Digital Creator
The show for creators, entrepreneurs, and thought leaders who want simpler, smarter ways to grow their online presence.
Digital Creator
Too many platforms not enough time
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In this episode, I’m talking about:
- A candid breakdown of today's 10 major social media platforms.
- An insider look at which platforms are actually worth your time.
- Where different audiences are migrating.
- And much more!
Analysis of Social Media Platforms
Speaker 1There are too many social media platforms and in this episode I want to talk about them from my perspective . Starting with a quick little story . One of the only games I play these days is Microsoft Flight Simulator . About a week or two I think it might have been last week they launched the newest flight simulator 2024 . A lot of us were looking forward to these improvements , because the trailers for the game looked really exciting , looked very detailed , and I justify myself making an investment in new tech because it's one of the only games I play . I enjoy it and I was like you know what , how can I make a better experience for me playing Microsoft Flight Simulator ? And one of the things that I could get was a VR headset .
Speaker 1So the day of the Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 launch , I make the impulse decision to go to Best Buy and buy a VR headset . And what do you know ? The game has a bunch of hiccups . On release day , there was like no way to get into the game . It was loading , it was a mess . I buy the Meta Quest 3S to submerge myself in an immersive flying experience .
Speaker 1It's been a few years since I've used VR . When I'm in there , I'm like , oh my gosh , there is a whole community of people thriving on here , and why I bring this up is because in this episode , when we're talking about social media platforms I'm not going to be talking about VR specifically in context of social media platforms , but there was a whole community that I haven't even communities , I should say not one , there's multiple communities just within the meta quest , because when I locked in there and I go in this room and there's hot ones , that chicken wings eating interview show from YouTube , there's like a whole hot ones viewing party in there . Ariana Grande is like on this wide screen . There's people around me . You can like go and talk to people with their little avatars . So it was interesting to me and it got me thinking like , oh my gosh , there's so much in here . And also , who are these people ? At like 11 am watching Hot Ones in a virtual reality headset ? You know me , I guess people like me , people who work in more tech content related things , I don't know , I didn't talk to anybody . Quite an introvert Even , I guess in the VR , I should say even in VR I felt like I don't know . I didn't talk to anybody . Quite an introvert Even I guess in the VR , I should say , even in VR , I felt like I don't know if I want to talk to anybody . What do I say ? So I just kind of navigated at the front and was just watching Ariana Grande talk about Wicked and eating wings .
Speaker 1Things have kind of progressed , I feel like since I've started this podcast , in that there's been new social media platforms that have popped up , and I don't think any have really gone away , but they have become more fragmented , and what I thought I would do is run down a list of the 10 social media platforms and give my perspective on them . I think it's nice to share my perspective on them . I'm not trying to be like controversial or anything . I'm just trying to be as a matter of fact as possible . The point of this is maybe I say something about the social media platform that you agree with . Maybe I say something about the social media platform that you disagree with . Either way , I think it will strengthen your perspective of that social media platform and whether or not you find it at all worthwhile to you , the content that you create , who you serve and if it's in your best interest to go there . Now , please don't take what I say as gospel , meaning I could be completely wrong about what I'm about to say . So when I talk about TikTok , I can't include absolutely everything . There's going to be things that I miss , just naturally . But my goal is to do broad strokes over these 10 social media platforms . Let's be real , like there's 10 social media platforms and I'm not even mentioning , like I just podcasting , which I don't it's not social media . Or Twitch , which I don't look at as any social media either . If you were just doing like three of these , that's a lot , but there's like 10 here , and sometimes I think people spend too much time on the wrong social media for their target market . But regardless , I just want to get over to these social media platforms and talk about them .
Speaker 1So let's go through the list . Number one Blue Sky , blue Ski , blue Sky , blue Sky . Right ? I just realized , as I'm saying that out loud , I'm like , how do you say it ? Blue sky . So I just signed up last week and here's what I see as the divide , which number two on the list is X Seems like , especially since Elon Musk took over Twitter , which then converted to X , just like in America , there's been even more of a big divide happening between the right and the left . There's a whole rabbit hole there of politics . But X , more right leaning and more with the left .
