Social Media Saturation | Sprout Social

Should you had been an MTV devotee between the years of 2006 and 2010, you’ll bear in mind Heidi Montag as Lauren Conrad’s friend-turned-foe from the beloved actuality collection, The Hills. What you could have blocked out, nevertheless, is Heidi’s music profession.

Within the 2010 single, “Extra Is Extra,” she sang: “Extra is extra on the dance flooring / It’s f*cking chaos in right here.”

14 years later, the flip of phrase is a becoming description for what number of entrepreneurs really feel about social media saturation.

At this time, over 5 billion individuals use social media worldwide, with the common individual utilizing greater than six networks per 30 days.

Audiences are all over the place and seemingly nowhere, as platform algorithms floor content material primarily based on pursuits quite than tangible connections. The fast hearth tempo of development and meme tradition, paired with a stream of AI-generated content material flooding feeds, has created a ceiling on the amount of content material customers are mentally and emotionally capable of course of.

We sat down with two social media consultants to discover the forces behind this phenomenon, and what entrepreneurs can do to fight it.

Why we’re at peak social media saturation

As a lot concerning the social media panorama modifications, the one fixed is content material—and a variety of it. On common, manufacturers revealed 10 posts per day throughout networks in 2023, in response to Sprout’s 2024 Content material Benchmarks Report. For sure industries, that quantity doubles and even quadruples.

“We’re transferring towards peak inundation,” says Nathan Allebach, Artistic Director at Allebach Communications and former “Steak-umm Twitter man.” “It’s arduous to say how a lot of it’s the saturation versus the shortage of content material novelty. Numerous the problems entrepreneurs face lately might need extra to do with the truth that social media has been round for thus lengthy and has gone via completely different iterations. Each type of disruptive advertising and marketing has been so deeply explored throughout classes, throughout industries, that it’s getting robust to seek out new methods to interrupt via.”

Let’s look deeper at what’s contributing to the problem:

Content material manufacturing pressures

It’s unattainable for shoppers to actively interact with the entire social content material they see. Actually: One analysis group discovered people’ display consideration spans dropped from 2.5 minutes in 2004 to 47 seconds in 2023.

The irony is, as developments transfer quicker and audiences flock to short-form content material codecs, the strain to churn out the next quantity of posts intensifies. The sheer variety of accounts competing for customers’ fleeting consideration exacerbates this dynamic.

“Whereas actually extra handy to think about {that a} model is simply competing with its rivals, the truth is, a model’s content material is being pitted up towards the most recent viral put up, an influencer’s giveaway, different manufacturers, and household and mates,” mentioned Carolyn Cohen, Content material & Social Lead at H&R Block.

Allebach provides, “It’s all people versus all people. So when you’re a model on the opposite aspect of the display and also you’re making an attempt to tug me out of my private feed, that takes a variety of effort to get proper.”

AI’s affect on viewers expectations

Bots have been crashing the feedback part on social for years. However the current proliferation of instruments like ChatGPT, DALL-E and others have opened up the floodgates to much more AI-generated posts throughout networks.

Greater than 80% of shoppers really feel AI-generated content material will make their social feeds extra saturated than they already are, and a comparable quantity say it’ll add to misinformation on social, in response to a Q2 2024 Sprout Pulse Survey. For instance, a collection of computer-enhanced movies selling the brand new season of HBO’s “Home of the Dragon” collection despatched audiences spiraling in June 2024—main many to consider Westeros flags had been actually flying on the Brooklyn Bridge.

On one hand, customers have gotten extra accustomed to AI filters and AI-generated content material, which can solely desensitize audiences extra over time. From a model security standpoint, entrepreneurs will more and more should juggle their very own content material manufacturing on prime of monitoring feeds for misinformation about their companies.

Platform uncertainty

At this time’s social media ecosystem is fragmented throughout networks with distinctive algorithms and audiences. How shoppers use every to fulfill their wants for connection and consumption is all the time evolving.

“Again within the day, your model undoubtedly had a Fb and Instagram [account], most likely a Twitter, and now it looks like these pillars are loads much less certain than they was once. Now communities are segmented throughout completely different, smaller platforms,” says Allebach.

The previous couple of years alone have seen the emergence (and fast decline) of platforms like BeReal, together with regular development of alternate options like Threads, Bluesky and Mastodon. For a lot of entrepreneurs, it’s now not a query of easy methods to be all over the place abruptly—however how to decide on the proper locations to indicate up to your target market. With every platform prioritizing barely completely different content material codecs, it additionally raises questions round whether or not short-form video remains to be one of the best funding, or if groups ought to reallocate their focus to extra textual content and static picture posts.

Learn how to overcome social media saturation

The problem of social media saturation isn’t going wherever. AI applied sciences will proceed their ascent and the platform panorama will proceed to diversify, no matter whether or not entrepreneurs are prepared. What social groups can do, nevertheless, is undertake new rituals to enhance their odds of reducing via the noise.

