We can’t predict the future, but we like to be ready. While social media is an always-on, chaotic space, it’s possible to make an educated guess about where it’s going when you look at user behaviours and emerging platforms.
What’s also common practice is large platforms stealing borrowing features from smaller ones:
- In 2016, IG borrowed stories from Snapchat.
- Reels were a response to TikTok in 2020.
- Recently, Instagram has also been testing ‘IG Candid’ – a feature similar to BeReal.
With this in mind, let’s explore some user behaviours and emerging platforms to predict what the mainstream social media landscape might look like in the near future.
1. The future of social is user-owned
Web 2.0 empowered us to share, the advent of web 3.0 will allow us to own. This is something that we’re already seeing with NFTs and cryptocurrencies, however in the near future this is likely going to become much more mainstream.
Octi is an early-adopter platform that encourages its users to upload their own filters and AR-elements to be used in videos. The more people use your AR creations or engage with your videos, the more in-app currency, Octi-coin, you earn. You can then spend your octi-coins with top retailers such as Nike and Glossier.
Having debuted at #1 on App Store in 2021, the app has since gone quiet and is still extremely niche, but there are other players in the space.
Our prediction
There’s a shift among the big platforms towards enabling NFT trading, which we only expect to grow. Meta are working on a digital marketplace functionality that would allow users to create and own NFTs. There are also reports revealing that twitter will allow users to display NFT marketplace listings from certain platforms, including a button to let them buy and sell collectibles. Add to this the option of easily converting your crypto assets into real-world value by shopping with large retailers, and the technology will become ubiquitous on social media.
2. The future of social is cause-driven
Weare8 is a social platform that is good for the planet. The cause-driven app pays its viewers to watch ads and donates a portion of revenue from each ad stream to charity.
Not only that, it combats endless scrolling by having a curated feed that can be scrolled in its entirety within 8 minutes each day. Other players such as Supernova have also been entering the market, and while the latter is yet to grow, WeAre8 has already been downloaded over 100K times from the Google Play store alone. Early adopters among brands have seen the likes of Nike, Heineken and Mondelēz advertising on the platform.
The apps’ unique feature is that everyone can make money on it, 6p-25p per watching a video. There is of course a catch – users are served a very limited number of ads they can watch. Add to that the buffer time of 30 days to receive the money in the in-app wallet and the real value will only be felt only over a very long period of active platform use – it’d take nearly three months to earn around £230.
More recently, after Elon Musk has acquired twitter and the controversy that ensued resulted in more than a million users leaving the platform (MIT technology review). While Musk claims that the drop in numbers is a result of getting rid of dormant accounts and bots, the emergence of twitter alternatives such as Mastodon suggests that there is a demand for a democratic, user-run platform whose policies are not dictated by a single person.
Our prediction
The industry has taken a lot of heat over the past few years, from the Cambridge Analytica scandal to the negative effects of Instagram on Mental Health. With that, the public’s attention has turned to how big platforms operate from an ethical standpoint. This will result in the continuous emergence of new, smaller, cause-driven platforms, which will put the pressure on big players to keep adapting their practices in line with these new standards. Meta and other social media titans will focus on improving their business transparency alongside their mental health practices. The change will come even sooner if brands choose to place their ads elsewhere.
3. The future of social is integrated.
What springs to mind when you think of ‘social media’? Is it Instagram? TikTok? Facebook? All of those are correct, however social media is much bigger than just social media platforms. In reality, it’s ‘any interactive technology that facilitates the creation and sharing of information, ideas and interests through virtual communities and networks’ (Kietzmann).
Chatting to your buddies on Roblox is as much of a social media interaction as unfollowing your aunt for posting cringe on facebook. WhatsApp group chat? Social media. Writing an Amazon review? Social media. Everything from Slack, Wikipedia, Twitch, Minecraft can be considered social media.
Social media enabled us to build communities around various niches and interest points. The flipside of that is all these social integrations mean that the fight for user attention has gotten enormously competitive. On top of that, there are growing concerns among GenZ about the amount of time spent on social media – 37% worry they spend too much time on it, and 24% are using it less than they used to (GWI).
Our prediction
As social media becomes increasingly more chaotic and fragmented, it’s possible that there will be a new, user-friendly way to combine and curate all the different feeds (kind of like Hootsuite, but for personal use). It could take the form of an app or will be a built-in software feature that allows users to sift through the chaos of social media on their own terms. This will put even more pressure on brands to carefully consider how, where and why they’d be showing up on feeds in the ever-growing competitive medium.