Speaker 1They go towards threads , because threads is now about , I think , a year and a half old , and threads . You know it's gained traction but it hasn't really taken off wildly right . It's not a full replacement for X , but it's a good placeholder for people that didn't want to spend time on X . Enter Blue Sky , which I'm going to call Blue Sky . I might be saying it completely wrong Now I'm second guessing myself . Blue Sky has popped up and now Blue Sky and threads have kind of been a place for people that lean left in their politics , people that don't want to see Elon Musk in their feed , people that do want to see Elon Musk in their feed . They're all over X , which we'll get to in a second , but you have blue sky and you have threads , which is two social media platforms on its own .
Speaker 1Blue sky , as I see it , and threads are very kind of one in the same . How I see it , blue Sky is for more people , way more left-leaning . They are wanting a Twitter replacement because it looks very similar to how Twitter was , and they want some capabilities that go against the norm for social media . Like you can integrate your username with your URL that you have . So like I have d Schmidtcom on there . Now I'm not super active on there . I'm not active on X either , or even threads for that much , or even Facebook . As I look at this list , there's a lot I'm not really like active on . I might post on , but that doesn't mean I'm like actively consuming the content . So blue sky fantastic for like left-leaning people that want a Twitter replacement , that use Twitter maybe up until Elon Musk bought it and have always felt just like a missing void there . It's still super early days . It hasn't taken off yet , like what Twitter was like previously .
Speaker 1And now , with the fragmentation of these short form text , primarily text-based social media platforms like blue sky , uh , x , threads , things like that because it's fragmented off and you have some people that like stuck around on X . But then you have people that went on Blue Sky . You have people on Threads there's just less content to go around for Threads and Blue Sky because people had to migrate over from X Twitter to these platforms and you're not going to get everybody right . Not everybody's going from X to Thread and you're not going to get everybody right . Not everybody's going from X to threads and then threads the blue sky , so you're just going to have less content , and I see that a lot on threads and blue sky . Now , what I also see because I'm not super active on these platforms but I do check in Right , I try to feel the pulse of what's going on on these different platforms to be able to relay it to you , as I'm doing now .
Speaker 1And what I see on threads is people will go on threads but they won't go on X , right ? If you again generalizing , if you don't want to see the Elon Musk stuff and you're like I used to be on X , but I'm not going to be on X anymore . But what's happening is people that are on X are farming out content from X to threads and you wouldn't even know it because you just see it as maybe a viral post on threads . And I'm sure the same thing is happening on Blue Sky , although I have not seen with my own eyes . People are taking that same content , whether they are the original author of that content or not , and they're posting it over on threads because it worked on X and it can work on threads . Usually that content is news , trending topics , things like that . But yeah , I see happen almost every week or almost every time that I've gone on threads , I'm like , oh , I also saw that post on X because it was a viral over there . But the people that are going on threads , they don't know that the content is just being posted in both places and maybe they don't even care , I don't know . But it is a little bit confusing when you think about it and I feel like because I'm illustrating this with my voice , you really have to like think about this . So the first three blue sky , x and threads short form text , depending on which political preference you lean towards might dictate where you spend your time .
Speaker 1Facebook it's one of the most popular social media platforms still to this day and it just underutilized vastly . Facebook groups are still a huge thing . Facebook pages are still a huge thing and we kind of forget about it because it feels like it's just always been there for so many years now . But Facebook is fantastic for , you know , all age ranges Doesn't matter if you're college age to my age , to older . Of course it's going to skew , maybe a little bit older , but that's also people with money , right . Facebook ads are still huge and , yeah , facebook is still dominating . And what's great about Facebook is they've , like , really made it the everything place where you can upload videos in different dimensions . You can do , you know , horizontal , vertical , you can do the reels , you can do the text posts , you do longer text posts , you can do shorter text posts , you can do images , you can do text on images and things can really take off . And because you can get kind of kick-started there with Facebook ads still a valuable place , like everything I'm saying right now still would have worked with Facebook , like 10 years ago I would have probably been saying the same thing except for using the word reels , because that's a relatively newer term to describe that format of video , but they still had vertical video .
Speaker 1Tiktok . What I'm seeing is it's become a huge seller's marketplace . I made a short form video about TikTok basically becoming the new QVC , and it really has . If you've spent any time consuming content on TikTok , you've seen a lot of TikTok shop videos in your feed because it's just taken off .
