In Six months the only brands standing out on social will be the ones not letting AI write their personalities.
The past two weeks in client holiday consultation calls the same musings have been coming up and they are as follows:
“Instagram just feels gross.”
“I don't even know what to do anymore.”
“What direction is social even going in.”
I don't know if you've noticed as much as I have but for the past year I've watched Instagram turn into the Home Shopping Network. So much so that QVC the sister to the Home Shopping Network is laying off 900 people.
There are so many people on all of the platforms who are look and sound like each other. I've been saying this for awhile but it's getting worse.
It's difficult to know who is who because all of the vibes are the same.
Photographers and content creators are churning out the same aesthetics and you're paying big bucks for them to make you look the same as everyone else.
People are desperately trying to copy everyone else's aesthetic because they think it's what is working when it's really only working for one person- the person the aesthetic is original to. Trying to use the same viral hook templates to also go viral but gain nothing except strip the personality from your brand.
And all of this couldn't have been any more apparent than a few months ago when Tay Tay announced her new album. You know the day that the majority of posts on every social channel turned orange, the color that you probably forgot even existed.
The brands whose social teams elegantly executed this trend in real time and on brand with the easter eggs are the real winners here.
The brands who jumped on days later or just changed the color of something to orange in photoshop to post an attempt to get into the groove of everything are exactly who I'm talking about here.
The posts I loved didn't just go orange—they made orange feel native to their brand experience. When everyone forgets the color orange even exists.
And in my opinion there were four that did it the most timely and the truest. The day after the announcement I saw almost every other business try and jump on the now burned out trend, chasing likes and to somehow become or stay relevant in the algorithm that was shifting toward something else.
But what I am noticing is….
In this new social space where almost everyone is looking the same and putting out the same vibes the effective trend marketing happens when brands have team members who are genuinely part of the communities they're trying to reach.
You can't fake being a Swiftie at 6 AM when those teasers drop & staying up until midnight to see what they are all about.
I get the allure of jumping onto a viral pop cultural moment but when you don't execute it correctly it looks like you're just copying your way to credibility.
You CTRL C + CTRL V your way to be one of the “cool” ones in the feed.
When instead you're getting scrolled right by because the consumers have photo fatigue.
You can't copy your way into credibility and you certainly can't AI your way into a personality.
The next 6 months are going to be detrimental to setting yourself apart by simply showing up as yourself on social.
Yeah- I went there.
It's time to stop chasing what's working for someone else and figure out and build on what is going to work for you. You share your story, your struggles, your wins, your tidbits.
Because in a world of plain white wonder bread it's time to be artisan sourdough.
It's time to make social media and marketing creative and human again.
It's time to find your confidence and show up as yourself.
I'm here to help.