Post-COVID Social
Remember when we all found ourselves increasingly concerned with just how much time we were spending with social media? Everyone from Apple to Facebook rolled out wellness features to help us monitor when our social app usage had deviated into unhealthy territory. Well, that didn’t last long. Social media concern has now been replaced with social media indulgence.
According to Axios, social app usage remained steady at about 20% of our mobile app usage until mid-March when it increased to where we’re at today. Now, 25% of our time using apps is using apps with social media.
Our obsession with social media hasn’t waned. It’s doubled-down and with that doubling down has come new behaviors, expectations and use cases for social.
That should raise questions for brand and media alike. If people are spending so much time with social, how will their expectations of what brands do in the future change? It’s time for brands to start thinking about what behaviors born out current necessity will remain because of their future utility.
Social Substitutions Become Social Options
Virtual make-up tutorials, exercise classes, concerts, tours and night clubs have all made their way to social media where users can consume them at their leisure and feel a sense of community with those they’re experiencing something with.
We’ve been forced to substitute digital experiences for IRL ones out of necessity at this time, and while for the moment they serve an unmet need, in the future they’ll serve a previously unmet utility. Social media is one route to make being a customer more convenient and more rewarding by giving people another option to experience the brand.
Many brands have considered how they can digitize their experiences in the time of COVID. Now’s the time to consider how that digitization can extend when this is all over.
Brand Altruism’s Pedestal and Microscope
The front lines. The essential workers. Protecting customers and helping out staff. Every brand has come forward during this time to tell customers that they’re committed to them, but some brands have gone above and beyond to help out. We’ve seen brands donate meals to those in need, shift their factories into making masks, give free access to premium content and more.
When governmental institutions are failing to do enough, brands have taken the opportunity to step in and help out. The pivot to Stakeholder Capitalism has been in the works for almost two years, and there’s little reason to think that will change any time soon. As more people become aware of how Amazon treats its employees and which companies back their words with action, pressure will mount for brands do good and say good. People are seeing just how much brands can do, and they’re calling them out when they don’t do enough.
Social will be the front lines of this conversation. It will be where brands can share their efforts, but it will also be where consumers call out brands that don’t do enough.
Build the Brand Where Time’s Being Invested
The brands that continue marketing during a recession recover faster than those that don’t, and given how much time people are spending with social media, it’s one of the primary places brands should continue communicating with consumers.
Short-term conversions have grown in importance when it comes to social success over the past few years, but for many brands and for some time, social will be about the long-term play. It will be about building the brand, maintaining awareness and creating brand affinity, so that when the economy comes back, the customers do too.
The Same but Different
Social media’s presence has been felt in a big way during this crisis, and on the other side of it, that presence won’t be going away. It will remain strong, but it will also be different than what it was when this all started. Keep that in mind.