investment in the content itself is less than a tenth of the media budget - you have a serious problem.

The ever increasing media prices oblige every brand to rethink - where does the media really "harvest demand" and contribute to the success of the brand or product, and where is it nothing more than a cover for mediocre or inferior content?

How did you once write to a politician on the speech page?

"Weak argument - we need to turn up the volume."

In the new world of social networks, in the days when the budget blanket is shorter than ever, try to understand whether you are running on automaton according to a reality that was relevant a decade ago or are you ready, truly and sincerely, to prepare for the next generation of social networks?

is a co-CEO of the Salt&Pepper agency and the podcast project "Kippodcast"

Want to comment?

Join the discussion in the group where the discourse of the marketing world takes place

To the full article

• Marketing and digital

• expert opinion

Tags

• Facebook

• Instagram

• tiktok

• social media

• Social Networks

• Internet advertisement