Key lessons for brands
Social media landscape changes constantly, and no rules are set in stone. You can future-proof your social strategy by keeping an eye on emerging platforms and trends:
- Think about user touch-points with your brand beyond the biggest platforms. Make sure your tone of voice and content are tailored to each platform while still having brand consistency, from TikTok to Twitch and beyond.
- Plan beyond getting noticed on crowded feeds, and think of retention. Make sure your content is adding value today, and consider how it could continue to do so in the user-owned economy, where getting noticed in feed is only half the battle.
If you are interested in future-proofing your social media strategy, slide into our DMs!
Ever wondered how Coolr creates social content for the world’s leading brands?
We took part in the Channel 5 documentary, ‘Burger King – How Do They Do It?’ to share some of our social secrets. We run all of the social accounts in the UK for BK – from TikTok to Twitter – and talk through some of the ways we develop content for maximum engagement.
Want to see behind the scenes? You can catch the documentary here.
Our relationship with Burger King first began four years ago when we signed a contract to be their social media agency in the UK. At that point, we were just a start-up agency with three employees. A small team with huge ideas.
It wasn’t long till we created the most liked tweet from a brand of all time…
Since then, we’ve worked with Burger King on hundreds of social activations, including promoting independent restaurants during lockdown. We turned old plastic toys into new trays in a brand-new recycling scheme. We’ve created paid strategies to support the opening of hundreds of Burger King restaurants across the country and we even launched them on TikTok – one of the first brands in the UK to join the platform!
Four years of many big wins, shared successes (and, of course, challenges) along the way.
Here’s to many more!
Really excited to share that we’ve been nominated for SIX awards at the UK Content Awards.
The categories are:
- B2C Content Campaign of the Year: Coolr and Walkers – Prawn Cocktail Wotsits
- Return Not for Profit / Charity Campaign: Coolr and Quaker Oats – Quaker Oats and Magic Breakfast #FillABowl
- FMCG Content Campaign of the Year: Coolr and Heineken – #ShearGenius: Heineken or haircut
- Podcast / Audio Campaign of the Year: Coolr and Deliveroo – Deliveroo #singyourdialect
- Video Content Campaign of the Year: Coolr and Pepsi – Pepsi Hero Fizz Campaign
- Influencer / Celebrity Campaign of the Year: Billion Dollar Boy & Walkers – #CrispIn #CrispOut
- Large Content Marketing Agency of the Year: Coolr
The UK Content Awards celebrate excellence in content marketing and were set to reward agencies, in-house teams and individuals who are creating innovative, exceptional content that attracts, informs, engages and retains audience to deliver traffic and profit.
We’re really proud of all the work we do. Our award-winning agency team create content for brands on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube that reaches audiences at scale. In this year alone, we have made over 300 pieces of social first video.
Awards just make it a little bit sweeter! Wish us luck on the night…
Back in January, Coolr was appointed as the social media agency for The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Pageant. This was the final event in a weekend full of British pomp and ceremony to honour The Queen and her 70 years of dedicated service to the United Kingdom and Commonwealth.
In the build-up to the event, the Coolr team ran a social media programme to build awareness and anticipation. We created a comprehensive suite of assets bringing to life the diverse performers and the public’s excitement for this event, whilst also celebrating The Queen’s legacy.
A major part of our activation was our live stream, where we provided a backstage pass to the pageant to a global audience across Facebook and Twitter. We worked with Radio presenters Melvin Odoom, Rickie HW and Harriet Rose to create this energetic piece of content, meeting performers, the public and much-loved British icons including Sir Mo Farah, Joe Wicks and Basil Brush!
Our work didn’t stop there! Our team were placed strategically across The Mall, during the Platinum Jubilee Pageant, capturing content shared live across Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, amassing thousands of views and engagements.
We couldn’t be prouder of our results from this campaign:
– The Platinum Jubilee Pageant reached the Number 1 trend on Twitter on the day
– Millions of people watched and engaged with our live content
– Nearly a million watched the live stream
Oh, and we also broke a Guinness world record for the most scones filled with cream and jam in a minute as part of our live stream– all in a day’s work!
Social media continues to be the battleground for brands who want to win in culture… but it’s a moving target!
Adam Clyne, Founder and CEO of Coolr will be interviewing some of the UK’s leading brands on how they adapt to change and stay at the top of their game in this space.
The panel discussion on 18 May at 2.40pm BST is one of the sessions at Advertising Week Europe, one of the biggest industry events in advertising.