Speaker 1Prior to making that short form video , I hadn't bought anything on TikTok shop , but that changed just a couple of days ago where my wife was telling me about these insoles that she came across for slip on vans and I had been in the market for insoles for my slip on vans because they're just so hard and they're actually really hard to take out . I tried to use it with like a blow dryer and it was just like a mess . I ended up messing up the shoes . And so when she said that I like saw the video and then it was available in TikTok shop , I don't want to buy it from TikTok , so I go to the website and it was more expensive on the website . They had a deal on the TikTok shop and when I go to buy it it took like 30 seconds to check out . I could use Apple Pay super easy and it was cheaper than buying it directly on the website . So I bought my first thing on TikTok shop .
Speaker 1But I know people are buying a lot on there and I can see through scrolling through that people are treating this like QVC at this point , like people are deliberately making videos showcasing products that they're using , products that they're selling . You know , earning a commission from that . Now how much are they earning ? Of course , it wildly depends on so many factors , but it's happening and it's really , really popular . Right now TikTok is doing billions of dollars in sales from these products .
Speaker 1It's worth noting like TikTok has shifted with TikTok shop into not just being a place where you post these you know off the cuff quick videos that are almost like Instagram stories if you will posted to short form videos on TikTok where you just scroll on the for you page . It's also become a place to buy things , and Instagram has tried to do this , facebook has tried to do this , but neither of those platforms have done what TikTok shop is doing . I don't think we give enough credit to TikTok and what they've created with TikTok shop , because Instagram has been trying to do this for a while to get you to buy stuff on the platform and you can , but without even having the numbers in front of me . I am positive TikTok is doing much bigger numbers when it comes to the shop just because it's become more integrated into it and they have so many more creators on board on Instagram .
Speaker 1The primary way of selling things yes , you can do the shop and buy things on there , but like that's not really where it's happening . Where it's really happening is people posting reels about the product and then using an automation tool like mini chat , where they say in the caption or in the video it says comment the word broom and I'll send you a link to this broom . And then you comment the word broom and then they send in a DM a link to the broom . Says you know , here you go and that's an affiliate link and they could earn a commission on that . Think about the steps involved on something like Instagram . With that you have to comment the word broom , so that's an action .
Exploring Social Media Platform Strategies
Speaker 1Then the mini chat automation has to be set up . Sends them the link . They have to see the message . Hopefully it doesn't get sent to their other or like hidden requests folder . They have to see that . Then they have to click it . Then it opens up in the browser . With 99% of the time they're going to be looking at on their phone , they have to open it up in like Safari . If they're using an iPhone , then they have to buy it and go through that whole checkout process . That's if everything's optimized for conversions on the sales page of whatever it is that they're selling on TikTok shop . It all happens right in the app .
Speaker 1So , like I said , I used Apple Pay . I didn't have to go to another website when I bought the insole shoes for my vans . It was just focused on , like getting my payment information because I used Apple Pay . It was like already in there , super easy . That's why it took 30 seconds . I didn't wait for a DM or anything like that . It was just like buying it , probably easier than if I bought it on the website of the company that I was purchasing it , if that makes sense . So shout out to TikTok for TikTok shop . That's really cool .
Speaker 1Honestly , if I had to throw a number out , I feel like 50% of the videos I'm seeing these days on multiple accounts are people mentioning a product in their videos that they could earn a commission on . That leads to TikTok shop . People are doing lives , so it's really become like a QVC mixed with viral videos still of places to eat and there's just a lot more going on there , and you don't see that culture on other platforms as easily integrated . It's different than YouTube even , which we'll talk about in a second . Then I think we kind of skipped over Instagram . But Instagram , I'm seeing it as a place for quicker reels . If you scroll through your reels tab on Instagram , I bet you'll notice , regardless of your algorithm , that a lot of the videos have trending sounds with sound clips , things like that , little skits , things that are entertaining , informational and relevant , interesting , and why that differs especially from like TikTok is TikTok . There's so much variety of what can happen . Again , we're generalizing here .
Speaker 1Not that talking to camera videos don't pop off on Instagram Everything I'm seeing . Not that talking to camera videos don't pop off on Instagram Everything I'm seeing . They pop off way more frequently talking to camera videos on TikTok than on Instagram . On Instagram again , oh , this is aesthetically beautiful . It helped the whole rise of influencers and people wanting to take vacations because they were Instagrammable . And now people are taking that same aesthetic and morphing it into reels where you don't just have a reel , you have a beautiful looking reel . So place where kind of like I don't know reality TV or something , where things just almost seem a little too perfect . Still , I don't think Instagram has fully moved away from that . Now on TikTok , you could be in bed with an eye mask on recording content and it looks almost and it might perform way better than if you had like makeup and this beautiful lighting and this whole thing . On right , less polished videos on TikTok do really well . Way more polished videos seem to do better on Instagram . That's what I've noticed .