Spend money on authentic content material

Practically 4 in 10 shoppers say probably the most memorable manufacturers on social prioritize authentic content material over leaping on developments, in response to The Sprout Social Index™. Even modifications to the Instagram algorithm to crack down on aggregator accounts sign a platform push towards distinctive IP. Whereas capitalizing on sure developments will all the time be a facet of social, developments alone aren’t a long-term technique for reaching model attain or relevance.

“I’ve discovered that a mixture of authentic and trend-driven content material tends to be the proper mixture. The development content material brings the viewers in, retains them engaged, tagging mates, and so forth. This then tells the algorithm to maintain exhibiting them content material, so while you do have a extra product-heavy piece of content material, that will get served too,” says Cohen.

Calibrate your content material round viewers preferences

Step one to capturing your viewers’s consideration is to deeply perceive what they need to devour.

For instance, with virtually each platform supporting a menu of video choices, social groups should get much more exact with the place they put up, the size of their content material and whether or not it’s grid-worthy. Over the past six months, Reels, Instagram Tales and TikTok posts had been the highest three video codecs shoppers engaged with most, in response to our Q2 2024 Pulse Survey. Within the subsequent six months, shoppers anticipate participating with Instagram Tales, Reels and Fb movies most.

“Edutainment” posts—which give details about your services or products in a enjoyable approach—are the kind of model content material audiences discover most entertaining, in response to our Q2 2024 Pulse Survey. By comparability, solely 4 in 10 shoppers say that is the case for meme-based posts.

“Trending memes blow up within the zeitgeist after which go away in every week or two, tops. Should you’re a model, there may be an urge to leap within the feedback part or recreate it to your personal accounts, and that’s advantageous. You’ll get numbers doing that. However what’s that doing long run? As a person, I would suppose it’s humorous for a second, but it surely’s not making me really feel a deep relationship to that model,” says Allebach.

Develop new rituals to spark creativity

The idea of social media saturation goes hand-in-hand with viewers content material fatigue. However it may well even have a robust impact on marketer burnout. Strain from exterior rivals and inside stakeholders to maintain up with the velocity of social, generate extra content material and drive outcomes with fewer sources is pushing groups to their limits.

These are the instances when it’s most necessary to carve out house for open-ended, inventive pondering and different rituals for sharing inspiration. The group at H&R Block has taken this to coronary heart.

“You will need to get out of our bubble, particularly in an business like monetary providers. A method we obtain that is via a rotating ‘Exterior Inspiration’ train,” says Cohen.

“Every week, one individual is assigned a presentation on—fairly actually—something they need. The one rule is that we should be capable to draw a parallel or direct inspiration to H&R Block. We’ve lined matters together with the rise of skincare, a historical past of denim, the affect of Ralph Lauren, bananas as the unique content material advertising and marketing case research, classes from 24 seasons of Survivor…the record goes on!”

The train is a refreshing strategy to step past their day-to-day roles and study matters not everybody the group is aware of.

Take into consideration low-lift methods you possibly can incorporate comparable motions into your current conferences or processes. Perhaps it’s a devoted Slack house for sharing async social examples (from outdoors your business). Or maybe it’s inviting common “visitor audio system” from different corporations to share a behind-the-scenes take a look at their inventive course of.

Redefine the way you measure success

As social platforms proceed to check the boundaries of simply how a lot content material audiences can course of, now might also be a superb time to advocate for brand new social success metrics. Our Index information exhibits that the majority entrepreneurs already prioritize engagement metrics (shares, feedback, and so forth.) over attain and impressions. In any case, what’s extra precious: somebody seeing your put up and scrolling on, or somebody discovering it so related they tag a good friend within the feedback?

Social groups can use this over-saturated second to make the case for setting extra focused neighborhood development and engagement targets (quite than reaching a sure variety of eyeballs).

“For manufacturers to interrupt out of the algorithmic demise (of shedding direct entry to followers and competing with different individuals and types), you need to get extra area of interest. It’s a must to work out: What’s my worth add to the individuals who comply with me?,” says Allebach. “It helps to interrupt via the litter, and it makes it so that you’re not essentially going up towards the macro developments that appear to dictate the discourse on platforms day by day.”

Social media saturation is a problem—and a chance

At this time’s social platforms (even people who existed again in 2010) are extra nuanced, and the individuals who use them are extra plugged in than ever earlier than.

Because of this, manufacturers should be much more strategic—and versatile—to make sure their investments in social repay.

Regardless of the obstacles social media saturation presents, it additionally provides social groups a chance to reset their content material methods altogether. Run a short-term experiment to check the affect of decreasing manufacturing quantity and creating extra authentic content material. Prioritize a brand new strategy to brainstorming, or a brand new group ritual to interrupt everybody out of their day after day.

Social media might run on algorithms, however discovering success is something however formulaic.

For extra inspiration to interrupt via an more and more crowded house, take a look at our masterclass webinar with Rachel Karten.