Are all Social Media Platforms merging? | CREATE8®

Are all social media platforms morphing into one?

As the competition for social media seniority heats up and each platform attempts to upgrade its offering to become the frontrunner, we ask the question, are they all slowly merging into one?

Well, when looking at our favourite places to waste time, it becomes easy to pick one over another depending on your preferred style of posts. But is that decision is becoming more difficult as they all become incredibly similar?

Are you the avid streetwear photographer, or the Adobe whizzkid who builds breathtaking video content? Well, the platform we would find you on used to be mainly based on the form of content you create. But these days can you tell us which platform is best for video? Not quite as easy anymore! Here’s when the penny dropped.

Last months social media announcements 📢

Just last month it was announced that Twitter and LinkedIn are finally adding a stories option to their platforms. You can imagine the floods of unimpressed faces when Twitter’s ‘Fleets’ was initially put forward. In the hope that doing something everyone else already does could potentially drive traffic back to the platform. But let’s be honest, Twitter aren’t the only ones on the bandwagon when it comes to taking a peek at what other social media platforms are up to.

Our Social Media Story tips

If you’re creating Story advertisements, make sure they are the right size dimensions.
Try some behind the scenes footage.
Use the interactive features such as: quiz’s, polls and questions.

Where it all began for stories ⏮️

When stories first appeared on Snapchat in 2013, the social media world went mad for it, they loved the hassle-free bulk-sharing option. Once other big players understood the popularity of the feature, it skyrocketed up their priority list, with Facebook integrating it into Instagram in 2016, swinging the tide back in their favour in the most simplistic way. Theft!

These days when it comes to the main features available, it’s almost impossible to tell most of the platforms apart. If we take it back to 2012, do you remember Instagram before the $1 billion Facebook purchase? Probably not as it only took the social media monster 18 months to snap up the photo filtering phenomena. But we suppose that’s just part of the parcel of social media domination. Swallow up the competition and mimic the USP’s of those you can’t.

Social Media Live Video 📹

During this lockdown period, live video has rapidly become the world’s favourite social media feature. With everyone from personal trainers and coaches, to musicians, mathematicians and magicians using the live streaming outlet of their social feeds to grow their brand and stay relevant. Whether it’s offering something for free or bringing people together, live video has been at the forefront of the online communities.

The days of Livestream being arguably the first and only player in the streaming sector are long gone. And along the way, we’ve had strange conversations on Chatroulette and we’ve watched people play computer games on Twitch rather than playing them ourselves. Eventually, Twitter created an innovation of their own as Periscope was launched. Since that moment in 2015, Facebook Watch was also launched and remodelled into the Facebook/Instagram Live we see today.

Our Social Media Live tips

Add value to your live video, teach something to your viewers.
Bring guests to your live to increase engagement.
Think outside of the box, for example: If you’re a personal trainer use it to do home workout sessions and promote your business.

As all of our feeds merge into one, the USP’s of the social media world slowly disappear. As is often the way the biggest companies let the smaller ones try something new, and if it’s successful, they develop their own version. As the trend of copying shows no sign of slowing, we guess we should all pick a platform and stick to it, or just keep using them all! What do you think?