Speaker 1Next is Pinterest , which I don't know a lot about Pinterest , but I know a couple of things . One is it's fantastic for gathering ideas for other platforms . Maybe check out Pinterest for some content ideas , using it kind of like a Google search Google image search where you would type in the topic of what you're talking about and then seeing the type of content on there . Why I like this is it's a visual platform and you can very quickly get an idea of what's kind of in . Reminds me of Tumblr quite a bit If you ever use that back in the day , where you could type in like keywords and you'd be like just saturated with ideas and pick up on the vibe of what people are liking Now on Pinterest . I'll give you an example of this . If I typed in like podcasting , I'll have a whole bunch of content around podcasting and it might be like here's the best microphones to buy and it might be like a lot of infographics or people podcasting . And why that's great is if I ever feel stuck around like what to create content on , I might go to Pinterest , type that in and just instantly have a bunch of ideas and go like oh yeah , there's so much stuff to talk about . I could see a infographic and that could spark a video idea . It just gets the juices flowing . And another quick thing about Pinterest is you can repurpose content there easily and still get thousands of views per month . I do that . So any video that I post to Facebook Reels , tiktok , instagram , youtube Shorts , linkedin , et cetera . I also upload to Pinterest because it takes me 20 or 30 seconds .
Understanding Social Media Platform Usage
Speaker 1Next is YouTube . Youtube is kind of the catch-all and , just like Facebook , has been around that we take for granted . I think YouTube is one of those Creators . Don't take it for granted . But it's really intimidating because , just how Instagram can be a comparison platform , youtube is one of those comparison platforms as well where you're constantly inundated with the views of a video . Youtube uses that right . This is marketing . This is keeping people glued on the platforms . When you see a video with 42 million views and it's 30 seconds long and there is a cat upside down in the thumbnail , you're like why does this video have 42 million views ? Or whatever . You click the video , you watch it and you go , wow , that was either really dumb or funny or cute or whatever . Like what else ? And then they start building up this algorithm on you , trying to give you more videos like that .
Speaker 1What's interesting about the YouTube algorithm is it's also by time of day . I know this because my own viewing habits of YouTube in the mornings . I will usually put on music videos when I'm starting out the day for my daughter and I , and it always tries to serve me up the same music videos and I get sick of the songs . But it doesn't show me those music videos after like nine or 10 o'clock , which is when the day progresses , and I'm not looking for those music videos at all anymore . So I get served an algorithm in the mornings around like seven or 8am . That's a different algorithm . As the day progresses I never get those video recommendations after a certain time and in the afternoon it's different than the evening . I don't hear anybody else talking about this and we take into consideration of watching something based on how many views it has , because naturally we associate lower views with content that's not as good , and I think that's worth mentioning .
Speaker 1Number nine Snapchat . Snapchat is from a different generation than I am , so all my perspective on Snapchat is is that it's if I had a yes , which could be completely wrong is like 28 , 29 years old and younger that there's a blur between people also on Snapchat and TikTok . Snapchat is still thriving . I just don't have enough data on it because it's below what I pay attention to , but I have to mention it because it exists and I can't act like it doesn't .
Speaker 1And then LinkedIn you're having primarily people that don't know what to create content on LinkedIn about , because it's confusing . People are on there looking for a job . The time people spend on LinkedIn is actually relatively small . Like they go on there they're probably looking for specific things , but people aren't really going on LinkedIn to just like spend time on , unless they're actively trying to grow on LinkedIn , which then puts them in the creator bucket and they're like if there was a slice of pie , like there's a small number of creators compared to people that are using it for other things , which presents opportunity . But you have to realize as a creator , if you're creating content on there and people that primarily spend time on there like more than normal are also creating content , are they going to be in your consumer range , because content creators don't always make the best content consumers .
Speaker 1It's a different bit of a mindset there and , depending on who you're creating content for , I think a lot of opportunity on LinkedIn if it works for your niche , your categories , your topics that you want to talk about , but people are afraid to post on LinkedIn because it's tied to their professional identity , which gives a lot of opportunity for people that aren't afraid to post on LinkedIn . I'll leave it at that , all right ? I've gone through these 10 social media platforms . I'm curious if you have anything to add or if you think I got it wrong on any of these . Let me know . I'll talk to you in the next one .