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Social Media Content Content Marketing

Sharing the everyday: is the future of social more authentic?

By Sol Campbell, Paid Social Account Executive

Found.

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The Drum Network article

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October 31, 2022 | 5 min read

Goodbye polished posts, hello unfiltered realness. Found’s Sol Campbell contemplates a more down-to-earth era of social media and what it could mean for the future of content for The Drum’s Content Marketing Deep Dive.

Oatly milk carton

Will apps like BeReal permanently change the trajectory for social media content? / Leon Seibert via Unsplash

Making a cup of coffee, walking to the shops or watching TV are all things that could populate Instagram feeds in the future as social media becomes more ‘real.’ While seeing this kind of everyday lifestyle content isn’t something new to social media, vlogs of people’s daily routines or what they eat in a day are all still slightly curated as users pick and choose to post their best selves, not their real selves.

However, with the rise of platforms such as BeReal, where you only have two minutes to share what you’re doing in that given moment as dictated by the app, comes a shift toward wanting to see unfiltered content that users can relate to. This coincides with a growing awareness of the links between social media and damage to mental health.

Blurring the lines

Social media is currently full of either edited photos from celebrities or carefully-picked content from your average users. This has created a bubble in which everyone seems to be happy and thriving as we don’t see the raw day-to-day life, only the perfect moments.

Users are starting to reject this false reality as it has become damaging to their mental health. We can see this in the way users are calling out celebrities for editing their photos or choosing platforms like BeReal. Users are taking actions that show that they want content that makes them feel comfortable and seen in their own lives. This is being heard by creators and celebrities too.

We’re seeing more and more content creators post behind-the-scenes content on their stories, or celebrities joining in with TikTok trends without the high production value. The gap between social media’s reality and our own reality is shrinking.

Paving the way for low-cost production

This trend only continues to grow bigger, with content production becoming more accessible and people posting stories and videos that don’t require any editing skills. Just hold the camera, shoot and post. TikTok has become the fastest-growing platform over the past couple of years and has plenty of trends and subcategories that users can join and produce content for without the high production effort you might see on YouTube.

On top of this, it is easier than most platforms to go viral due to its algorithm and ‘For You’ page, which means content of people just talking to their camera is then seen by thousands of people worldwide. This provides encouragement for users to produce unfiltered content.

As with all things, the landscape of social media is changing, and currently we are seeing a shift in interest from high-cost, high-quality production to simplified and raw content shot by real people who are just like us. Users’ actions are indicating that this is the direction in which they want content to go. Whether it is to help protect their mental health, for content to be more accessible, a chance to become a creator or simply to post their life on the internet, it is something that won’t be ignored.

As this trend takes off, it won’t be long before we see that our favorite celebrities and influencers are just like us, scrolling through Netflix trying to find something to watch or popping to the shop because they’ve run out of milk. Social media feeds of the future may not be the most exciting, but they will be closer to real life.

Visit our Content Marketing in Focus hub for more news, insights and strategies around content marketing.

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