We won’t beat around the bush: social media as we know it is dying in real time.
From Meta’s decision to roll out Verified in a (our opinion) last-ditch effort to bring in more profit to TikTok’s potential ban by the U.S. Congress, social media has never been more fragile.
But what does that mean for your business?
Let’s dig into the latest for Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok as of April 2023 and what it means for you.
Let’s talk about Meta and Meta Verified
We can’t talk about the state of social media without talking about Meta.
Meta, run by CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is the parent company of Facebook and Instagram. For a long time, Meta made money off its advertising business, but when Apple released iOS 14 in 2020, that went sideways. That iOS update allowed users to opt out of in-app tracking and a whopping estimated 96% of users said no.
Advertisers didn’t see any value in running ads when they couldn’t get that data, so they stopped spending money on ads, and Meta’s profit took a hit. They needed to create that money elsewhere.
Enter the Meta Verified program. Called “a subscription bundle to help you establish your presence on Instagram and Facebook,” Meta Verified is positioned as a way for Meta to help creators by giving them:
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The blue checkmark (a.k.a., the verified badge)
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Proactive account protection, meaning protection from impersonation with proactive account monitoring and two-factor authentication (P.S. all accounts currently get this for free.)
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Exclusive stickers on Facebook reels and Instagram stories, plus 100 Stars a month on Facebook to show support for other creators. What are Stars? Great question. As of April 2023, Meta’s webpage reports that “Facebook Stars are a feature to monetize your stream. Viewers can buy Stars and send them to you while you’re streaming, along with animated, virtual gifts attached to different Star amounts.” For every Star you receive, Facebook will pay out $0.01. So…there’s that.
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Direct account support. Get help when you need it from a real person on common account issues. This is potentially the most valuable element in theory, but how they’re going to pull this off is still unclear.
A few things you should know:
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When Meta Verified launched in the U.S., boosted reach was included in the subscription, but based on the pushback, it was rolled back. However, they were careful to not say it was rolled back permanently, meaning they could bring it back anytime…and make both Instagram and Facebook fully pay-to-play apps.
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If you choose to get started with this process, it is $14.99 a month to get Instagram verified and $11.99 a month for Facebook verification, potentially costing up to $26 a month for both.
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Business accounts are not eligible for this program.
Chances are, millions of people will have to pay for this because if you don’t pay, you won’t break into the algorithm. In turn, users will be disappointed with the content served up to them because they’ll feel like they’re constantly being sold to by creators. Meaning, user interest in the platform will innately decrease.
The only person who wins in this, make no mistake about it, is Meta. They are the only winner. Creators are not getting a leg up the way that they’re promising that they are. Users are not getting any sort of advantage because they’re again not going to be happy with the user experience.
With that in mind, let’s dig into what’s going on with the platforms.
When Instagram peaked in 2014, it was a photo sharing app that focused on authenticity and storytelling. Then in 2016, there was a second surge when Instagram stories were born. Next, Instagram TV (IGTV) was rolled out in 2018 to try to grab a piece of YouTube’s audience, but it was completely shut down in 2022. Finally, to compete with TikTok, Instagram launched reels in 2020 and artificially inflated the engagement to give it a boost.
Basically, instead of staying true to what they were really good at, Instagram got caught up in the bigger and better game. They wanted to be the next Snapchat (stories), YouTube (IGTV), TikTok (reels). Regular people (non-business/creator accounts) stopped posting, which is a huge tell of a dying business.
What does this mean for you?
In 2021, Britt put a five-year lifespan on Instagram, projecting it would be pretty much irrelevant in our industry. 18 months later, parts of this prediction are already starting to fall into place.
Meaning, now is the time to lean into Instagram to build your business before it disappears. Is it worth it for you to subscribe to the Instagram Verified program? It’s hard to say. Each business is different, so dive deep into your target market and business core value to help.
The most important thing in Facebook’s history that we want to highlight is that when it first launched in 2004, there was a tagline on its website that said, “Facebook: free and always will be.” In 2019, that tagline was quietly removed and now in 2023, they’ve created a pay-to-play app with their new Verified program.
Many people who saw the verification program were excited at first, but here’s the issue: Like we mentioned earlier, Meta Verified is an indicator of a rapidly declining social media platform. Add that to the decreased daily active and monthly users, advertisers pulling their money out of the platform, and you can see the path Facebook is on.
What does this mean for you?
Instagram and Facebook are in similar predicaments. Both are shifting to pay-to-play apps where users will eventually be served content from paid creators, not necessarily the ones they chose to follow. As with Instagram, now is a great time to lean into Facebook since it likely has a short lifespan left, and decide whether the $11.99 a month Verified subscription is worth it for you.
TikTok
TikTok has taken the world by storm. Launched in September 2016, it won the honor of the most downloaded app in the U.S. in October 2018. As of 2022, TikTok has over 3 billion downloads and more than one billion active users each month.
So what’s the problem?
Lawmakers across the world, specifically in the U.S., Europe, and Canada, are working to restrict or even ban the app. As of April 2023, the RESTRICT Act and DATA Act are in front of Congress, making the possibility that TikTok is banned in the U.S. a real threat.
What does this mean for you?
During Thrivers Live 2021, speaker Gary Vaynerchuk was asked if he thought TikTok is or would be viable for salon owners. His response? “Not yet. What I think the platform is missing and what they’ll need to adapt to if they intend to stick around is they need to find a way to optimize for local small business.” Right now, it is mostly for entertainment purposes.
So if TikTok is currently working for you, that’s fine. But if it isn’t a part of your regular marketing, that’s okay! Keep your focus on what is currently a part of your marketing.
What social media apps should I lean into right now?
As always, this depends on your business and target market, but there are two social media apps that many consumers are using to find local small businesses are Yelp and Google Business.
If you need help setting up or optimizing your presence on these platforms, check out Thriving Stylist Method!
The current state of social media doesn’t mean you have to delete all of your social media accounts and go back to solely word-of-mouth. Depending on your business, now might be the best time to lean into social media because what’s next is going to likely be harder.
Remember, don’t chase the trends, follow consumer attention, and make smart business decisions. If you need help building a strong business foundation, Thriving Stylist Method is always available to you.