Lizzie Fillo, Media and Total Connections Manager at PepsiCo, Ben Bailey, Global Director of Consumer Communications at Deliveroo, and Soco Nuñez, Brand and Communications Director at Burger King will be joining Adam to discuss how they continually transform their social strategies to remain brand leaders in a rapidly changing world.
We did it!
Coolr has proudly won Digital Agency of the Year at the 2022 PRmoment awards.
The last 12 months has been a great success for Coolr – as we doubled in size, signed a partnership deal with TikTok, ran over 100+ influencer campaigns and attracted nearly 20 new people to join the team.
Winning Digital Agency of the Year is down to great people, doing great work for great clients; we are hugely proud of this recognition.
The PRmoment Awards celebrate excellence and exceptional talent in the UK PR and Communications sector and we collected the award in front of 800 people at the black tie event.
Thank you to all our amazing Coolr people, our brilliant clients, and all our partners who together make this possible.
Adam Clyne, Coolr founder / CEO, commented: “Coolr is making great strides in the industry and we are really proud and humbled by this recognition. The team at Coolr continues to push the boundaries of social media, influencer work and content creation and will continue to do so in the year ahead….”
Coolr has launched Coolr Studios, its own social first creative production studio, to provide clients with a one stop shop for social production.
Ben Jones has been hired as Head of Coolr Studios from The LADbible – where he was previously a development producer creating branded content campaigns across YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and LADBible.
Coolr Studios will offer a social-first, mobile-first approach to provide authentic, bold and creative content for brands wishing to be at the forefront of social entertainment and original content.
Coolr already has strong experience producing content for global brands like Samsung, Burger King, Pepsi and Deliveroo – and recently became an official creative partner of TikTok to provide platform relevant creative for brands.
Adam Clyne said: `There has been a seismic shift in what Gen Z audiences want to watch, how they watch it and where. As an agency we have always put creativity and sharing stories at the centre of what we do and we have a depth of experience in video. It now makes creative and operational sense to build on our already solid foundations with Coolr Studios.`
Ben Jones added:
`With Coolr Studios, we aim to collaborate with the leading creators, influencers and film makers in the social space. We want to create content at the speed of culture and with the platform where it will appear in mind. I am excited by the potential of what Coolr Studios can become…`
Clyne continued: `The social landscape continues to evolve but the appetite for video is not slowing down and we believe our offering offers a scalable solution for brands who want to win in this space. We are hiring native content creators from the social media universe to help brands connect in a credible and authentic manner `.
Coolr Studios is currently hiring creators, editors and producers for the new proposition and recently welcomed influencer, Jay Beech into the team as a creative producer. Coolr Studios will be based in Soho Square, complete with shoot rooms.
#singyourdialect
Twitter’s new in app functionality, Spaces took off in spectacular fashion with a 20 year old from Manchester hosting a viral karaoke competition from his bedroom.
The morning after, all we were talking about was this event, so of course we thought how could we get a brand involved. We thought it would be a natural fit for Deliveroo where we could read out a code at the end of our performance.
Our Social Executive, George, was tasked with learning the rap to the iconic football anthem World in Motion and teed himself up at 10pm to attempt to get into the competition.
The agency was on tenterhooks as to whether we’d manage to get Deliveroo picked but the moment came and George rapped the song, but just as he was about to read out the code, he was cut off!
Twitter went mad, with everyone desperate to find out what the code was, which got Deliveroo up to number 6 in trending topics, achieving cut through in the midst of the GBBO Final and I’m a Celebrity.
For the first time taxi hailing app, FREE NOW, partnered with renowned media outlet, Timeout. The basis of this partnership was the annual HotBoozaPalooza event at Vinegar Yard, London Bridge.
To create awareness of the hot cocktail extravaganza we teamed up with Radio 1 DJs, Scott Mills and Chris Stark, giving the pair a lift to check out the venue ahead of the event. But of course, there was a twist. As they were picked up, Scott Mills and Chris Stark were greeted with an array of alcohol and a cocktail making kit. Each DJ was tasked with the challenge of making their own signature cocktail whilst travelling around London in the back of a FREE NOW black cab. The duo tried each others cocktails and the results were disgusting. We ended on the end line… “Wanna try some proper cocktails?”
As part of this campaign FREE NOW is offering every ticket-holder to HotBoozaPalooza 50 percent-off vouchers for the FREE NOW app, so visitors can be assured of a convenient and affordable ride to and from the event.
We’re helping Burger King celebrate the UK’s firefighting heroes this Bonfire Night – by giving every single one of them a flame-grilled Whopper.
We want to help put some fire into their bellies on the busiest night of their year to say thank you – by sending vouchers to every single fire station in the UK!
