One of my favorite things online is when is when people predict the end of X.
AI will take over most of our jobs.
Twitter is dead.
Text messages will kill email.
Video killed the radio star.
Actually that last one may actually be true. It’s also of course a fav song.
Anyway, bloggers, tech writers and journalists are always declaring something to be dead, will be dead or X will kill off Y. It makes for good headlines and copy.
There’s also public perception and what people think will happen. I enjoy reading about those because you get a very small sense of where people are now and where they’re headed.
The End Is Near
A recent Gartner survey found that 50 percent of users will either abandon or significantly limit their social media usage by next year.
“53% of consumers believe social media has “decayed” compared to the previous year and five years ago due to the spread of misinformation, toxic userbases and the ubiquitous presence of bots.”
People are considering sharing less and less content on social media. They are also considering ridding themselves of it altogether.
Does this mean the end of social media? No more Instagram doomscrolling? Twitter Trending will cease to exist?
No. Social media isn’t going anywhere. But the survey responses DO have potential implications for your nonprofit.
Let’s consider two of them.
Where Did Everyone Go?
Posting on social media requires having a strategy. Who’s your target audience, what content to share, which platforms to use, when to post.
Your goal is to engage people and share content which will bring new eyeballs to your mission and work. You’re joining relevant conversations, replying to those who reach out to you and doing the “social” part in social media.
But it’s not just about listening, posting and replying. It’s also knowing how to measure the success of your efforts. Failing to do that could mean you’re posting to the wind and not growing your organization via social media.
Let’s consider what the Gartner survey reveals: What happens if members of your audience start leaving the platforms you’re on? What if they’re sharing and engaging less? Should you abandon it altogether?
In the above scenario, you might see a very precipitous drop in engagement. That’s not something you’ll see overnight. It’ll take time but as you measure your data, you’ll notice a downward trend to the point of almost no engagement.
The first thing you have to determine is if no engagement is because your content isn’t hitting the mark or because your audience has deleted the app. Once you determine the latter, it would probably make sense to leave that platform.
Leave social media altogether? No. That wouldn’t be smart. But it IS important to keep your fingers on the pulse.
I know your organization doesn’t have the staff hours or peoplepower to employ someone to manage social media full time. That person’s time is limited and spread with other duties. (If your fundraiser is also your marketer, they’re spread as thin as butter on toast.)
You see a major drop in engagement and you can attribute it to people abandoning the platform? Consider putting your time and effort elsewhere.
Rented vs. Owned Property
When I do email trainings, I talk about owned vs. rented property.
Rented property- online outlets that aren’t yours. For example, social media. If tomorrow Zuck decided to shutter Instagram, you’d lose all your content, your followers and engagement. It’s gone.
Owned property- online outlets that are yours. For example, your website and your email program., You own the content, design and list of subscribers.
This is one of the many reasons why I love email. It’s yours.
It’s important for your organization to have a vibrant presence on social media. But consider email as being just as, if not more, important.
Wat would happen if someone left social media altogether? Where would they find out more about the organizations they follow and support?
Email.
Your organization has an opportunity this year to work on your email program and get it right. If Gartner is correct, you may see more people using email to connect with your nonprofit.
Email is a perfect platform for boosting your fundraising and marketing efforts and helping your organization grow. You can use it for storytelling, gratitude, asking for donations, impact reporting, events, advocacy and more and more. Like your social media feed, consistent and constant communications keeps your subscribers engaged and taking action.
What Do I Think?
Do I think more people will stop using social media in 2025? Very hard for me to see it because people use social for so many different things- connect with people, get their news, follow their favorite stars and organizations etc.
But I wouldn’t discount Gartner’s findings for one major reason: 2024 is an election year. I can see lots of people simply wanting to get away from all the noise and deciding they’ve had enough. Maybe they leave altogether or maybe they just take a break.
Of course, the above applies to email as well. People’s inboxes will be filled with emails from all kinds of politicians and people will want a break.
But the one thing email has going for it that social media does not: People use email for work. They’re going to continue to look at their emails. Better be in their inbox today so you can relationship build!
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